FOREWORD - TechnocITé · Jérôme Marciniak (Trainer and Educational assistant ) Rosalia Astorino...

of course, play a very important role in terms of training and innovation: the University of Mons’ (UMONS) Numédiart programme, for example, plays an active role in research into digital arts. At the interface between the academic and the economic worlds, we also find spin-offs such as Acapela, which is active in the field of vocal solutions, or Xperthis (formerly Polymedis), which specialises in the digitisation of medical files. Despite being little known by the general public, they are international references.

The City and Fondation Mons 2015 contribute actively to this rapid expansion of new technologies. The Fondation, with projects such as Métro IT and the Europa cafés. The City, with projects such as Fenêtres du temps, the multimedia scenography of the future Tourism Office, Artothèque or even the Musée du Doudou. All these initiatives aim to promote the tourist, historic and cultural attractions of Mons, not only for 2015 but also in the years thereafter.

Indeed, the Digital Cities project - deployment of an urban Wi-Fi network and trip planner - aims to provide innovative, shared solutions as part of Mons 2015 in order to develop a high quality service for tourists and visitors. This project will be particularly useful in 2015, but it will participate in future years by reducing the digital divide, while providing a base for the deployment of applications designed to improve people’s daily lives.

This Digital Cities project is a first milestone on the way to the advent of a “smart city”, which will integrate very innovative applications in terms of mobility, energy consumption, communication with the public, social cohesion or even solidarity between generations.

The needs are countless, the desire to progress is strong and new technologies dramatically increase our possibilities. That is a given, Mons 2015 will bring us progress!

Elio Di RupoPrime MinisterMayor of Mons

In 2015, Mons will be European Capital of Culture. This ambitious project is not an end in itself but rather the beginning of a new era for the city and its region. This powerful lever will transform our lifestyle and improve residents’ lives for decades to come. The entire Mons 2015 programme is underpinned by the concept of metamorphosis: the metamorphosis of a city in movement whose aim is to harmoniously unite an exceptional historic heritage with the technologies of the future. At the heart of the Mons 2015 project, new technologies are already very much present in the development programmes that have been up and running in the region for many years. It was in Mons that the Digital Innovation Valley was created. The aim is to attract international high technology companies such as Google or Microsoft to our region. These companies work in collaboration with our small and medium sized businesses, which are renowned for their excellence. This abundance today has enabled Mons to hold a prominent place on the world map. More than ever, our economic redeployment is taking the form of new technologies.

TechnocITé plays a major role in continuous training and in the digital economy knowledge society: five thousand people a year receive training in the innovative IT sector and creative industries through a single platform model in Mons for job seekers, employees, self employed people or students! Without doubt, TechnocITé is a tool that has made and continues to make massive technological culturation possible for Mons and its region, with a broader impact on Brussels, the Walloon region, the north of France and beyond. TechnocITé has initiated the setting up of short channels that make it possible to create companies directly after training, particularly in the gaming sector, which did not exist in Mons four years ago, with the spin-off of companies like Little Big Monkey or Drag ON Slide, to name a few. This is a unique tool that enables us to respond to the acceleration in knowledge of today’s society. Our universities,

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/ EDITORIAL / THE MANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT: OUR SOCIETY’SSTRATEGIC CHALLENGE.

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cluster in 2007 for audio-visual companies in wallonia; from 2007; active support for Mons’ application to become European Capital of Culture via the concept of the Digital Innovation Valley; a strategy for Centres of Innovation and Acceleration with new synergy between the public and private sectors (Microsoft Innovation Center in 2008 and FuturoCité in 2009) and the preparation and creation of a DIV Company registry in conjunction with UMONS university in 2013 in order to assess and respond to the needs of the new creatively digital economy.

These initiatives were naturally accompanied by an installation at the heart of the Mons entrepreneurial ecosystem in the “Initialis” business park from 2008. A leader today in Belgium and beyond for its intensive, innovatory courses that includes gaming, the Internet of Things and Social TV, TechnocITé is also – and especially – a technological cultural tool on a massive scale for an eager public of job-seekers, employees, free-lancers and students.

TechnocITé plays a role that enhances digital culture, acts as a digital lung and provides digital sociality at the heart of an ecosystem unique in Europe that combines digital “heavyweights” and start-ups launched by entrepreneurs with endogenous projects. We are very pleased to publish this book which reviews the initiatives taken over the last ten years and the pioneer role that TechnocITé has played and will continue to play at local and European level in the promotion of digital development.

Basilio Napoli President of the BoardBernard Carlot Assistant Administrator

TechnocITé inherited two “advanced technology” Centres, CTA and CETEL, developed with a visionary approach on the Grand-Hornu site at the end of the 1990s.

Financed by the Forem, the Hainaut Province and several European funds – FSE, FEDER and Interreg in particular, TechnocITé obtained recognition as Wallonia’s “Accredited Centre of Competence” in early 2000.

From 2004 onwards, under the direction of Georges Ollinger and Jacques Delaunois, the Centre developed a diversification in digital media and the creative industries which became strategic for the region of Mons, notably thanks to the FSE and FEDER European finance schemes. A satellite venue was opened in 2004 at the “Carré des Arts” in Mons town centre, offering intensive training courses in video, in image synthesis, in audio and interactive tools. Various European programs were launched around 2004 based on these themes: the CCDS and TRANSDIGITAL heralded a cross-border strategy with northern France.

Very rapidly, TechnocITé expanded beyond its original role of intensive training centre and initiated a variety of activities for economic development in these innovatory professions and the digital economy. There were missions to San Francisco from 2006 onwards to understand the acceleration process underway in the Silicon Valley; a shared stand with AWEX for Walloon Companies at the major NAB Trade Fair in Las Vegas from 2007; the launch of the TWIST

Publishing editor:Pascal Keiser

TechnocITé:Pascal Keiser (Director)Joyce Proot (Operational Director)Catherine Dethy (Deputy DirectorAdministration, Finance, Human Ressources)Richard Roucour (Deputy DirectorTechnical and Educational head)Jennifer Flament (Secretary)Marie-Anne Legrand (Secretary)Fabienne Saba (Secretary)Sabine Detry (Accountant)Benoît Demoulin (Technician)Fabian Clerbois (Technical assistant )Gaelle Michel (Web developer)Dominique Dufour (Trainer)Bernadette Lacrosse (Progression head)Astrid Van wynsberghe (Trainer)Amélie Kestermans (DMI trainer)Quentin Machiels (Developer)Jérôme Marciniak (Trainer and Educational assistant )Rosalia Astorino (Trainer)Florian Goffin (IT / Audiovisual technician)Eric Deherve (Trainer and technician)Antoine Sevais (Community Manager / Content manager)

Board of Directors:Basilio Napoli (President), Annie Taulet (Vice-President), Bernard Carlot (Assistant Administrator), Patrice Duvivier, Serge Boucher, Rogghe Christian, Patrick Salvi, Patrick Petit, Guibert Debroux, Eric Robert, Alain Diseur, Dany Hismans

Editor in chief: Vincent Delvaux

Editorial team:Bertille CoudevylleVincent DelvauxBrigitte DoucetOlivier FabesPhilippe FranckDelphine JenartPascal KeiserPier Luigi SaccoJacques Urbanska

Sub-editor (french):Isabelle Greivelding

Translators (english):Alison NolanGuy ParkerSteve BlackahV&O Expressions

A publication by:

Public partners:

Corporate Partners:

Graphic design:Les produits de l’épicerie (Lille-France)www.lesproduitsdelepicerie.org

Cover:Cie Adrien Mondot/Claire Bardainne, Hakanaï © Romain Etienne Cie Adrien Mondot/Claire Bardainne

Printing:Hayez printing companyRue Fernand Brunfaut 191080 Brussels

Printed on Munken PaperFonts: Avant-Garde and Minion Pro

Registration of copyright on publication: ISBN:978-2-9601488-0-0

Acknowledgements:Marie Arena, Claire Bardainne,Alain Bidegain, Franck Butstraen, Richard Coconnier, André Delpont, Caroline Decamps, Jean-Paul Deplus, Espace Dragone, Thierry Dutoit, William Echikson, Alain Finet, Jennifer Flament, Philippe Franck, Eris Joris, LAb[au], Pierre Larauza, Pierre Leclercq, Ariane Loze, Jean-Pierre Marcelle, Gaelle Michel, Valentina Montalto, Adrien MondotGeorges Ollinger, Joyce Proot,David Picard, Juliette Picry, Ben Piquard, Olivier Py, Paul Rondin, Pier Luigi Sacco, Superamas, t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e, Tuur Van Balen, Yves Vasseur

Special thanks to: M. Elio Di Rupo, Prime Ministerand Mayor of Mons

In Memory of Jacques Delaunois, first director of TechnocITé (2001-2007)

TECHNOCITÉ, 2004-201410 DIGITAL YEARSIN MONS

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P.05 FOREWORD By Mr. Elio Di Rupo, Prime Ministerand Mayor of Mons

P.07 EDITORIALBy Mr. Basilio Napoli and Mr. Bernard Carlot

01. DIVE INTO THE HEART OF THE MONS MODEL

P.12 MONS 2015 : THE CAPITAL OF CULTUREAn opinion by Pier Luigi Sacco

P.16 AT THE HEART OF THE MONS ECOSYSTEMBy Vincent Delvaux

P.22 MONS, LAND OF THE DIGITAL DAWN Interview with Jean-Pierre Marcelleby Vincent Delvaux

