Chaillot Augmenté x TMNlab 2026: two days on the performing arts and digital technology
On 5 and 6 May 2026, Chaillot, Théâtre National de la Danse, hosts the second edition of the « Chaillot Augmenté x TMNlab Meetings: Performing arts and digital environments » conference. Around thirty speakers from France, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Quebec and Taiwan; two days of round tables, focus sessions, expert workshops and demonstrations; a curated selection of VR works available throughout. The event is free and open to all upon registration. It raises a set of political questions about what culture is becoming as digital technology reshapes our practices, and these questions reach well beyond the boundaries of the professional sector alone.
What is the TMNlab?
The TMNlab is a network founded in 2013 that today brings together more than 1,500 members: artists, performing arts professionals, researchers, and people working in the technology and cultural policy fields. It is also a registered training organisation. Its team describes itself as « facilitators », whose role is to interconnect people and practices, and to support what they call the performing arts and digital environments ecosystem in formation. The wording is apt. Practices are inventing themselves and searching for their forms, in a moment when no one holds the answers.
What makes this network valuable is its rigour. The TMNlab does not treat digital technology as a compulsory modernity, it questions it. In the preparatory work for these meetings, the team raises questions such as: « How can we maintain artistic exploration that is free, critical and diverse? ». Or: « How can we resist the potential role of leisure technologies as a Trojan horse? ». Or again: « Can we avoid the “scaling-up” logic of the creative and cultural industries and preserve the diversity of the performing arts’ unique qualities within an industrial economy? ». The 2026 edition explicitly aims, to quote the preparatory work again, to « shift the focus away from a fascination for technology and innovation and towards the responsibility of practices ». Such formulations are uncommon in the current landscape of discourse on digital culture, and they deserve support.
To learn more about the network: tmnlab.com.
Four threads running through the two days
The organisers’ preparatory work is built around four threads that give these two days their true meaning.
First thread: a long history, not a rupture
The performing arts have never been outside technology. Baroque automata, mechanical stage effects, amplified sound, lighting design, the first video recordings, contemporary immersive environments: each era has redefined the conditions of presence and the regimes of perception. Research on virtual realities, from the 1990s onwards, drew on the vocabulary of the stage, on dramaturgy, on the legacy of Antonin Artaud. What we are living through today extends this history into a new phase, faster and more political. What is being transformed reaches beyond technique. Our relationship to co-presence, our way of forming community, the very conditions of collective experience.
Franck Bauchard (DGCA, formerly the founder of La Panacée in Montpellier) opens the first day on « Performing arts of the (retro)future ». The round table « Programming hybrid works: tools, networks and repertoire-building », with Marie Pia Bureau (ONDA), Séverine Bouisset (Les Gémeaux) and Julie Sanerot (MAC Créteil), extends this question on the side of dissemination. Rosita Boisseau (Le Monde) draws the conclusions.
Second thread: artistic gestures, not technological showcases
« After the euphoria of innovation, let us take a moment to reflect ». The wording is the organisers’, and I find it apt. Discourses on digital technology often swing between fascination and rejection. The Chaillot round tables raise sharper questions. How can we maintain free artistic exploration when the promise of immersive art has at times led to economic concentration and aesthetic standardisation? How can we resist the potential role of leisure technologies as a « Trojan horse »? How can we preserve the singular qualities of the performing arts in the face of the « scaling-up » logic of the creative and cultural industries? With the rise of AI, a dominant narrative is taking hold, that of a creative process individualised, automated, optimised. The artistic practices invited to Chaillot often point in another direction, towards collective, situated and critical reappropriation.
This is the subject of several key sessions. « The illusion of opportunity: is the immersive economy redefining creation? » with Alexander Whitley, Julien Dubuc and Clémence Debaig, moderated by Myriam Achard. « Artists’ voices », a long sequence with Natacha Paquignon, Mathieu Chamagne, Marco Donnarumma, Joséphine Derobe, Isis Fahmy, Singing Chen and Frédéric Deslias, moderated by Chrystèle Bazin, which includes a « Focus 404: when the bug arrives » that promises to be fascinating. And « Navigating an ecosystem in transformation without sacrificing artistic integrity » with Marie du Chastel (KIKK Belgium).
Third thread: the place of the spectator
On Wednesday 6 May at 11.45 am, I am taking part in the round table « Audiences: how is digital technology reshaping the relationship to the performing arts? », alongside Rachid Ouramdane (Chaillot) and Nicolas Ligeon (Théâtre de l’Élysée, Sous les Néons collective), moderated by Anne Le Gall.
