Digital challenges and practices in cultural institutions: crossed perspectivesVirtual meeting organized as part of the 33rd session of the « Entretiens Jacques Cartier »

November 4, 2020.

The rapprochement of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ottawa, Lyon 2 University, Jean Monnet University and ENS de Lyon, initiated since 2018, resulted in the joint organization of a workshop at the EJC 2019 in Ottawa, entitled "Dialogues and collaborations at the intersection of culture and technology".

This first workshop made it possible, among other things, to bring out a shared theme around the relationships between culture, digital technology and the arts that we wish to deepen together by focusing on digital practices and issues in cultural institutions.

The Lyon-Saint-Étienne site was particularly relevant for such a reflection, benefiting from diversified cultural institutions that have forged close links with universities or companies (for example, Lyon Municipal Library, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne Municipal Archives, etc.).

Technological advances in the vast digital field have undeniably transformed practices within cultural institutions: massive digitization of corpora or collections, making available resources for research, pedagogy but also for the conservation and enhancement of unpublished archival collections. Meanwhile, digital devices  have also transformed the relationship with institutional users.

Numerous studies had highlighted the effects of the digital revolution in these institutions. However, the meeting between these institutions, companies in the digital sector, academics in an international perspective brought a new perspective: practical, prospective and critical.

The project thus intended to be multidisciplinary and multisectoral, bringing together actors from institutional, cultural, public, private (companies and startups) and associations. The theme was at the crossroads of the cultural, academic and economic sectors. The project featured in the Digital and Technology chapter of EJC 2020.

The organized meeting allowed cross-fertilization between these different environments, able to spark new types of collaborations. The project generated new approaches that would not have been possible without this type of encounter between humanities and digital sciences in line with the major issues of our time.bilan. Since the pandemic, the cultural institutions have multiplied digital media, made resources available and thus reached new audiences. But it also requires a profound rethinking of both practices and uses, the relations between institutions and their public and the changes underway. All in all, the sharing of Franco-Canadian experiences and between different sectors proved to be fruitful both from a perspective of assessment and prospecting.

By questioning the new relationships to culture and knowledge that they create, the effects of structuring territories that they could make possible, the consequences on the training of pupils and students and the evolution of professions in these sectors, the project also contributed to the training of citizens, who were involved in the sessions, through open meeting moments, and their preparation to face the digital future.

Replay

The replay of this sequence can be viewed at the following address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKHDd7y7pwY&list=PLq8F8qXOC4tPtMGRuymjnFSalhabLOO0V&index=17