02. DIGITAL ECONOMY ANDCREATIVE INDUSTRIES, CROSS-SECTOR APPROACHAND SPILLOVERS

P.28 DIGITAL INNOVATION VALLEY, START-UPS PROMISING A NEW HERITAGEBy Brigitte Doucet

P.35 MONS 2015, THE BIRTH OF A EUROPEANCAPITAL OF CULTUREInterview with Yves VasseurBy Philippe Franck

P.38 TECHNOCITÉ, KNOWLEDGE INCUBATORInterview with Pascal KeiserBy Vincent Delvaux and Olivier Fabes

P.44 MICROSOFT INNOVATION CENTER: BUSINESS EMERGENCE AGENT Interview with Ben PiquardBy Brigitte Doucet

P.50 FUTUROCITÉ, LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY AGENTBy Brigitte Doucet

P.54 GOOGLE, A MAJOR PLAYER IN SUPPORT OF DIGITAL CULTUREInterview with William Echikson By Delphine Jenart

P.58 NUMEDIART, WHEN RESEARCH ANDTECHNOLOGY TAKE AN INTEREST IN CULTUREInterview with Thierry DutoitBy Jacques Urbanska

P.64 HIGH-CALIBER RESEARCHERS SUPPORT THE DIGITAL ECONOMYby Olivier Fabes

03. MONS, A CLUSTER FOR CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

P.68 BENCHMARKING FROM SOME INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES TO THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF TECHNOCITÉBy Philippe Franck

P.74 THE VIA PROFESSIONAL ENCOUNTERS, LABORATORY FOR MONS 2015By Bertille Coudevylle

P.78 CCDS, TRANSMISSION AND DIFFUSION OF DIGITAL ARTWORKSBy Bertille Coudevylle

P.88 TRANSDIGITAL, FINAL REPORT AND OUTLOOKBy Vincent Delvaux

P.92 SUPERAMAS, TECHNOLOGY UNDER THE TEST OF ARTPar Jacques Urbanska

P.100 TO BE WHERE THE PIXELS ARE. Interview with Eric JorisBy Jacques Urbanska

P.107 CITY SONIC, INTERNATIONAL SOUND ART FESTIVALInterview with Philippe FranckBy Jacques Urbanska

P.113 THE MUNDANEUM IN MONS, A “RENAISSANCE 2.0”!Interview with Jean-Paul DeplusBy Delphine Jenart

04. ON THE ROAD TO MONS 2015

P.120 2015 AND BEYOND: VISION AND ECONOMY OF DIGITAL CREATIVITYInterview with Yves VasseurBy Philippe Franck

P.126 DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT, THE NEW CRUCIBLE FOR SOCIAL BONDSInterview with David PicardBy Vincent Delvaux

P.129 INFRASTRUCTURES TO BOOST CREATIVITYBy Olivier Fabes

P.131 WHEN THE MONS ECOSYSTEM INCITES INSPIRATION ABROADBy Brigitte Doucet

P.136 TECHNOCITÉ BEYOND 2015By Pascal Keiser

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Headquarters of the Mons 2015 Foundation at 106 rue de Nimy © David Bormans

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MONS 2015: THE CAPITAL OF CULTUREAN OPINION BY PIER LUIGI SACCO

How can a city learn?The European Capital of Culture program is maybe the most ambi-tious attempt to date to demonstrate the transformational potential of culture-led development, and possibly the most widely recognized at the global level. During its long history, it has delivered quite a few impressive success stories, which have left a permanent mark in local communities and in the European public opinion altogether. Such a record, though, has been the consequence of a long, steady learning process – which has gradually turned what was initially a touching but ephemeral celebration of European culture and identity into an innovative, long-term, participatory platform of social and economic change. Effective use of the ECoC title for cities has gone hand in hand with such a learning attitude: Understanding one’s own weak points, set a long-term mental urban development strategy, antici-pating and successfully tackling the many political, organizational, social crises that punctuate the process, not being scared of looking for new tools and solutions, favoring true participation with all its complexities and contradictions against choreographic, orchestrated consensus, and so on.

One of the clearest lessons from past experiences is that, for learn-ing to take place, citizens and communities must be enabled to build and consolidate a vast portfolio of capabilities, making the difference between real participation and passive attendance. Another key lesson is that all starts with a team of experts, volunteers and public servants able to truly listen, build trust and mutual respect, and act upon that. All successful ECoCs can then be characterized in terms of their actual strategy for community learning and capability building, before, during and after the EcoC year. When such a strategy exists,

Pier Luigi Sacco is Professor of Economics and Deputy Rector for International Relationships at IULM University, Milan. He is also the Director of the bid of Siena for the European Capital of Culture 2019. He writes for numerous publications around topics linking economy and culture.

/MONS 2015: THE CAPITAL OF CULTUREAN OPINION BY PIER LUIGI SACCO

is in place, and works properly, the EcoC ex-perience can be ‘capitalized’, i.e., it leads to the accumulation of valuable forms of cultural, social and human capital, in addition to the most visible physical one. The relationship between the former, intangible components and the latter, tangible one reminds somewhat that be-tween software and hardware. However fascinating the new buildings and facilities that the EcoC often brings, without a renewed attitude of the commu-nity toward the production and dissemination of culture and their social and economic impacts, the risk is that of building some magnificent but sterile ‘cathedral in the desert’.

Does Mons learn in 2015?In Mons 2015, the community learning process stems from the relationship between culture and technology and from the attitude of ‘reinventing itself’. Building on the legacy of Lille 2004 – also due to the geographical vicinity and functional complementarity, the Mons project aims at a deep social and economic rejuvenation of a territory which in 2004 was plagued by a 15% unemployment rate and was subject to signif-icant brain drain. The strategy has been that of creating the conditions for the onset of a full-fledged digital socio-economy, which, after four years of development, has led to the launch of the Digital Innovation Valley in 2008 and the sustained birth of new digital startups, and to the EcoC title in 2011. The Mons strategy has been twofold. On the one hand, attracting FDI in the digital economy while at the same time learning from some of the main innovation hubs world-wide. On the other hand, launching a massive continuous education program and encouraging the coordination and networking among local organizations.

This is, in particular, what makes the Mons Dig-ital Innovation Valley different from many other digital technology clusters flourishing across Eu-rope and worldwide. It is not a classical cluster built around a specific, narrow range of value chains, but it is rather a trans-sectorial one where culture operates as a connecting layer, stimulat-ing diversity rather than homogeneity and mak-ing of it the key competitive factor of the cluster. The EcoC program thus becomes an integral part of the long-run development strategy of the ter-ritory. The results so far, one year in advance of the ECoC year itself, speak for themselves: 1.000

Opening of the headquarters of the Mons 2015 Foundation © David Bormans

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jobs and 100 SMEs created by the Digital Innova-tion Valley, 1.000 further jobs in the cultural and creative sectors, and 1.000 free lancers in the digital and creative sectors, out of a working population of 30.000. The launch of the ECoC program will occur in a peak moment of creative development, and will be an opportunity to ex-periment new cross-feedbacks between culture, technology, society, and the economy, with an eye toward the future in terms of (socio-environ-mental) sustainability, inclusion, and European connectivity. The real challenge in 2015 for Mons will then be that of carving space for enough creative unpredictability. That is, to make the EcoC year ‘wild’ enough to fuel the start a new cycle of more adventures and risky experimen-tations rather than of management of the new status quo.

Small is the new big?Which examples in the recent past of the EcoC program may provide interesting benchmarks for the Mons experience? There is no objective criterion to make connections: Every two ECoCs may have something in common along a suitable, well-chosen dimension. There are however in my opinion two ECoCs which for opposite reasons make a meaningful connection: Turku 2011 and Guimarães 2012. Turku 2011 relates to Mons on a line of continuity: A same emphasis on the development of cultural and creative industries and on urban revitalization, a major role for technology in the artistic program, and a strong boost to the image of the city as an attractive tourist destination in the context of a clear, consistent long-term strategy. Guimarães 2012, on the contrary, while being a very successful ECoC as well, has evolved through strong discontinuities and organizational complexities, and has heavily leveraged upon the

Like Mons, Siena has at its core a digital strategy as the key asset. Like Mons, it envisions its future in a dialogue between tradition and cutting-edge technology. But whereas in Mons the primary focus is upon technological innovation, in Siena, also taking into account the 5-years shift in time perspective, it is upon social innovation. Siena wants to show to Europe that heritage cities, if looking at their cultural assets from the right perspective (which for us means considering three different angles: Heritage as archive, narrative, and public space), may ride the wave of innovation even more dynamically than post-industrial ones – and the real issue, now that digital technology is evolving at a bewildering pace, becomes how society reacts to it.

Siena has a bewildering tradition of civic engagement that dates back to the Middle Age, with milestones such as the 1309 Costituto, which introduced the first European experiment of direct democracy by translating into vulgar language the city’s corpus of laws so that every citizen would have a chance to understand and to interiorize them. During its history, Siena has pioneered crowdsourcing with the Contrade, bottom-up cultural participation with the Accademia dei Rozzi, visual language for deaf people with the research of Tommaso Pendola, and many other forms of social innovation that are still under development today, centuries in advance of the current trend. Today we need to build on this tradition to launch new forms of social innovation to provide a concrete answer to the crisis of Siena’s main employer, the Monte dei Paschi Bank. We want to focus on three main fronts of social innovation where culture

can make the difference: Wellbeing and welfare, social cohesion, and experience economy 2.0. We will demonstrate the transformational power of heritage as archive, narrative and public space in such three fields, thereby working upon nine different routes to culture-led social innovation corresponding to our flagship projects, which are co-designed with the Siena community and with our European partners.

