Artistic creation in a digital environment
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 cultural hierarchical system, a comfort zone for professionals, which cuts off cultural players from the reality of the changing stakes of their professions.
The scope of this study is defined as follows:
Hybrid in essence, artistic creation in a digital environment is characterized by the multidisciplinary nature of the artistic forms called upon (music, visual and sound arts, architecture, cinema, theater, dance...) and the use of technology and/or science to invent new languages and new artistic writing. Its members come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, and operate in distinct fields of public action:
- Culture: performing arts, audiovisual, public reading, digital mediation;
- Economy: creative industries, innovation, start-ups;
- Higher education and research.
In Brittany, many players contribute to the vitality of artistic creation in a digital environment. This study aims to provide an overview of this sector of activity in Brittany, highlight the dynamics at work and identify needs and prospects.
The objectives of this study are to carry out an inventory of the sector (players, dynamics, needs and working horizons) and to draw up a series of recommendations aimed at developing this sector and these artistic practices.
The announced method consists of :
- Field study via a series of interviews with players representative of the diversity of the sector studied;
- Documentary study ;
- Study of a series of works produced/co-produced/diffused by Breton players;
- Drafting of a status report and recommendations for improvement and collective progress.
This report was produced by Anne Burlot-Thomas (Agence Talents multiples - Lorient).
My opinion, from the angle of relations with young people and respect for cultural rights, is that this study, which nevertheless deals with the subject of digital technology, treats it almost exclusively from an aesthetic point of view (developments in artistic forms via digital tools) and from a corporatist point of view (definition of a specific “cultural sector”, which should be defended, and its internal issues).
Questions of relationships with audiences and young people, and the impact of digital technology on these relationships, are barely mentioned. The paradigm of a “professional vs. amateur” cultural hierarchy is never questioned, even though this is what digital technology is shaking up in a major way, and is what keeps young people away from subsidized cultural venues.
The term “cultural rights” is mentioned just once in a sentence, and cultural democracy is mentioned just once too, in a general sentence in the conclusion (“Developing cultural democracy”), without this being questioned or discussed.
In my opinion, the real subject of digital technology lies in the way it shifts the lines of cultural democracy, and opens the door to fundamental questions about the very forms of mediation and the social meaning of artistic creation; in other words, first and foremost, why and for whom things are done, before focusing on the how. What emerges from this report is unsurprising: the State should allocate more resources to this sector.
This can only contribute to the impoverishment of the sector, as it continues to cut itself off from the reality of the world it serves, through the maintenance of a tradition of cultural hierarchization, which still underlies it. On the other hand, in some of the quotations, we can perceive the questioning of local players on the democratic issue, but the report doesn’t go into the subject in depth, which in my opinion produces thinking and recommendations outside the subject of the digital and contemporary reality.
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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The Free Institution Opening spaces for creation outside the logics of cultural domination.
For thirty-five years, in response to the systems of domination that structure the cultural field, I have been proposing an alternative approach: (…) -
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 (…) -
Cultural summer 2022 with Cultures du coeur: “Changing horizons”. Tour of film-making workshops in the social field.
During “l’été culturel 2022” (French Ministry of Culture), Cultures du cœur offered nine social structures around France the opportunity to take (…)
