What digital technology is doing to the cultural sector
Digital technology has now become one of the essential components of our living environment. How does it change our lifestyles and our representations of the world? And what could we take into account to evolve the cultural field toward greater social utility, which I believe is essential, so that it does not lose its connection to the needs of citizens?
What is digital technology?
Technically, digital technology refers to the exchange, storage, and processing of diverse data (texts, numbers, images, sounds, multimedia, etc.) through their conversion into sequences of 0s and 1s (the “binary”). These data are operated by machines (computers, phones, and a vast number of everyday objects, even refrigerators) and increasingly sophisticated software (especially with Artificial Intelligence). Nearly every moment of our lives now depends on digital tools, networks, and practices (our transportation, communication, leisure, health, social and administrative existence, agriculture, energy production, etc.). Thus, digital technology is no longer something “new” or foreign to us; it constitutes, alongside nature, architecture, urban planning, politics, psychology, culture, family, and others, our living environment. The philosopher Mark Alizart postulates, by comparing the DNA code of nature with the computer code, that nature is a form of computing; his hypothesis is that there is no fundamental difference between nature and computing, as computing is philosophically natural.
What is culture?
What culture are we talking about? What do we mean by the word “culture”? Is it legitimate culture, which posits systems of value hierarchies? Is it popular culture? Is it culture in the anthropological sense, meaning what constitutes us (our history, roots, tastes, etc.)?
Digital technology disrupts all definitions of culture and especially alters its boundaries. Therefore, to take the necessary distance to reflect, I believe we must not limit ourselves to a single definition of what culture is, and instead always question the unconscious models that make each person “defend” such and such a definition of culture.
However, my reflections are directed at the “cultural sector,” meaning the professionals in the cultural field supported by the State and local governments, as well as professionals in other sectors, such as social work or education, that are connected to the cultural sector. I place my reflection on culture in the sense of its diversity of definitions and in a democratic aim: cultures as factors of democracy and psycho-social construction, with artistic creation at the center. It is important that I clarify my perspective, which is partial but shared, notably by the texts defining the missions of the French Ministry of Culture.
Thus, I place at the heart of my definition of culture the question of evaluating the “democratic utility” of subsidized cultural projects and their deep connection to the needs of citizens, always to be rewoven, reconsidered, and renewed, as the world changes. This culture is a common good, as it is supported by the contribution of all through taxes. Therefore, for me, its mission is intrinsically democratic, and its utility must be evaluated. What I discuss here are the evolving means to accomplish this mission at the heart of the world’s transformations.
Of course, one may have other visions of culture than this one, and if so, it is important to be conscious of it and share it from the start, to enable constructive dialogues that take into account the fact that we are not all talking about the same thing when we say “culture.”
Digital art as off-topic
“Digital art” involves the use by artists of digital tools in place of traditional creation tools, often associated with a reflection on the evolution of the world due to its digitization. Computers, software, screens, and more or less interactive connected objects replace brushes, canvases, and chisels in galleries, museums, or on theater stages. Digital art was defined as such from the 1960s to establish its legitimacy in the art world, which it has not yet fully achieved (in terms of funding and place in the art market). It is an art that claims to be in tune with the issues of modernity. It is still actively seeking its place in the hierarchy of legitimate culture.
Digital art is therefore off-topic in my reflection, as it very rarely questions the system of legitimate culture, since it seeks to find its place within it. Thus, paradoxically, the field of digital art advocates for very traditional social forms, in which the artist is a professional with superior skills, recognized as such in a hierarchy that confers their value (symbolic, artistic, and financial).
Photograph: mixed ceramic-video artwork by Alexandra Tollet and Benoît Labourdette (2015).
Cultural policy" is a tradition of the French state since the Middle Ages. It was initiated by Louis XIV in the 17th century as a tool of influence and power. And it was defined in its current terms by André Malraux in 1959, with the State’s mission being the democratization of art in society. But today the cultural policies are multiple, because carried by the public authorities at other levels than that of the State (cities, agglomerations, departments, regions) and in many other places, in particular associative (places and cultural actions), individual (the initiatives of the artists, professionals or amateurs) and by private companies (trade of the culture).
The “digital revolution”, i.e. the ubiquitous, personalized and transitive access to information as well as the production by peers as a new model, deeply disrupts the “rules” of implementation of cultural policies, whether at the public or private level, and puts many actors in difficulty to reach their objectives. I propose here tools to understand the stakes of this “digital revolution” and concrete ways of working, hoping to bring useful resources to the work of cultural policies, in all types of contexts.
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How digital technology reshapes our relationship to the performing arts
A synthesis of my contribution to the round table at Chaillot Augmenté × TMNlab on 6 May 2026.
On Wednesday 6 May 2026, I was invited to speak at the round table “Audiences: how is digital technology reshaping our relationship to the (…) -
Chaillot Augmenté x TMNlab 2026: two days on the performing arts and digital technology
A presentation and critical reading of the gathering held at Chaillot on 5 and 6 May 2026, in which I am taking part.
