This text is part of the special section Arts and culture in Quebec
For several years, digital technology has become an important means of disseminating the arts, offering as many advantages as challenges, among others for Quebec artists and artisans. On the one hand, it facilitates the visibility of content of all kinds, on the other, standing out from the crowd can become difficult, especially in the pool of American content.
“Even if we’ve been talking about digital for a while, what we learned quite quickly is that things are constantly changing,” says Mériol Lehmann, artist and consultant in digital culture. A bit like a three-headed hydra, he adds. “Every time you think you’ve cut one, another one comes out,” he jokes. Questions related to artificial intelligence now occupy a large place in discussions for the future of music. “I’m not sure that we yet fully understand the full extent of the consequences and I think it would be very difficult to do so,” he concedes.
According to him, a milestone has been reached: “We have moved from the culture of “discoverability” to the culture of recommendation. » To access cultural content, this now happens through digital platforms, whether to watch films, book tickets for a concert or even listen to music. “We noticed that we have moved to this idea that we want to make a choice from a series of options on platforms like Netflix or Spotify, which will recommend content to us based on our consumption habits,” says he. This means, in turn, that the consumer has less influence on the choices offered to him.
Visibility of Quebec content
For Quebec culture, this brings its share of challenges. “It must be clearly identified by metadata,” he specifies. The algorithms will choose for us the next song to listen to, the name of an artist to discover, hence the urgency of correctly coding the metadata so that Quebec content is readable by machines and “so that the recommendation algorithms offer this content,” he emphasizes.
In addition to having programs aimed at supporting the mobility of artists and increasing the circulation of their works internationally, such as scholarships for residencies in the four corners of the world, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ ) encourages Quebec artists to use ISNI, which are international codes for artists which allow all resources about a creator to be interconnected and, in particular, to promote the discoverability and traceability of the creator on the Web .
“Whether it is for a musician, visual artists, this can apply to any discipline,” underlines Mériol Lehmann. This makes it possible to put in place a certain mechanism which will help the visibility of Quebec artists, but it is only the beginning of long-term work, recognizes the consultant. “We need to find a way to force platforms to clearly identify Quebec content, and it is also important so that artists can correctly receive their royalties,” he recalls. There are challenges, he summarizes, “but digital can be something positive,” he adds. With all the players, including the CALQ, there is now a good culture in the arts sector in Quebec, according to him.
Taking your art on a journey
Alison McAlpine, director of the short film Perfectly a Strangeness (A perfect strangeness) in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, experienced it. “There are a lot of challenges when you want to distribute a film, especially when there is not a conventional narrative, as is the case in my short film, which is more experimental, like a story, I would say,” she confides. The CALQ helped her financially for the production and post-production of her project. A huge boost to bring his film project to fruition. “I had total freedom, I had choice and creative control,” she rejoices. All this support led her to find her distributor, the Montreal studio H264, to join the competition of the prestigious French festival and, she hopes, other film festivals later.
On tour in Europe, the artistic director of the Constantinople musical ensemble and the Center of World Musicians, Kiya Tabassian, also takes advantage of the support of the CALQ to take his music on tour. “International distribution is part of our DNA,” he says. The Constantinople ensemble presents close to 100 concerts each year, around 70 of which take place on international stages. Kiya Tabassian says she takes advantage of the visibility offered by digital to attract new audiences. “I approach digital very positively, we film all our creations and put them online,” he emphasizes. The artistic director noticed that the number of subscribers has jumped, as well as the number of views, which is more than a million for certain concerts. “A lot of people come to see our shows and tell me they discovered us on Spotify, on YouTube, etc. “, he says.
There are challenges, however, he acknowledges. The prices of plane tickets have increased sharply, as have accommodation. “But again, with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, it allows us to promote our music and bring Quebec culture almost everywhere in the world,” he concludes.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.