The organisers set the frame with a phrase I gladly take up: « the spectator is no longer in their place, and that is good news ». What digital technology transforms also touches the very place of the spectator. In many experiments, the spectator explores, acts, influences, sometimes co-produces. They go through an experience rather than receive a work. The preparatory dossier adds an intuition I find apt: « to transform the place of the spectator is first to displace oneself ».
The animation guidelines for the round table raise two questions that I find of particular interest. « What new definition of hospitality should we adopt to respond to new practices? ». « Are audiences still looking for an institution as a point of entry? ». That is where I would like to push the discussion further.
My own way in is to extend these intuitions to the end of their political consequences. If the spectator changes place, then so must the institution. Major publicly funded theatres are extraordinary places, vast, well-equipped, financed by public taxation. They could become, for a significant share of their activity, resource-places at the service of the creative practices of inhabitants. Places where professional expertise supports the creative work of those who come, citizens in a broad sense and not only the « targeted » audiences. With, of course, performances as well, when these meet real expectations within the territory, including amateur performances on major stages, which are very much in demand. I raise the question in a spirit of dialogue with the other speakers.
I have developed these ideas at greater length in a recent article: Rebuilding the Democratic Function of Major Performing Arts Venues.
Fourth thread: the real challenge is organisational, not technological
« The real challenge is not technological but organisational ». The wording is once again the organisers’, and it is one of the aspects of their work that matters most to me. What is blocking the sector’s evolution has less to do with tools than with production logics, funding frameworks, professional cultures, role assignments. Difficulty in welcoming hybrid projects, lack of time for experimentation, tension between innovation and structural constraints, all of these blockages reveal a gap between the artistic forms now emerging and the frameworks within which we attempt to produce them.
This thread structures much of the second day. Sarah Ellis (Royal Shakespeare Company) opens with « Leading and practising in the digital age ». Clément Thibault (Le Cube Garges) and Lisa Mara Ahrens (HAU Berlin) deepen the discussion in « After innovation: towards an ecology of transformation ». This round table, according to the organisers, aims to « shift the focus away from a fascination for technology and innovation and towards the responsibility of practices », with themes that speak to me: responsible innovation, digital sobriety, new economic and ethical models, redefining artistic and social value. The closing choral session, « Performing arts and digital environments: what kinds of synergy do we need? », brings together about ten key actors (ZINC, CHRONIQUES/HACNUM, Pôle PIXEL, PXN, La Fabrique de la Danse, City of Marmande, Avignon University, ONDA) for a collective mapping.
Why these questions matter beyond the sector itself
The political stakes of these two days extend beyond the perimeter of the performing arts. The place of digital technology in our cultural practices, the transformation of the relationship to audiences, the funding of venues, the real or simulated democratisation of institutions, the very definition of cultural hospitality, these questions concern the city as a whole. All those who fund culture through their taxes, those who do not visit cultural venues and wonder why, those who practise another artistic discipline, those who work in education, social work, research, local government, and who can see that culture is a question of society.
Multidisciplinarity asserts itself as a fact, not a choice. The questions raised at Chaillot run across the visual arts, cinema, music, literature, heritage, design, video games, mediation. A dialogue confined to a single professional sub-sector would miss the transformation now underway.
An expectation for these two days
Professional gatherings often follow a largely top-down format, with structured presentations and audience questions arriving at the end. The organisers of Chaillot Augmenté have worked to diversify the formats, with small-group sessions, interactive focus moments, choral mapping. This is useful and necessary. The top-down format nevertheless remains structural to this kind of meeting, and it is worth naming.
The expectation I would like to formulate, in dialogue with the spirit of the TMNlab, is that these two days be built as a shared elaboration, beyond a succession of presentations. The co-presence of people from different backgrounds is a resource. If we are speakers, let us be available to having the perspectives from the audience displace our discourse. If we are in the audience, let us speak up a little more than is planned, without polemic but without holding back what deserves to be said. A democratic system requires work to remain democratic. This expectation, I know, is not easy to put into practice, and that is why it is worth formulating.