On 5 and 6 May 2026, Chaillot, Théâtre National de la Danse, hosts the second edition of the « Chaillot Augmenté x TMNlab Meetings: Performing (…) -
Rebuilding the Democratic Function of Major Performing Arts Venues
At a time when anyone can be a creator, what could theatres, national stages and drama centres become for the people who live around them?
Digital technology has made each of us a potential creator. This anthropological transformation calls for a rethinking of the political function (…) -
Artificial Intelligence and Cultural Actors: The Laws of Creative Transformation
When the precise definition of artistic desire meets algorithmic power.
Cultural institutions that passively wait without embracing artificial intelligence could see their neighbors transform in just a few months. The (…) -
To Code or Not to Code?
A Plea for Reclaiming Our Digital Tools.
The distinction between “code” and “no-code” is a deception. Instructing a machine, regardless of the language, is an act of creation. Reclaiming (…) -
Putting Artificial Intelligence to good use in the cultural sector
Methodological approaches.
By 2025, it seems essential to enable employees and stakeholders in the cultural sector to share the challenges of AI within their professional (…) -
Helping professionals design new types of projects adapted to the needs of young people
Laboratory for an original training and project development program.
In the face of young people’s indifference toward institutional culture, I propose exploring an innovative training framework aimed at helping (…) -
What digital technology is doing to the cultural sector
Food for thought.
Digital technology has now become one of the essential components of our living environment. How does it change our lifestyles and our (…) -
The elsewhere of the in-itself
Conceptual and methodological proposal for complementarities between in situ and remote cultural projects.
The Covid-19 crisis revealed the potential of remote cultural mediation, but it seems that the public cultural sector has largely returned to (…) -
Artistic creation in a digital environment
Commentary on the report commissioned by DRAC Bretagne (August 2023).
A study on the subject of digital and artistic creation reveals, through its unquestioned biases, the unconscious desire not to move the lines of (…) -
The Freinet method applied to digital mediation
Pedagogy and politics of autonomy.
The pedagogical method known as “Freinet” (conceptualized by the pedagogue Célestin Freinet from the 1920s to the 1960s, as a synthesis of (…) -
"Culture, youth and digital: designing new modalities for cultural and educational projects
Sharing of methodological tracks and professional training.
Deconstructing preconceived ideas about digital transformation and developing projects adapted to young people.The cultural offer is sometimes (…) -
“The Long Tail”: Cultural Diversity in the Digital Age
Tool for the design of cultural projects.
The “long tail” is one of the essential concepts of the Internet economy. Contrary to popular belief, on the Internet it is the great diversity of (…) -
Piracy: an unknown blessing for the audiovisual sector
Legal, historical, technological, economic and political elements.
“Piracy is a danger for creation, infringers must be punished”: this is the commonly accepted discourse, which directs points of view, regulatory (…) -
Reinventing cultural projects with youth?
Proposal of questions.
While public cultural action aims to reach people in their great diversity, it is clear that it is often difficult to mobilize youth. However, (…) -
Nantes métropole: “Cultural and digital mediation in common” meeting
Animation by Benoît Labourdette of a day of sharing digital mediation tools for cultural and digital mediators in the city of Nantes. September (…) -
Institut Français: Innovating in cultural policies for cinema and the relationship with the public, in the light of digital practices
Training for the Institut Français Region East Europe
To take into account the evolution of the use of moving images, in order to conceive adapted cultural proposals, motivating for the public, and in (…) -
Growing up with culture : “The contribution of digital technology in cultural mediation”
Conference by Benoît Labourdette about cultural mediation with digital tools, on the example of the travelling projections within the framework of (…) -
The internet stage for cultural institutions
(text written in 2006, before the advent of social networks and cultural proposals such as the Arte website for example) New Internet IssuesThe (…) -
What is “the audience” in the world of culture? Hypotheses.
Definitions of the cultural institution and the cultural milieu (text written in 2006).Here is my vision, personal and subjective, on which I (…)
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OPC: “Culture, youth and digital” training Designing new modalities for cultural and educational projects. March 2022.
A new concept of internship for cultural professionals, in order to build an opening to the public who have deserted the public and associative (…) -
"Culture, youth and digital: designing new modalities for cultural and educational projects Sharing of methodological tracks and professional training.
Deconstructing preconceived ideas about digital transformation and developing projects adapted to young people.The cultural offer is sometimes (…) -
Helping professionals design new types of projects adapted to the needs of young people Laboratory for an original training and project development program.
In the face of young people’s indifference toward institutional culture, I propose exploring an innovative training framework aimed at helping (…) -
For a virtuous dispersal of the cultural sector The end of traditional cultural influence.
The cultural sector is going through a major crisis that reveals a paradigm shift. In my opinion, we must now cultivate culture everywhere, in all (…) -
Cultural data and cultural rights For an inclusive heritage democracy in the digital age.
Citizen cultural data is tomorrow’s heritage. Their recognition and preservation constitute a major democratic challenge for building a (…)