Building on the legacy on the medium-small ECoC cities like Linz, Turku, Guimarães and, in perspective, Mons, we want to stress that also second-tier cities in Europe can bring about relevant, sustainable social and economic impact when they make a clever, inclusive, imaginative use of their cultural assets – exploring new ways to smart specialization that can inspire other European cities with similar characteristics.

To make this possible, in Siena we want to involve all citizens in the learning process, in what could possibly become the most far-reaching community learning project ever undertaken in the history of ECoCs so far. Our approach will be co-designed with Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Cittadellarte, and will build upon the notion of Responsible Social Transformation that Michelangelo and his team have been developing throughout the last decade. We are going for this, and we are sure we will learn a lot from the many ECoCs that have successfully taken the challenge before us – we will learn how to learn. We look forward to Mons with curiosity and hope.

direct participation of citizens as the main actors in a situation characterized by shortage of resources and by an uncertain long-term prospect – but also by a strong digital orientation. What unifies these apparently diverse cases is the role that culture has had in the re-definition of the future trajectory of medium-small European cities, which were rich of cultural potential, as yet mainly untapped (whose state-of-the-art reference model can be traced back to the experience of Linz 2009). The interesting lesson to draw is exactly the fact that culture may make a difference in such diverse conditions, provided that the right factors are at work.

In Turku, the learning process has been directed toward integrating the innovative role of culture in the otherwise more learning- and education-focused society in Europe. In Guimarães, it has worked towards rebuilding a civic society orientation in a city that has been severely hit by the economic crisis and still has to rediscover its own path to future sustained growth. In a sense, Mons is taking up the legacy of both (and, a fortiori, is taking up the legacy of Linz), as it prepares for an ECoC year that is bound to project it into the selected sphere of Europe’s main digital creative hubs, while at the same time it is reweaving the fabric of social cooperation around its dense web of nonprofit organizations to promote them as new catalysts for innovation and change. There are ambitious ECoCs that fail and humble ones that succeed, but also vice versa. If there is not enough courage to look at the real urgencies and not enough determination to build the real capacity to deliver, the final balance will be poor. But if the opposite happens, what can be achieved may truly overcome common sense expectations. And this is perhaps particularly true for medium-small cities where the impact of a well designed and implemented ECoC may become a true game changer.

Siena 2019: What finance destroyed, culture will recreate?At the time of writing, we do not know whether Siena will be the Italian EcoC in 2019. Like Mons, it is a medium-small city that needs to recover from acute social and economic crisis. Like Mons, it is rich with UNESCO heritage and with century-old intangible cultural capital (The fight of St. George against the Dragon vs. the Palio).



/ LIFELONG TRAINING AND NETWORKING. THAT IS WHAT MAKES THE MONS DIGITAL INNOVATION VALLEY DIFFERENT FROM MANY OTHER DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY CLUSTERS FLOURISHING ACROSS EUROPE AND WORLDWIDE. /

/ IT IS NOT A CLASSICAL CLUSTER BUILT AROUND A SPECIFIC, NARROW RANGE OF VALUE CHAINS, BUT IT IS RATHER A TRANS-SECTORIAL ONE WHERE CULTURE OPERATES AS A CONNECTING LAYER, STIMULATING DIVERSITY RATHER THAN HOMOGENEITY AND MAKING OF IT THE KEY COMPETITIVE FACTOR OF THE CLUSTER. /

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AT THE HEARTOF THE MONS ECOSYSTEM

Over the last ten years Mons has developed a new dynamic. By adopting a unique style of approach combining economic development, public and private partnerships, a long-term cultural vision – redefined at the turn of the millennium and which finds its fulfilment in a federative event in 2015 – and the in-depth renovation of its structures, Mons has been able to reinvent itself during this time and distance itself from the unwelcome image of a city with an industrial past in decline. In preparing the ground via a quality education program, thanks notably to the presence of the UMONS University, she took a risk for the future, by relying heavily on the enthusiastic commitment of her youth.

Several objective factors point to a city in mutation, over and beyond the temporary excitement sparked by Mons 2015. The presence on its territory of a number of research centres and a well-established university, further education centres – active in areas that hold future promise – such as TechnocITé, ambitious programs supporting applied research, whether in the arts (Numédiart) or industry sectors (Materia Nova), all contribute to lay a foundation of long-term renewal.

“The main difficulty with their request was that they were looking for a very large area of industrial ground, which was not at all easy to find. As luck would have it, the Walloon region had some flat ground available that was nearly one square kilometre in size situated near high voltage electricity lines, with a canal for cooling purposes and fibre optic cables close by. From that point, everything moved forward fairly rapidly. Today Google are the biggest foreign investor in Wallonia, having invested nearly eight hundred million euros. In terms of international recognition for our region, it is highly significant. After the arrival of Google and thanks to the continual development of other smaller Companies, Pascal Keiser suggested calling the emerging Mons ecosystem the Digital Innovation Valley, which at the outset was more an act of faith than reality, but which subsequently turned out to be a winning bet.”

Encouraged by this first major success, things didn’t stop there: “We were preparing an economic mission with Prince Philippe to California and Seattle, and were due to visit Microsoft, with whom I was in regular contact. Shortly beforehand, Mr Di Rupo had met Craig Mundie at the Davos summit, who is Microsoft’s number two with responsibility for strategic investment. When he came to Belgium, Mr Di Rupo invited Pascal Keiser and me to take part in the meeting with Mr Mundie. We then worked on a project and I drew up an initial draft business plan around a concept of a ‘Microsoft Innovation Centre’ based on partnerships with local industry leaders, using the model of a business ‘incubator’. During the mission with the Prince, Jean-Claude Marcourt handed the dossier to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO and everything moved quickly when he came to Belgium and announced the

/ ALL THE INGREDIENTS ARE THERE TO GIVE NEW IMPETUS TO THE CITY AND COMPLETE ITS RECONVERSION, COMBINING A RESPECT FORITS HISTORY AND CONFIDENCEIN ITS FUTURE. /

Major industrial players and a strong fabric of innovatory enterprise.For several years now we have witnessed a para-digm shift in Mons thanks to a number of trig-ger factors which have led to a rapid upgrade. The arrival of major multinationals such as Google and Microsoft (but also by the formula-tion of projects like FuturoCité which brought to Mons other important I.T. players such as CISCO, IBM or HP) sent a very positive signal across a region in full expansion, confident in itself and its potential.

This new dynamic is also due to the involvement of a few key people who were at the frontline as a number of these projects germinated, such as Pascal Keiser, director of TechnocITé or Pierre Leclercq, I.T. engineer who spent several years in Silicon Valley working for Apple, before joining the OTI1 office in San Francisco as representa-tive for foreign investments. “I met Pascal Keiser in 2006 at the NAB2 Trade Fair where a number of Walloon Companies were present such as Flying Cam3, I-Movix and EVS. At that time Pascal talked to me about Virtualis, a coalition of small Companies active in the digital field but having few resources, looking to unite their combined forces. I had found this project to be of particular interest. At the same time, at our office in San Francisco, we received a request from an unidentified investor looking to locate to Belgium, whose proposal was amazingly accurate in its detail. After doing some research, even though the identity of our correspondent remained a mystery until right at the end, no doubt in order not to arouse the suspicions of their competitors, we arrived at the conclusion that it might be an application from Google. We invested time, means and energy to process this dossier as fast as the rules would allow, and we immediately obtained political support at the highest level,” Pierre Leclercq explained.

launch of the MIC in Mons. It was then a case of finding the building and the finance, which happened over the following months.” “Interested by the arrival of two industrial heavyweights in the region, other Companies started to contact us such as IBM and CISCO. After a few months of reflection, surfing on the ‘Green Tech’ wave, we considered a project along the lines of green I.T. because I.T. encourages a rational use of resources and the monitoring of energy consumption. That was the start of the EuroGreenIT4 project which coincided fortuitously with the launch of the Marshall Plan 2.Vert,” Pierre Leclercq concluded.

In the wake of these industry giants, helped by ad hoc support structures such as the incubators or the TWIST cluster, an impressive number of young start-ups and smaller Companies moved to the region or experienced rapid growth: Fishing Cactus, I-Movix, Atomic Turtle… Today these young Companies are the spearhead of the region’s digital renewal and are a reason to hope again in a “Walloon dream”.

New infrastructures, fresh prideOf course not everything is rosy; poor areas remain in a number of places across the region, social inequality is still common and mass unemployment, particularly amongst the youth, remains a sore point that is difficult to remedy. But nevertheless, a positive dynamic, strong enough to give fresh pride to its citizens, is underway. A fresh pride whose first stirrings are tangible with the approach of the great federative event of Mons 2015 which is mobilising the enthusiastic energy of the city and its inhabitants around a common objective. In anticipation of the forthcoming Fête, the city has undergone

/AT THE HEARTOF THE MONS ECOSYSTEM

BY VINCENT DELVAUX

1 // Now part of AWEX

2 // National Association of Broadcasters that hosts audiovisual and telecommunication professionals in Las Vegas

3 // Flying Cam is a Company from Liège, who designed a drone helicopter with embedded cameras used by film producers, for filming scenes in such movies as Harry Potter or James Bond

4 // Since renamed FuturoCité

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a refurbishment: a new multimodal station by talented Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, cultural infrastructures renovated with the ‘Le Manège’ Theatre, ‘Arsonic’, former fire-station now become the ‘city of sound’, the Fine Arts museum upgraded to host exhibitions at international level, the Mundaneum renovated and the new Saint-Georges Interpretation Centre dedicated to the myth of the most famous Doudou.