Detailed programme
Tuesday 5 May 2026
- 9.30 am: welcome coffee
- 10 am: introduction by Rachid Ouramdane (Chaillot) and Marion Franquet (TMNlab / Scène Nationale Carré-Colonne)
- 10.10 am: opening address, « Performing arts of the (retro)future » by Franck Bauchard (DGCA, French Ministry of Culture)
- 10.30 am: « The illusion of opportunity: is the immersive economy redefining creation? » with Alexander Whitley, Julien Dubuc and Clémence Debaig, moderated by Myriam Achard
- 11.45 am: focus, « Hellfest x ARTE x Fortnite » with Maud Clavier (Zorba)
- 12 noon: « Programming hybrid works: tools, networks and repertoire-building » with Marie Pia Bureau, Séverine Bouisset, Julie Sanerot
- 1 pm: lunch (booking required)
- 2.30 pm: « Artistic potentialities of technologies: artists’ voices », moderated by Chrystèle Bazin
- session #1, between sound immersion and AI exploration, with Natacha Paquignon, Anders Hasmo and Peer Perez Øian, Mathieu Chamagne, Marco Donnarumma
- session #2, around XR, with Joséphine Derobe, Isis Fahmy and Benoît Renaudin, Singing Chen, Frédéric Deslias
- 5.15 pm: focus, « International dynamics of creation in digital environments » with Singing Chen and Myriam Achard
- 5.40 pm: closing remarks by Rosita Boisseau (Le Monde)
- evening: « Chaillot Rencontre: Dance and Artificial Intelligence », in partnership with Philosophie magazine
Expert Q&A sessions (Tuesday):
- 12 noon - 1 pm: financing creation in digital environments (Hacnum x PXN)
- 2.30 pm - 3.30 pm: support for creation and dissemination (ONDA)
Wednesday 6 May 2026
- 9.30 am: welcome coffee
- 10 am: introduction by Pierre Lungheretti (Chaillot) and Anne Le Gall (TMNlab)
- 10.10 am: opening address, « Leading and practising in the digital age » by Sarah Ellis (Royal Shakespeare Company)
- 10.30 am: « After innovation: towards an ecology of transformation » with Clément Thibault (Le Cube Garges) and Lisa Mara Ahrens (HAU Berlin), moderated by Carla Meller (Academy for Theatre and Digitality)
- 11.30 am: break
- 11.45 am: « Audiences: how is digital technology reshaping the relationship to the performing arts? » with Rachid Ouramdane, Nicolas Ligeon, Benoît Labourdette, moderated by Anne Le Gall
- 1 pm: lunch (booking required)
- 2.30 pm: focus, « C.A.L.I.P.S.O., from laboratory to ecosystem » (France 2030)
- 3 pm: « Where are the spaces of artistic research, and how do they connect? » with Jonathan Thonon, Gilles Jobin, Emanuela Righi, moderated by Line Abramatic
- 4.15 pm: focus, « Navigating an ecosystem in transformation without sacrificing artistic integrity » with Marie du Chastel and Line Abramatic
- 4.40 pm: « Performing arts and digital environments: what kinds of synergy do we need? », closing choral session with Marie Point, Céline Berthoumieux, Loïc Rabache and others
- 6 pm: closing reception and Dance and AR demonstration with Danc’R
Expert Q&A sessions (Wednesday):
- 12 noon - 1 pm: focus on the Le Vivier x Dance and Technology Incubator programme
- 3 pm - 4 pm: international support (Institut français)
Throughout: curated selection of VR works with Unframed Collection (Tuesday 1 pm - 6 pm, Wednesday 11.30 am - 5.30 pm).
Detailed programme and registration on tmnlab.com.
To take the reflection further
I have gathered my analyses, methods and proposals for a stronger cultural sector tomorrow in a freely available book, Defending Culture Differently : Methods for Tomorrow, recently updated. The book covers in particular cultural rights, cultural democracy, the place of institutions in the digital age, antifragile practices, artificial intelligence, renewed forms of mediation, and the political reconstruction of the cultural sector.
I had also taken the opportunity, at a TMNlab café, to develop the idea that digital technology is not a subject one should take a stand for or against, because it reconfigures far more fundamental questions: our relationship to presence and to relationship itself. Read or listen to this intervention.
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
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To Code or Not to Code?
A Plea for Reclaiming Our Digital Tools.
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Putting Artificial Intelligence to good use in the cultural sector
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Helping professionals design new types of projects adapted to the needs of young people
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What digital technology is doing to the cultural sector
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The elsewhere of the in-itself
Conceptual and methodological proposal for complementarities between in situ and remote cultural projects.
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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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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 (…) -
TMNLab: “Digital technology is not a subject that deserves a position for or against...” - Benoît Labourdette
Podcast of the meeting with Benoît Labourdette at the TMNLab café on March 9, 2023 (1h08’).
At the invitation of Anne Le Gall, exchange with Benoît Labourdette on innovative and agile working methods for the cultural sector, thanks to (…) -
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 (…) -
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 (…) -
The marginality of cultural institutions Lucidity of a paradigm shift.
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