Chiocciola is a concept that explores how material traces can be used for rich communication with and through connected objects. Chiocciola’ (in Italian, ‘snail’) enables people to intentionally create and leave a trail of material traces as a way to inscribe, grow and relive memories onto ordinary objects.

Cherished family moments around the kitchen table, or the laughter that was caught during the first time the table was used at a dinner party, can be added to the object itself and become digitally accessible via a physical trace made on the table material surface. Slowly and carefully engraving the trace into a natural wooden surface, allows this surface to ‘mature’ and develop a deliberate ‘patina’ subject to both intentional memory practices and possibly degrading environmental factors.

Graduate students

  • Mirsaeid Mousavi (Politecnico di Milano)