With its rich heritage, its threefold recognition by UNESCO5, and proud of its traditions, Mons is ready to shine its new light and moreover, it hasn’t waited until 2015 to start. All the ingredients are there to give new impetus to the city and complete its reconversion, combining a respect for its history and confidence in its future: political will, economic development in cutting-edge industries, the arrival of major multinationals, a strong fabric of Companies in the digital sector, new infrastructures, a strong emphasis on education built around the university, the presence of support structures and further education organisations, the dynamism of cultural operators and the mobilisation of the inhabitants around a federative project.

These different elements were in fact highlighted in an impact assessment study undertaken for Mons 2015 and entrusted to the consultancy office KEA6: “This study will take place over four years and will closely analyse the different impacts of Mons 2015. It started with a first phase of data collection in 2012 and will be followed by successive phases in 2015 and 2016 in order to be able to compare the statistics over time and observe long-term trends” Valentina Montalto told us, who is one of the study’s authors and advisor in European affairs at KEA. “Over the last few years several European Capitals of Culture have undertaken impact assessment studies, following Liverpool’s initiative in 2008. We need to measure the effects of the event to know how, on the basis of the results obtained, we can better define tomorrow’s cultural policies. For Mons, it is important to be able to already consider the post-2015 period and determine the place of culture in the city’s future policy. It is a working

tool for the taking of political decisions, which can be made based on a wealth of quality data thanks to interviews with companies and key structures, as well as with a large range of statistical data.”

“The analytical model that we are putting into place for Mons has its specificity because it concentrates mainly on towns that are small or medium-sized. In this case the study is targeting Greater Mons and le Borinage, but cities in partnership with Mons 2015 are also being studied from a qualitative point of view (Liège, Brussels, La Louvière, Namur…).”

The first results of this study7 provide a snapshot of Greater Mons, especially from an economic perspective, but also assess the Horeca sector and others benefitting from the economic upturn linked to the event. The expectations of the different parties involved as well as people’s perception of the event will also be closely analysed. This is a precious tool because it stems from “a multi-dimensional methodology working on the axes of economic development, socio-cultural development, aspects linked to image and reputation as well as structural impacts in terms of administration” added Valentino Montalto. A wide-ranging study, therefore, which provides a panoramic overview supported by statistical data relating to Mons. It is interesting to note that Mons has seven hundred and six entities (public organisations, teaching establishments, associations, artistic and cultural bodies, creative and cultural industries etc.) who are involved in one way or another in the cultural network at the heart of the Mons region and that nearly 36% of Company activity is related to the creative industries. A large number of free-lance workers are also affected by the financial repercussions of such an event. In the light of these figures, it therefore seems obvious that Mons 2015 is much more than an isolated cultural event but that it has a major economic impact across the whole region and has a positive knock-on effect for the whole local economy. The effect on its economy, tourism, its image and reputation is therefore highly significant for the region.

In conclusionThe Mons model has a certain number of interesting characteristics in comparison to other cities of similar size, or even to other European Capitals of Culture. The unique mix of a major economic pole, with industries of the future structured around Companies that are household names together with innovatory entrepreneurial companies, outstanding training (UMons, TechnocITé) and research (Materia Nova, Numediart, CETIC), great cultural dynamism (Manège, BAM, Mundaneum…) supported by strong political will, the commitment of its citizens and a shared vision around common objectives, has fuelled the successful launch of a whole region which will come under the European spotlights for a whole year with Mons 2015. Let us wish her all the success she deserves!

5 // Recognised by UNESCO: The Belfry; the site of Neolithic mines at Spiennes and the Doudou

6 // KEA is an agency for strategic advice, founded by Philippe Kern and based in Brussels since 1999. Its mission is to provide best advice to the creative sector and to carry out reference studies in the cultural sector. Amongst its regular clients are the European institutions and in particular it carried out, in 2006, an important study on the economy of culture in Europe, the first assessment of the cultural and creative industries. This study influenced strategic thinking in the European Commission in the creative industries domain, notably with the publication of the ‘green’ book. In 2009, KEA performed another significant study for the European Commission examining the impact of culture on creativity, in other words, on everything that involves economic and social innovation, since the cultural sector does not only contribute to employment but also fosters innovation in other domains.

7 // Soon available on this site:http://www.keanet.eu



The Mons ecosystemin a few statistics:

- -MONS : 95.000

INHABITANTS- -

107small to medium-sized Companies active

in digital innovation and the creative industries

1.095 employees in Hi-Tec industries

2 innovation centres in public-private

partnership (Microsoft, IBM)

3 research centres in IT

and in material physics

1continuous education centre which trains

over 5000 people per year

1 Google Data Centre, the biggest in Europe

CHAP. 01 10 D/Y/M

/ THE ECOSYSTEM IN MONS IS A UNIQUE MIX OF A MAJOR ECONOMIC POLE, WITH INDUSTRIES OF THE FUTURE, OUTSTANDING TRAINING AND RESEARCH, GREAT CULTU-RAL DYNAMISM SUPPORTED BY STRONG POLITICAL WILL, THE COMMITMENT OF ITS CITIZENS AND A SHARED VISION AROUND COMMON OBJECTIVES. /

20 2110 D/Y/M CHAP. 01


AT THE HEARTOF THE MONS ECOSYSTEM E MONTOIS

CHAP. 01 10 D/Y/M

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2014

Continuous education

technocité ICT + digital media, 5000

pers/yearcecn performing

arts/digital technology

Mission to San Francisco,

mapping of local technology

companiesPPP innovation

centers and incubators

Visit Micrso� research center in Cambridge (UK)

2009

Start-up MIC, entrepreneurs

Bootcamps

Annoucement Microso�

Innovation Center in PPP with Steve

Ballmerlaunch Digital

Innovation valley concept

Increase (peak) in start ups creation

technocité : tuning towards mid-term intensive sessions,

3500 pers/year

Mapping of SMEs : 100 companies,

1000 hightech jobs (2006 : 300 jobs)

Network DIV entreprises

Network non pro�t organization in

digitalCreative Industries

SpilloversAward ECC title

Structuration of non-pro�t

organizations in digital world (30)

and DIV

Bid for ECC, city brainstorming

groupsWhere technology meets culture focus

Fishing cactus, main gaming company in

Belgium

Joint FEDER program

research/continuous education/growthEuropean network

digital capitals

Numediart incorporated as

an Institute within University

New park of 40 hectares along the

Paris-Brussels highway

UMons Numediart,research for digital arts

I-Movix @ Beijing 2008,

Award-winning hyperslow

motion company

Google annoucement

300 M€ investment

IBM Innovation center PPP

TechnocITé: First intensive

courses gaming

20152013

22 2310 D/Y/M CHAP. 01

The economic development of a region requires a cross-section of protagonists and energetic supporters who, to achieve a common goal of economic growth, must combine their efforts, their resources and their visions. At local, regional or international level a series of key players converge in order to support the activity of young entrepreneurs in their quest for expansion. Over the last ten years the creative industries, gathered around a digital hub, have experienced considerable growth in Mons, with the arrival of industry giants such as Google or Microsoft who have fos-tered a seedbed of numerous, promising young shoots. From the outset, research poles or training centres such as TechnocITé prepared the ground, by designing innovative products or by training tomorrow’s workforce to be on the cutting edge of technological advance. Jean-Pierre Marcelle, Director General of foreign investments at AWEX – the Walloon export agency – has been a first-hand witness of these changes in the Mons region. He was on the front line when innovatory projects first emerged, such as the ‘Twist’ cluster, the in-stallation by MIC or FuturoCité. He gives us his perspective on this fascinating story of the emergence of a region based on the creed of digital innovation.

Since 2007 a “cluster decree” regulates what the Government means by this term and has defined its objectives, missions and specific strategy. Public funds are made available on the basis of three-year renewable periods and focus on financial assistance to the team in charge of the cluster, a role that is particularly important in order to initiate projects and federate initiatives. Twist is now in its ninth year of existence. The reason for being a cluster is to attract international Companies during economic missions and create a network. During previous quality missions in Silicon Valley or Montreal, the cluster was able to establish a large number of international links. AWEX strongly supports this type of initiative. Member Companies of Twist have a fairly uninhibited approach to economic missions and manage to form partnerships easily. The fact that today part of the background shots for the Asterix feature-length cartoon are being drawn in Wallonia is also thanks to the cluster. It’s a case of creating a positive ecosystem with Companies that show potential.

What type of support does AWEX offer to Company clusters? AWEX helps the clusters and Companies with their exports, both as a group (since 2008) and individually. The agency contributes to Compa-ny structuration and supports prospecting and reconnaissance trips as well as the development of commercial and distribution partnerships and participation in trade fairs.

