Thematic field

The objects, in the broadest sense, whether they come from art, craft or industry, provide the material for a cross-disciplinary approach, which makes it possible to specify the techniques and systems of production, to characterize quality of the materials, operating chains and gestures, modes of transmission of know-how and technical knowledge, modes of circulation and the networks of exchange, as well as the geography of their diffusion. These objects are also the results of a history of practices and different forms of social organization of the present and the past, which are apprehended on different time scales (short and long), and which they document.

The study of these material witnesses, in close relation with historical sources, places, sites, environments and actors, must be conducted today in multiscalar and interdisciplinary perspectives, crossing human, natural, experimental and digital sciences. The rediscovery of ancient manufacturing processes is also linked to the presence in the Île-de-France region of a large pool of craftsmen and artists (as illustrated by the Notre-Dame de Paris scientific worksite), an interface that the DIM seeks to consolidate through specific calls for projects. From the scale of the material to the object, the heritage artifact is in fact the bearer of “paleo-inspiration”, meaning, a capacity to inspire new processes and new materials, through the detailed study of solutions provided in the past and selected by time and practices. In itself, the place of material cultures in our societies raises questions about practices, but also about the environmental issues they raise.