Creation, Invention

This chapter explores the critical category of “material imagination” as an active and generative force in creative processes, in contrast to the traditional view of formal imagination as a purely mental and representational faculty. Through the concept of “material imagination”, it is argued that creation does not stem exclusively from pre-existing mental ideas, rather emerges as a sensory engagement with matter, conceived as an active agent in inventive processes. Accordingly, the chapter outlines a tentative critical methodology aimed at destabilizing perceptual and gestural habits, opening up possibilities for a performative and relational mode of invention that is attentive to its context. It proposes that, although imagination cannot be fully anticipated, it can be cultivated in ways that enhance its amplifying potential.