You were there at the project launch of the Microsoft Innovation Center in Mons. Can you explain how it all started? In the case of Microsoft, it’s a great story. In around 2007, the American division of Microsoft were dreaming of the world-wide launch of a private space on the web which would be a kind of virtual vault in which data would be kept concerning people’s health, what they dubbed the Health Vault. In this way all the data concerning a person’s health would be collated on the web: blood tests, x-rays, the full medical record… During this time, Pierre Leclercq was in charge at the AWEX office in San Francisco as representative, and was in regular contact with the Microsoft head office. Having returned from the Davos summit, Elio Di Rupo, who knew Craig Mundie, the number two in Microsoft, called a meeting with Pierre Leclercq, Pascal Keiser

/ A NEW TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION IS UNDERWAY AND WE MUST NOT MISS THEDEVELOPMENT TRAIN. PEOPLE NEED TO DREAM AGAIN, TO HAVE THEIR HOPE ANDCONFIDENCE RESTORED IN THEMSELVES WHILST KEEPING THEIR FEET FIRMLY ONTHE GROUND. /

What was your involvement in the dynamic economic development linked to the digital industries in the Mons region? Jean-Pierre Marcelle: The development in Mons of TechnocITé, FuturoCité and the Microsoft Innovation Centre goes back to early 2000. An appraisal had been started at the office of Elio Di Rupo who was then president of the Walloon Region. The idea was born of an in-dustrial pole centred on multimedia, which subsequently became the Twist cluster, uniting digital protagonists and others in the dramatic arts.

At that time the clusters were pilot projects. When Jean-Claude Marcourt became Minister for the Economy, the role of the clusters and their legal framework were more clearly defined. Twist thereby became one of the twelve active clusters in Wallonia with an interesting feature. Generally the clusters have an industrial focus, a cluster being a voluntary grouping together of Companies that are usually active in the same sector.

In the case of Twist, it is a multi-sector cluster comprising multimedia Companies, and leaders in I.T. development or structures active in the theatre industry. Twist has the aim of encouraging dialogue and collaboration between Companies who share a common interest but often in quite different sectors. Between Com-panies like Fishing Cactus, active in the area of serious gaming1 and other Companies who are developing stage lighting, there is often a world of difference. But it is also Twist’s strength to be able to offer such diversity of professions. Moreover, Twist is generating a lot of interest internationally, notably due to partnerships with other clusters in the Rhône-Alpes region or around Geneva.

the director of TechnocITé and a few other people. The idea emerged to adapt for the Belgian context the concept of the health vault. In this way a dossier was drawn up. Shortly afterwards a Belgian economic mission was sent to the west coast of the United States with the specific goal of presenting Microsoft with a joint project piloted by Elio Di Rupo and Jean-Claude Marcourt. In the company of Prince Philipe, they met Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, and presented the dossier to him, produced with the backing of Belgian Microsoft2. The project developed and today there is talk of creating an incubator for Companies. The Microsoft teams are interested because they have already launched around thirty Innovation Centres around the world in order to support project development. The idea is to transpose that over here.

When Steve Ballmer came to Belgium in April 2008 he met Jean-Claude Marcourt and Elio Di Rupo at Louvain-La-Neuve and announced that he was going to create a Microsoft Innovation Centre (MIC) in Mons. In the months following that announcement we formed a public-private partnership and, in November 2008, the Walloon government granted a loan to launch the MIC. This then became an incubation centre able to welcome project instigators and accompany them in their first steps, but also an acceleration centre serving to develop prototypes and a training centre for new technologies whether originating from Microsoft or not. Very rapidly, other Companies (Mobistar, HP…) joined the project. The government’s wish was that, in addition to creating employment, there would also be fresh impetus in the Walloon I.T. sector which up until then had been mostly focused on Web development.

Today, the MIC is in its third three-yearly term since its official inauguration in December 2008. There has been an evolution in terms of products, activities and technological impact on the I.T. ecosystem at regional level. Microsoft reached into their pocket for the development of the Centre and sent over personnel, notably Ben Piquard who shaped the MIC thanks to a certain number of innovatory projects. This has had a major impact in terms of accelerating the growth of young Companies such as Fishing Cactus, for example.

/MONS, LAND OF THE DIGITAL DAWN

1 // Serious video games for educational purposes

2 // Notably thanks to Bruno Schröder, technological director at Microsoft and Philippe Vandervoort, CEO of Microsoft Belux at that time.

MONS, LAND OF THE DIGITAL DAWN

CHAP. 01 10 D/Y/M

/ ITW: JEAN-PIERRE MARCELLEDIRECTOR GENERAL OF FOREIGNINVESTMENTS AT AWEX

INTERVIEW BY VINCENT DELVAUX

24 2510 D/Y/M CHAP. 01



What is the story behind FuturoCité (ex-EuroGreenIT), a dossier that you have also closely monitored? In 2009, following the launch of the Marshall Plan 2.Green, the government and the design team who had worked on the MIC project, began to study the question of I.T. and ecology, contending that I.T. can improve energy performance by monitoring, mobility management, energy resource management, by improvingtown security This study led to the idea of an identical centre to the MIC in its philosophy, and whose aim would be to raise public awareness in communities, towns and communes concerning the intelligent use of I.T. to serve ecological purposes.

EuroGreenIT had two initial ambitions: the reduction of energy costs using I.T., an option that was quickly dropped because of the related costs in hardware development, and the accompaniment of energy-saving projects for towns and communes. EuroGreenIT then changed its name and focussed on improving energy management for communities and the development of home-working in order to reduce the ecological impact of work-related journeys. Partners such as CISCO or IBM, who own an important division known as Smart Cities, have demonstrated how communities can be helped to manage their energy resources. FuturoCité then developed the concept of co-working and smart centres, in other words shared centres close to major trunk roads where people can go to work, benefit from professional infrastructures and work online to avoid wasting time in traffic jams. The Axis Parc at Louvain-La-Neuve is a concrete example of an operational smart centre. Other projects are underway in Marche, Andenne, and Namur and concerning Mons, there is a European development program Digital Cities to coincide with Mons 2015. Furthermore, FuturoCité is also active within the Twist and Tweed clusters who are promoting wind-turbine development and technologies using biomass. Contacts and partnerships exist to begin I.T. projects based on captors placed on industrial machines, such as wind-turbines in particular.

AWEX helps Companies to attend trade fairs around the world. How does it help our Companies to attend a trade fair like the NAB in LasVegas for example? AWEX has regularly taken part in the NAB3, the major world trade fair for broadcasting. We were able to count on a strong Walloon presence with companies such as I-Movix (specialists in sporting slow-motion replays), Dreamwall (Dupuis’ cartoon studio), EVS, Fishing Cactus (serious gaming) or TechnocITé, for the training element. In Wallonia, the previous focus had been on the manufacturing sector in particular, but today creative services and industries are gaining more and more ground because intellectual wealth and creativity are increasingly being recognised, as shown by the example of the success of Fishing Cactus. Following their attendance at the NAB, I-Movix and EVS have developed slow-motion technologies which are being used throughout the world today, notably for sports events. Other Belgian Companies who are developing systems of embedded cameras in drone helicopters also benefitted from attending the NAB, by winning contracts to film certain scenes in Harry Potter or by developing their activity relating to surveillance and security.

How do you see the development of the digital creative industries in Mons and what is your vision of the future of the Digital Innovation Valley? A new technological revolution is underway and we must not miss the development train. People need to dream again, to have their hope and confidence restored in themselves whilst keeping their feet firmly on the ground. The Digital Innovation Valley is an enchanting reality; it was developed around some major industry names like Google and Microsoft which attracted a myriad of young start-ups. Even if Google had relatively little impact in terms of direct local employment, its arrival in Belgium was an extremely positive sign. Moreover, they have a strong focus on social involvement. The arrival of Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson in Wallonia were also other very positive signs, which were then built upon

by significant players like TechnocITé or the ‘Creative Wallonia’ project. It is now time to build on this success. Today for example we are witnessing a change within the financial world, in particular with I.T. banking. We could be heading towards a Digital Financial Innovation Valley, which would provide new impetus to the original project. In French-speaking Belgium we are market leaders in encryption products, with Companies such as Swift in particular. Furthermore, our legislative environment for individual privacy is well-developed. We should therefore seize this momentum concerning I.T. banking that could be developed over here. TechnocITé could be called upon to play a major role in the future to provide cutting-edge I.T. training in the areas of security and cryptography in particular.

For the years 2014-2020, I see opportunities in Wallonia based on education and finance. But in order to achieve this, budgets must be consolidated and a Marshall Plan for education developed at every level: primary, secondary, university and further education.

What can an event like Mons 2015 contribute, in terms of economic benefits and visibilityfor the Mons region?Wallonia has all the means at its disposal to become a major European region. But it still lacks true visibility at international level, which takes time and finance to build. An event like Mons 2015 turns the spotlight onto a region for a given period, which is obviously very positive. Budgets should be established to have a repeat event every two years, of international significance. Beyond the gloss and the glamour it would mobilise the population and would give us common objectives centred on ambitious projects.

Regions such as Catalonia were boosted by the organisation of the Olympic Games. We must also position ourselves around major events of this type, such as a World Job Fair, for example, whilst correctly assessing the investment return and, especially, keeping the promises made to our citizens.

3 // The NAB trade fair is organised by the National Radio Broad-casting Association in Las Vegas, and is aimed at professionals wor-king in broadcasting, shows and distribution of contents. The Fair also organises training sessions, seminars and presentations by industry leaders.

CHAP. 01 10 D/Y/M

M. Elio Di Rupo, Prime Minister announcing the partnership between Google and the Mundaneum© Mundaneum

10 D/Y/M

02

/DIGITALECONOMY

AND CREATIVEINDUSTRIES,

CROSS-SECTORAPPROACH

AND SPILLOVERS/

26 27

Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset used during a gaming training at TechnocITé© TechnocITé

28 2910 D/Y/M CHAP. 02

DIGITAL INNOVATION VALLEYSTART-UPS PROMISING A NEW HERITAGE

Digital Innovation Valley was conceived of as a place for cross fertilization between the cultural and digital worlds, between research and economic activities, and between big names in IT and innovative start-ups. An experimental crucible on more than one count, today it needs to successfully usher in a phase of growth and long term sustainability. One of the levers for bringing this about will be the “Mons 2015 effect”.

