Constitutive Interface Theory of Observation (CITO) proposes a minimal framework for analysing the transition from representational availability to operation-specific observational standing.

The paper begins from a simple distinction: the occurrence of a representation does not by itself determine what subsequent scientific operations that representation is entitled to support. CITO therefore treats observation not as exhausted by representational occurrence, but as representational occurrence plus constituted standing relative to a specified operation.

Drawing selectively on the interface perspective developed in Hoffman, Singh and Prakash’s Interface Theory of Perception, CITO shifts the question downstream: from what perception presents to an observer, to what permits an available representation to function as an observation for a subsequent scientific operation.

A provisional formal relation is introduced:

κ(R, Ω, C) → J

where R is a representation, Ω a specified subsequent operation, C the relevant constituting conditions, and J the bounded standing or jurisdiction thereby established.

Constitution in this sense does not make a representation true, nor does it create the substrate represented. It specifies the bounded operational role for which the representation presently has standing.

The paper distinguishes creative, generative and constitutive acts; develops the concepts of standing, jurisdiction, interface transition and ontological jurisdiction; and identifies possible applications in scientific reporting, metrology, provenance, model interpretation, human–AI and AI–AI scientific transmission, and machine-operable governance.

Logical extensions are also considered in relation to theory of mind, consciousness and physically inaccessible states such as black-hole interiors, while explicitly avoiding claims that CITO resolves those domains.

Constitutional Physics and the Canonical Constitutional Record are introduced only as one possible implementation architecture for the constitutive function identified by CITO, not as premises of the theory or evidence of its validity.

Status: Working paper, v0.1, August 2026. The formalisation and proposed applications remain provisional and are presented as targets for further theoretical and experimental investigation.