SENSORÌA makes its debut in Galatina (Lecce). In the heart of Salento, the languages of digital art meet in the age of artificial intelligence.
A project conceived and supported by Colacem.
For two evenings, on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 July, the historic centre of Galatina, in the heart of Italy's Salento region, became the stage for Sensorìa, an educational, artistic and technological project conceived and promoted by Colacem, under the patronage of the Municipality of Galatina. A panoramic screen measuring 14.5 metres wide and 3.5 metres high transformed data, images and sound into a single immersive, innovative and engaging collective experience.
Created by visual digital artist Samuel Pietri, with music by Gaio Ariani, in collaboration with students and teachers from the IISS Laporta Falcone Borsellino secondary school in Galatina, the work explored four dimensions of the local area: nature, people, industrial activity and the city itself.
The project is based on a simple idea: numbers are a language. Data generated by the approximately 15,000 sensors monitoring every stage of production at Colacem's Galatina cement plant, together with environmental data collected in the former Lustrelle quarry woodlands in Cutrofiano, information related to people's movements, and digital representations of the city, were transformed into visual compositions, soundscapes and immersive audiovisual environments through the artist's generative creative process.
Sensorìa stems from a belief shared by Colacem across the territories in which it operates: our time must first be understood before it can be told. We are experiencing profound transformations driven by artificial intelligence, the growing availability of data and technologies capable of changing the way we interpret reality. In this context, territories rich in history, culture and industrial identity can actively participate in, understand, guide and shape change while preserving their values, identity and collective memory.
Galatina itself became an integral part of the artwork. Its architecture, urban landscapes, history and cultural heritage were translated into digital forms and placed in dialogue with the contemporary languages of visual art and electronic music. The city was not simply the venue for the event, but one of its main protagonists.
The project also provided an important opportunity for dialogue between industry, education and the local community. Students from the IISS Laporta Falcone Borsellino took part in a dedicated educational programme featuring workshops on sensor technologies, data interpretation and innovative approaches to communication and territorial enhancement. The initiative brought together education, business, culture and innovation, offering young people the opportunity to engage with the tools and languages that are reshaping today's world.
Sensorìa is therefore much more than an audiovisual performance. It is a cultural experiment promoted by Colacem that seeks to connect elements often perceived as distant from one another: technology and historical heritage, industry and community, data and creativity, innovation and local identity. Born in Galatina, the project speaks to all the Italian territories where Colacem operates, presenting a vision in which technological knowledge does not replace human and cultural values, but becomes a means of interpreting them, making them relevant to the present and projecting them towards the challenges and opportunities of the future.