Digital Innovation Valley (DIV), located just outside Mons, is anchored in the Initialis scientific park but is in fact broader than this, including stakeholders installed on the periphery or that have expanded even further. It was created to crystallize activities and innovation in the digital domain with a cultural and creative dimension, and fits perfectly into the City’s renewal strategy initiated over ten years ago. In fact, the local authorities saw in culture a tool for revitalisation and attraction, bringing development for tourism, the economy and employment. One of the highlights of this strategy is certain to be the Mons 2015 event, lasting a full year when the city will become European Capital of Culture. Within this context, the DIV acts like a veritable ecosystem that operates as a network and is a driving force for activities. Multiple stakeholders from different fields can be found there: Web and mobile developments, digital broadcasting, video gaming and serious gaming, network services, connector technologies, image technologies, etc. The interlocking and complementarity of the profiles and skills seeks to promote a new dynamism and a revival of economic activities. And the scenario imagined is definitely taking shape in fact.

find in their immediate neighbourhood colleagues, sources of innovation and a number of guidance and support resources:

- TechnocITé, a digital training centre for both working professionals and job seekers;- The Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) combines training, certification courses, project incubation and the availability of advanced technologies and tools: cloud solutions, development tools, mobile technologies, etc.;- The Maison de l’Entreprise (Enterprise House) provides advice, coaching and management training;- FuturoCité, an expertise centre focusing on smart cities, private partnership between the re-gion and stakeholders such as IBM, Mobistar, Microsoft and CISCO. One of its objectives is to promote the creation of innovative start-ups and employment;- The University of Mons, a pool of skills which, for example, spawned the spin-off, Multitel, a research centre specializing in image and signal processing in telecommunications and Numediart, an institute dedicated to digital arts technologies.Although some distance from the DIV, Google and its data centre contribute to the area’s renown and attractiveness. Beyond a digital- cultural animation partnership with Mundaneum, also based in Mons, the company wishes to implement programmes to support local devel-opment, and even project incubation.

A veritable digital districtThe proximity and interaction of all these stake-holders make the DIV a digital district, combining the ingredients of a cocktail of innovation. “Here we find training and expertise centres, start-ups, success stories such as i-Movix, Fishing Cactus or Acapela”, points out Professor Alain Finet, who is attached to the research institute, HumanOrg, of the Warocqué Faculty of Econo-my and Management of the University of Mons. “Everything benefits the digital world in a very current spirit. The cultural and creative ori-entation perfectly meets current thinking and sociological expectations, which are very focused on heritage, sustainable development and par-ticipation, etc.”

Gross figures and soft implicationsAlain Finet was entrusted with an economic study to observe the operation and evolution of the DIV. Objective: to quantify the economic value of the Mons park and determine the impact that the public or private measures taken and projects initiated have on the creation of companies and employment.

It will also make it possible to assess the effects - which we hope will be revitalizing - that Mons 2015 will have on the local ecosystem. Placed under the theme Where Technology Meets Culture, this international event will shine a spotlight on the city, its region and the stake-holders developing there. Alain Finet appraised the first ten years by producing a sort of regis-ter of DIV companies. On the basis of objective data (business figures, operating results, starting capital, staff numbers, etc.), he was able to show the first objective elements: creation of compa-nies and jobs, financial health, transformation from what was, until 1968, an industrial region (coal mining, steel industry, cement works, etc.).

/DIGITALINNOVATION VALLEYSTART-UPS PROMISINGA NEW HERITAGE

BY BRIGITTE DOUCET

/THE DIVSTART-UPS

/ LAURENT RENARD (I-MOVIX): “IT IS CLEAR THAT IN TEN YEARS, THE ENTREPRENEURIAL LANDSCAPE OF MONS HAS CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY THANKS IN PARTICULAR TO THE HIGH NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES AND FURTHER EDUCATIO-NAL ESTABLISHMENTS DESPITE LOCAL FUNDING FOR R&D ENTERPRISES STILL BEING RARE.” /

Situation in 2006

Situation in 2012 Change

Number of companies 41 107 + 161%

Direct jobs 358 1.095 + 205%

Average number of jobs per company 8,7 10,2

Situation in 2005* % Situation

in 2011 %

Negative net result 12 out of 25 46% 14 out of 44** 32%

Negative operating result

13 out of 26 50% 13 out of 44 30%

Negative equity 4 out of 25 16% 3 out of 44 6,5%

GENERAL STATISTICS [TABLE1]

AVERAGE COMPANY PERFORMANCES [TABLE2]

(*) (*) Number of companies with a negative result compared with the total number of companies analysed (Professor Finet has not yet collated all of the figures from all of the companies)(**) Only 44 companies were studied over the 2005-2011 time frame. Many new start-ups were created during that period of time.

CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

30 3110 D/Y/M CHAP. 02

His initial conclusion is that most DIV stakeholders’ digital-cultural approach has enabled them to weather the crisis better than other business sectors. The figures shown in Table 1 bear this out. The three indicators show a clear improvement in performance. “The effect was particularly notable until 2010, at which point the crisis had had a particular impact” says Alain Finet. “Analysis of the negative equity parameter [Table 2] points to a very marked improvement in the balance sheet situation.” If there is a small shadow cast over the table it is undercapitalization “which is a constant with all young companies, all sectors combined. Access to funding remains difficult. Capital is often in the hands of the founders or those close to them - family or similar. Regretfully, there is a dearth of major investors. This is why the principle of networking and the pooling of efforts is so important and valuable. Without mentioning the essential role played by a stakeholder such as TechnocITé in providing training and impetus [the competence centre trains approximately five thousand people per year] or by the MIC through its networking activity and visibility towards the external world.”

These figures will be supplemented in the future by further obser-vations: spin-off effects, creation of new companies by determined entrepreneurs, formation of small hives of complementary activities around main players, longevity of companies, attractiveness towards foreign investors.

The ecosystem effectBoth TechnocITé and, for example, the MIC participate in the com-munity and network effect, finding resources and talents, procuring support, contracts and even concrete resources. Networking is also very active between companies, even when their spheres of activity could make them direct competitors. They often are more inclined to complementarity and pooling rather than defence of any exclusivity. This is especially the case in the creation of games, apps and websites, where skills are increasingly intertwined.

Sensations and Success StoriesWhile most of the DIV companies are micro-structures, we have seen some sensations emerge over the years that have made their way up to rub shoulders with the best players in their industry. They have not necessarily become major companies - or not yet - but have succeeded in breaking through into both the local scene and foreign markets. Consider, for example, I-Movix (super slow-motion sports television cameras), Acapela (vocal synthesis), Fishing Cactus (video games and serious gaming), Mémoire de Patrimoine (2D and 3D technologies for archi-tects, archaeologists, museum curators, etc.), ReakLab (website creation and facilities manage-ment management) or Kollector (traceability of musical works). No common theme or formula can explain their success other than their being “founded by visionaries, people who, having a digital training, perceived the market trend and knew how surround themselves with the right people during the launch of their project and over the course of their early years,” determines Alain Finet.

Mons 2015, potentiation factor“The effectiveness of the DIV model is demon-strated quantitatively in the figures”, repeats Alain Finet. “They show the model’s potential for value creation. Tomorrow, it will be a case of har-nessing the Mons 2015 effect, which will provide an extra boost. 2015 will be a pivotal year ena-bling the digital activities of the DIV and Mons itself to become better known.”

One of the keys to success will be the involve-ment of the most emblematic local companies and entrepreneurs in a personal capacity, Some taking on the role of “ambassador” for the event both in Belgium and abroad.

For them, Mons 2014 is “a world-class showcase for local and regional culture, a stepping stone enabling an entire region to waken up to this, as well as a wonderful economic and human chal-lenge” (Romain Carlier, ReakLab), or yet “the opportunity to show the world that our small city is dynamic and positive, the opportunity to use our local know-how for a global event” (Laurent Grumiaux, Fishing Cactus).

A very micro fabricMost of the companies in the DIV are very small businesses (TPE) (1) “They often take shape around a project and their existence is based on the renewal of projects over time. This means considerable flexibility in terms of manpower. One of the characteristics of the companies is, therefore, to proceed on the basis of determined contractual periods of time. This is a new organ-izational model that works perfectly in the digi-tal-cultural sector.”

The companies’ modest size is a parameter that will undoubtedly need to be further addressed in the future. “Positioning oriented towards the digital and cultural spheres forms part of a strategy perspective of differentiation in the company head. This differentiation does not create much employment and rarely leads to high net results. We are not in the manufacturing business with its volume-based strategy.” However, continues Alain Finet, “from a long-term perspective, thanks to this differentiation strategy, DIV companies tend to weather the crisis better than companies from the secondary sector do.”

The policy of growth - both individual and global - and expansion must rest on a number of ele-ments. “Increased communication, highlighting success stories, developing public activities or even creating a living lab, a platform where pro-ject sponsors can come and test their products and creations before marketing them. Hence the importance of involving the public, a community that must play the game of digital positioning.”



