Lab full name

INteraction MAterial EXperience Lab

ERC 2nd Level Code

ERC 3rd level Code

SH5_4 Visual and performing arts, film, design

SH5_6 History of art and architecture, arts-based research

SH5_7 Museums, exhibitions, conservation and restoration

Research Activities

ABOUT INMATEX
"... In the digital age, materiality can be reactivated, because it was always a virtual condition. In arguing that materiality is not a questiono of materials but, fundamentally, of activating material relations, I aim to convey a sense of transformation of those relations."- Giuliana Bruno
What is INMATEX
INMATEX - INteraction MAterial EXperience Lab, is a research laboratory that deals with materials as tools for reactivating the perceptive-sensory characteristics of surfaces.
INMATEX classifies the materials through scales of sensory gradients evaluating their perceptive-sensorial characteristics based on interaction processes between surfaces. The laboratory aims to define taxonomies of relationships between materials and to shift the attention in the choice of materials from a merely technical classification to a conceptual one. The Lab uses the technical-scientific skills of the science of materials in comparison with the fields of aesthetics, critique and history of the visual arts.
WHEN AND WHY
Inmatex was born from the meeting between the research about the design of surfaces, lead since 2011 at the Polytechnic of Bari - dICAR by Rossana Carullo and Rosa Pagliarulo, with the MAIND project in 2013. On this occasion the categorization methodology through sensory gradients was developed, aimed at guiding the processes of functionalization of materials of the partners of the project, such as several Apulian based companies, depending on their perceptive-sensorial implications.
WHO WE ARE
The research group is composed of members with interdisciplinary skills who conduct research on the specific themes of the multi-sensoriality nature of materials applied to the design of surfaces.
The laboratory, that also contains the Material Library with the exhibition of the sensory scales and the prototypes developed, is located in room 40, third floor of the dICAR.
TARGETS FOR THE FUTURE
The goal of INMATEX is to raise awareness through the open source sharing of knowledge of the results acquired until now, and continuing the updating of the interactive database of sensorial scales and prototypes. INMATEX wants to be a point of reference for research, teaching and innovation on the design of surfaces for both students and enterprises starting from the territory of reference.