Systematize mutual discoveries between cultural players
Common-sense proposal for better mutual understanding among cultural actors in the same territory.
Why don’t we know each other well enough?
In France, within the cultural field, it is all too common to observe that actors within the same sector and territory do not deeply understand the nature of their counterparts’ and partners’ work, or only access it informally or sporadically, during rare professional gatherings they attend, which are often top-down in nature. Yet, in my view, mutual understanding of what others do is essential for progress and collective strength.
Being an artist, or simply working collectively within the realities of territories and their political challenges, requires understanding each other’s dynamics in order to draw inspiration and cooperate more effectively, particularly across disciplines: culture, youth, social issues, health, justice, education...
The prerequisite for building a shared community is knowing one another, and opportunities to do so are far too rare or too informal. A suggestion? Take inspiration from what professional networks do at the territorial level, in a simple, concrete, and manageable way that fits into everyone’s schedules.
How to drive the future through mutual understanding
At the initiative of a municipality, department, or region, simply organize a weekly video conference meeting, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., during which a cultural actor from the territory presents their activities, projects, challenges, successes, and vision for the future in detail. The schedule of which actor presents on which date would be shared with all stakeholders in the territory, and it is crucial that this be interdisciplinary within the cultural field: music, dance, cinema, theater, visual arts, amateur practices, circus, etc.
Each session would be recorded and transcribed by AI in a straightforward manner. With around forty working weeks in a year, one year would not be enough to cover all actors. And some actors could return.
The idea is to keep it very simple to organize. Each actor is autonomous in how they use their one-hour slot, there is no discussion, it is simply a presentation. Their contact details are shared for potential follow-ups. Participation as a listener is optional. Gradually, this would provide extremely valuable and constructive knowledge.
My multidisciplinary practices—spanning creation, cultural action, training, and support in a wide range of cultural, social, and educational contexts across France—provide me with a privileged, subjective, and in-depth observatory of the cultural sector in France.
This sector is weakened by its position, often deemed “non-essential” by many political leaders, by the competition from digital platforms in cultural practices, as well as by challenges and obstacles related to the difficulty of establishing interdisciplinary collaborations and the scarcity of evaluations, which are often poorly conducted and instrumentalized.
My observatory allows me to identify dynamics that work, as well as difficulties I observe. Here, I propose to share my analyses, methods, and suggestions, hoping they may prove useful. My goal is to contribute to a stronger cultural sector in the future, as I believe that defending a cultural sector funded by taxpayers’ money holds the potential for emancipation, the development of freedoms, democracy, and the capacity to act—in a way that is fundamentally different from what private actors produce.
This is possible if there is no hypocrisy, and in my view, it comes at the cost of a commitment to lucidity and self-questioning, a choice to deconstruct representations, and perhaps to challenge certain privileges and systems of domination.
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The Hypocrisy of Cultural Actors’ Independence
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Beyond Mobilizing Audiences: Building Democratic Narratives
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On the Fragility of Corporatism
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Rethinking the digital content strategy of cultural institutions
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The Misguided Debate on Funding Cuts for Culture
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Implementing cultural dissemination
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Welcoming radicalized people to cultural venues
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Cultural venues and social networks
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On the role of artists
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Evolving forms of artistic creation
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Beyond walls: video as a vehicle for cultural democracy
When digital mediation transforms the relationship between citizens and heritage.
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Legitimizing unfamiliar cultural practices
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Putting Artificial Intelligence to good use in the cultural sector
Methodological approaches.
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Overcoming the fragility of public funding for culture
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Systematize mutual discoveries between cultural players
Removing obstacles to cooperation.
Common-sense proposal for better mutual understanding among cultural actors in the same territory. Why don’t we know each other well enough?In (…) -
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“Donotdo”
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New directions
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See also
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Participatory design and Artificial Intelligence Protocols and precautions for controlled innovation.
When participative creation and AI meet, four modalities of use and two artistic schools intertwine. A practical guide to navigating between (…) -
France’s cultural sector faces the urgent need for a rethink From 1959 to 2025, history repeats itself... in reverse.
French cultural sector funding is crumbling. Malraux’s “colonial” heritage (1959) is obsolete in the face of digital technology and political (…) -
Dilapidation of resources in supply logic For a democratic revolution of cultural practices.
Faced with the crisis in the cultural sector, it is urgent to shift from a top-down supply logic to a culture of connection and listening, (…) -
Towards a distributed cultural sector Hypotheses on the commons and digital diversity.
What if digital cultures showed us how to build the commons through distribution rather than centralization? This hypothesis invites us to rethink (…) -
The Périfééries project’s heritage council of influence Facilitating collective intelligence in a short space of time.
As part of Saint-Denis’s bid to become European Capital of Culture 2028, I led a collective intelligence session to collect proposals on the (…)
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