/ ALAIN FINET: “TECHNOCITÉ PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN THE TRAINING THAT IT PROVIDES. IT PROVIDES IMPETUS AND SERVES AS AN INCUBATOR FOR INTELLIGENCE.” /

1 // 69% of the companies are micro-busi-nesses or very small enterprises of less than ten people 30% are small companies (between ten and 49 members of staff and a turnover of less than seven million euros). Only one exceeds fifty employees.

/ ALAIN FINET: “FROM A LONG TERM PERSPECTIVE, THANKS TO THIS DIFFEREN-TIATION STRATEGY, DIGITAL INNOVATION VALLEY COMPANIES TEND TO WEATHER THE CRISIS BETTER THAN COMPANIES FROM THE SECONDARY SECTOR.” /

CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

DEVELOPMENT MODEL IN MONS2008-2014

Cultural projectas main drive

Massive continuous educationprogram

Public private parnership

Creation ofa label Digital

InnovationValley

32 3310 D/Y/M CHAP. 02



CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

PARC N°13 / MONS INITIALISSITUATION 2006

PARC N°13 / MONS INITIALISSITUATION 2012

MONS 2015, THE BIRTH OF A EUROPEANCAPITAL OF CULTURE

In order to be officially elected in 2010 as European Capital of Culture, Mons had to elaborate then implement a strategy, supported by political influence, but also by the determination of its operations team with the capacity to unite. It’s in this way that Yves Vasseur, at the head of Mons 2015, was able to combine in his project cultural heritage, tourist attractions and techno-logical dimensions. With less than a year to the official opening, he reviews the birth of this great collective adventure.

What inspired Mons to seek to become European Capital of Culture and what was the process involved? Yves Vasseur: The inspiration came from a desire to clearly position Mons in a context of economic and cultural redeployment. From the outset, arrangements were made for the engagement of technology and culture, and then the marriage took place. Elio Di Rupo had just been elected Mayor of Mons. From 2002-2003, he created a taskforce in order to implement a policy of restructuration. Three main strands emerged: the focus on new technologies, an intuition based on the encouraging progress of the universities and start-ups, a gamble on culture, which was new, and the tourist potential of the region which had hitherto been un-der-exploited. There then had to be a clear goal with objective time-scales and an attractiveness that would engage the citizens so that they would take ownership of the project.

In Autumn 2003, I asked our Mayor, Elio Di Rupo, to promote Mons’ application for European Capital of Culture, knowing that Belgium had the right to apply for 2015. The official candidature was announced in early 2004 and we set to work. Initially I worked alone on the project without a team, but helped by a number of meetings in the three domains that interested us. In 2006, a first working document was produced and validated by the City College and a team was formed to present our candidature in 2009. Our

/ ITW: YVES VASSEURCURATOR GENERAL OF THE MONS 2015 FOUNDATION

INTERVIEW BY PHILIPPE FRANCK

/MONS 2015,

intuition and chosen themes turned out to be correct; we witnessed for example the arrival of Google in Saint-Ghislain and the creation of the Digital Innovation Valley at the Initialis Business Park comprising major international firms but also emerging regional companies. This new dynamic created nearly a thousand jobs. We enjoyed the total backing of the city authorities and subsequently a foundation was launched to become the project’s operational tool. We respected the process that was underway, with a first jury in June 2009 and a second dossier at the beginning of 2010 with a visit by the jury to Mons in February 2010, at which point we were at production stage.

I had divided the project into four stages over the four years of preparation that would lead up to 2015: foundations to be laid in 2011 (overall budget considerations and partnerships, a rather thankless task), the projects main themes to be established in 2012 with initial communication about these themes and the four emblematic figures who would represent the European dimension (Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Verlaine, Roland de Lassus and Saint-Georges as the hieratic figure of the city’s collective memory), the potential program outline in 2013 and, in 2014, a final screening and review of budget viability, personnel, logistics... in order to be able to validate the program by the end of March, highlight it as a series of beacons over the coming months and announce it officially in September 2014.

What were the main strengths of Mons’ application?Following on from Antwerp in 1993, Brussels in 2000 and Bruges in 2002, we knew that a Belgian city could bid in 2015 for the title of European Capital of Culture. Ultimately, Mons was the only Belgian candidate1 and by D-Day we were the only ones in the running to file an applica-tion. We showed great determination compared to others, which can be explained by the strong desire of the city authorities to get involved in this project.

During the second phase I think that the jury - who had been a little surprised that we were the only applicants in the first phase - has sensed this determination which didn’t only come from the

THE BIRTH OF A EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE

34 3510 D/Y/M CHAP. 02CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

Arsonic, a new venue dedicated to contemporary music, opened in the context of Mons 2015 © Fondation Mons 2015



CCDS offered different training courses that were greatly appre-ciated, produced and supported a number of quality events and also enriched our thought-process on the form that Mons 2015 should take.

The cross-border dimension is an integral part of your approach both at the manège.mons and at Mons 2015. What lessons have you learned from your experience of Lille 2004, which is often quoted as an example of a successful European Capital of Culture, in terms of public success and lasting impact on the city?I was a privileged observer of the Lille 2004 project led by Didier Fusiller and his team, without being directly involved. I was able to follow the process from start to finish but the Maubeuge5 adventure was also important for me. I learned structural and organisational lessons and I was struck by the need to maintain an inheritance: how to make this metamorphosis of the city continue with all its economic and social repercussions (which are still tangible today via the Lille 3000 project that is keeping the flame alive). But the point is not to compare cities and their different contexts. Mons has and will have its own experience thanks to its specific topology.

36 3710 D/Y/M CHAP. 02CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

/ THE YOUNG GENERATION IS A WONDERFUL TROJAN HORSE THAT GIVES US ACCESS TO FAMILIES, SPORTS CLUBS, THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATIONS... /

5 // Yves Vasseur was for several years senior administrator at the Manège de Maubeuge

artistic domain but also from all the associations and the different kinds of participants involved. This showed that, above and beyond genuine merit due to its cultural heritage, the city wanted to own this project by appealing to the dynamic of its youth (twenty thousand students of higher education wanted to be involved in this adven-ture). Another factor is the strong link with new technologies across the chosen themes, which also fosters in its wake a world of creativity, in the broadest sense, that permeates the strata of soci-ety. I think that in fact a European capital project cannot be exclusively cultural. There can also be a large gulf between the city, Europe (which must be represented and invite itself to the chosen city) and the potential opportunities to be high-lighted between artists, participants and different projects both here and elsewhere.

Is there not a hiatus between the reputation of Mons, often seen elsewhere as an example to follow for its daring innovation, its cultural and technological dynamism, and the resistance experienced at a local level, that required a real effort to raise public awareness?It doesn’t surprise me that such innovative steps, that require appropriate communication, are not immediately understood by the public. That is also part of the beauty and strength of the pro-ject. Let’s not forget, in all modesty, that even Mozart was booed in his day! We get results and the public follow us, even if it seems to never quite be enough. The youth are an audience we target, and we consider them first. We seek the

metamorphosis of a city not for its senior citizens but primarily so that projects can be developed and turn dreams into reality. The young gener-ation is a wonderful Trojan horse that gives us access to families, sports clubs, the world of as-sociations... That is the core of a project by Wajdi Mohawad who is working over five years with a group of fifty young people from Mons, Namur, Nantes, The Reunion Islands and Montreal based on the theories of Sophocles. It is a project that is exploring the theme of living together, the city and democracy. Upon completion, the director will present the Seven Tragedies in 2015 in Mons.

The project to create the Centre for Contem-porary Digital Scripts2 , launched in 2004 by the manège.mons with its close neighbour the Manège de Maubeuge, in partnership with TechnocITé3, appears today to have been a prophetic forerunner championing this theme that was finally chosen for Mons’ candidature in 2015: the merging of culture and technology...In 2002-2003, the manège-mons had just been launched, based essentially around theatrical productions (the Hennuyer Theatre Centre) and music (with ‘Musiques Nouvelles’) and I built a partnership with the Manège de Maubeuge who wanted to create a digital studio inspired by its director, Didier Fusiller. We realised that there was a lack of support for artists who wanted to take their projects further and in Mons we looked for a partnership that that could offer additional resources combined with Maubeuge.

Marie Arena, then minister of employment and training with the Wallonia government asked to see me and we explained to her this formidable tool TechnocITé which still lacked visibility. She then asked me to find a director as quickly as possible in order to use the budgets that might no longer be made available if we did not make very quick and specific progress. Daniel Cordova4 then informed me that he had met and invited to the board meeting of the ‘Théâ-tre des Doms’, Pascal Keiser who was involved in Avignon and had an engineering background with international experience that that could be useful to us. I called him, and forty-eight hours later he had signed in the presence of Maria Arena, confirming the desire to create a digital sector within the manège.mons. The

1 // Although Mons was the only Belgian city to apply for this title, in order to be finally selected it had to meet strict criteria, assessed by a jury of thirteen experts, of whom six were designated by Belgium and seven by European authorities.

2 // The CCDS is a structure for training, production and introduction to digital technologies applied to the dramatic arts and is supported by the European Commission.

3 // Its mainstays were, at that time, Jacques Delaunois (former director, now deceased), George Ollinger (delegated administrator) and Pascal Keiser, current director.

4 // Artistic co-director at the manège.mons responsible for theatre, with Jean-Paul Dessy as musical co-director.

