The M.I.M. was founded in 1984. Its founders wanted to develop in Marseille a multi-field tool of reflexion on the contemporary musics and musical practices.

The particularity of the M.I.M. is to be a research laboratory where work is undertaken by creators, not theorists. The research projects are thus born from the questions referring to the problems creation and the contemporary musical practices (especially when these practises are in connection with the new technologies).

Its field of action is that of "fundamental research" in the sense defined by Pierre Schaeffer in his "Traité des Objets Musicaux (Seuil ed., 1966, p. 360) : “We think [...] of having to justify the fundamental phase, in a musical research. It is known that this [...] word takes aim at the exploration of the bases, the possible reconsideration of the postulates, the elucidation of the methods.”

The research projects developed in the Laboratory result of a co-operation between researchers, musicians, visual artists and composers.

Concretely, this interdisciplinarity is reinforced by projects between the M.I.M. and other research centers (scientific and musical).

It is important for us to announce that we are opened with any proposal which would fall under our problems of research.