/ THE STRONG LINK WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES ALSO FOSTERSIN ITS WAKE A WORLD OF CREATIVITY, IN THE BROADEST SENSE, THAT PERMEATES THE STRATA OF SOCIETY /

38 3910 D/Y/M CHAP. 02

For several years now TechnocITé has been a permanent feature in the digital sector of the Mons landscape. Beyond its recognized expertise in the field of lifelong learning, Pascal Keiser, its dynamic director, has worked on the economic redevelopment of the region by betting on new technologies. A winning bet, given the renewal that Mons has been experiencing for the last few years since the emergence of the Digital Innovation Valley and the arrival of big names such as Google, Microsoft or IBM. Pascal Keiser looks back with us on the reasons for this success.

How did you arrive at TechnocITé in 2003?Pascal Keiser: Having started a site at the Avignon festival, La Manufacture, I met a lot of artists and technicians who had bought new professional software that appeared on the market in the early 2000s for video editing and sound, but who could not find anywhere to be professionally trained in these tools. Art schools in France were not very open to this new software. I took an interest in teaching methods and I was convinced that we were facing a societal rupture that required the emergence of a new intensive educational process. I started writing educational curriculum, without really knowing why, because it was not my background. Then, by coincidence, I met Yves Vasseur, who had just created the manège.mons, and meetings were organised between the office of Marie Arena, then Regional Minister of Education and TechnocITé. The resulting projects were accepted with enthusiasm, and that was the beginning of a long story.

KNOWLEDGE INCUBATORHence the birth of the CCDS (Centre for Contemporary Digital Scripts)?Yes, the first step, via Interreg funding, was with the Manège in Maubeuge (France) and Didier Fusillier, its director, who was immediately in favour of the project.The idea was to meet the needs stated above. We created intensive one-week cycles managed by TechnocITé around different disciplines: video on stage with the team of Denis Marleau (who had created the show “Les Aveugles”), voice processing in real time with Alexander Mac Sween who had worked with Robert Lepage, etc. These workshops could lead to residencies using stages (Mons and Maubeuge), with equipment being supplied. Then, from 2004, TechnocITé wanted to develop a “digital media” department for which I was responsible and which was located at the Carré des Arts. The aim was twofold: establish TechnocITé in Mons, because the structure was located in the Grand Hornu and this may seem odd today but it was unknown to Mons. Secondly, to create a dynamic pool of talent in the fields of digital image and sound, beyond the field of the performing arts at CCDS, and that could touch the areas of communication, engineering and the Web.

Was this approach quite unique at the time?Absolutely, we took a leading position very quickly in France and Belgium since we were the only organization to provide continuing education in a variety of areas.

How did TechnocITé quickly move towards economic development issues?This is clearly one of the tasks of a ‘competence centre’, the label defined in early 2000 by Marie Arena, although most are confined to training.In 2005 and 2006, we were leaders in our field, as I said, but there was no economy or digital

/TECHNOCITÉ ecosystem in Mons. Being a leader in educational aspects was interesting but did not represent an end in itself. With the TechnocITé management team at the time, we tried to implement a series of resolute action-plans to change the situation.It immediately occurred to me that the model of Silicon Valley should be studied more closely if we wanted to develop a new dynamic. I went to San Francisco and made an appointment with the office manager of AWEX there, Pierre Leclercq, asking him to organize various tours of business incubators, including San Jose. The involvement of private partners and a specific approach to the development of the digital economy appeared an obvious way forward at this time, but the thinking in Wallonia was strictly limited to general public funding. A dynamic approach between major Companies and start-ups represented a successful model, yet it was unknown to us. That led two years later to the creation of acceleration centres like MIC or FuturoCité, relying on a series of opportunities and thanks to the work of a small team comprising Pierre Leclercq, Jean-Pierre Marcelle and myself.

What was the role of Elio Di Rupo in this process?It was huge, from the outset in 2004. Elio Di Rupo has understood the opportunity that the digital economy represents for the redevelopment of his town and has firmly supported all our projects. Political support of this order and this quality has been a decisive factor on a range of projects.

How was the theme “Where Technology Meets Culture” chosen for Mons 2015?Very simply. Throughout this process, we released a teaser presenting the digital strengths of Mons that today would make young entrepreneurs from the DIV laugh because we had very little to show. I had made this teaser and had ambitiously labelled it “Where Technology

Meets Culture”. In workshops preparing the city for Mons 2015, it was appreciated and summed up the challenge to capitalize on new technologies for the project, a risk that Elio Di Rupo dared to take at the time.

In the Mons 2015 project, what is the place of TechnocITé and continuing education?It was decisive. The first questions the European jury asked during the final presentation focused on the number of people trained per year at TechnocITé, on training course content etc. It was a very emotional moment as we reaped the fruit of seven years of work and were able to develop a unique approach at European level.

You are involved in several businesses in the DIV, has that been helpful in your understanding of training needs?Operational and financial involvement in start-ups should be a requirement to work in the field of professional training, especially in the digital sector but also in digital economic development. I am not a digital technocrat but a practitioner with a three-stringed bow of culture, technology and economy, which is also reflected in my work in TechnocITé. I took great pleasure to accompany I- Movix and Fishing Cactus in its research capital in their infancy. I invested a lot of time in Virtualis, a network of a dozen companies involved in digital media project that has not been successful for various reasons, but I learned the most. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a culture of failure or success in Wallonia. TechnocITé wanted to better understand the needs of businesses in the DIV and we therefore commissioned a study by UMONS (led by Professor Alain Finet) to create an analytical database of economic elements of listed companies, supplemented by a qualitative study of needs.

How was the concept of the Digital Innovation Valley pioneered?The goal was to connect under one banner events such as the huge investment of Google, the action on a massive scale of continuing education at TechnocITé, innovation and research centers in

TECHNOCITÉ, KNOWLEDGE INCUBATOR

/ WHAT MAKES ME PARTICULARLY PROUD IS THAT THIS ACTION OF ECONOMIC REDEPLOYMENT AND INNOVATION TOOK PLACE ALONGSIDE A VERY DETERMINED, DELIBERATE APPROACH OF REINSERTION, WITH NEARLY 1500 JOB-SEEKERS PER YEAR BEING REHABILITATED WITH A DIGITAL JOB AFTER THEIR DIGITAL COURSES AT TECHNOCITÉ. /

/ TO HELP PEOPLE UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THE VISION THAT THE ADMINISTRATION AND MASS ADOPTION OF DIGITAL SKILLS, TOGETHER WITH A TOOL LIKE TECHNOCITÉ, ARE DECISIVE ELEMENTS IN TODAY’S ECONOMY. THEY REPRESENT A MAJOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR THE REGION WITHIN OUR CONSTANTLY EVOLVING SOCIETY. /

/ ITW: PASCAL KEISERDIRECTOR OF TECHNOCITÉ

INTERVIEW BY VINCENT DELVAUX AND OLIVIER FABES

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CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

Gaming training © TechnocITéDigital photography training © TechnocITé

Training room at TechnocITé © TechnocITé

the territory, in short to highlight an emerging ecosystem on the European map. At a press conference with Steve Ballmer in April 2008, Elio Di Rupo agreed to launch the Digital Innovation Valley, a term that describes the new economic dynamism in Mons. This term has been widely taken up by the press, but there has never been a legal structure to support it. Beyond the marketing coup, the name Digital Innovation Valley has really met the challenge of bringing together a wide range of complementary initiatives that could appear as disparate, but which gave Mons its identity today in the European digital world. Probably the most important factor is that this movement has created endogenous jobs generated by local businesses, a direct benefit to the regional economy. Not only has Mons managed to stem the brain drain, but today it attracts talented people drawn to our lifestyle.

What is your vision of the last ten years spent at the heartof TechnocITé?I was able, with the assistance of Georges Ollinger, Jacques Delaunois and a few others, to help people understand and accept the vision that the administration and mass adoption of digital skills, together with a tool like TechnocITé, are decisive elements in today’s economy. They represent a major competitive advantage for the region within our constantly evolving society. The economic development of the digital industry has shifted very strongly towards the skills and competence of the individual, the ecosystems, the support mechanisms and individual assistance. In ten years we have been able, based on a cultural project and on-going training, to change the destiny and future prospects of our region: to attract digital ‘heavyweights’, create new innovatory ecosystems between public and private sectors, promote local talents, create fertile ground in which the new, creative digital economy can grow, and stir a collective and contagious ambition for the youth of a region who had lost the entrepreneurial spirit. What makes me particularly proud is that this action of economic redeployment and innovation took place alongside a very determined, deliberate approach of reinsertion, with nearly 1500 job-seekers per year being rehabilitated with a digital job after their digital courses at TechnocITé, which makes this a project that is both exemplary and unique in the European context.

42 4310 D/Y/M CHAP. 02

As Minister of Training/ Education in the Walloon Region, Marie Arena actively supported TechnocITé’s develop-ment and the emer-gence of a digi ta l cluster in Mons. At the

time, the contract for the future was intended to create veritable hubs of economic development in Wallonia, by backing training. “In Mons, we focused our support on digital activities be-cause it was an emerging, job-creating industry. This observation had been established by the economic partners of the region, such as the IDEA intercommunal, which was willing to offer economic support for the arrival of leading players in this field. This partnership convinced us to invest in training.”

In Marie Arena’s view, the key to the venture’s success was that many players really believed in the project: “The academic, economic and political worlds came together to build a coherent strategy aimed at making the Mons region more attractive. And let’s not forget the cultural world. A region’s development also involves its cultural offering and, in this respect, Mons 2015 represents an exceptional opportunity.”

But believing in a project is not enough; you have to have the courage to take risks. “TechnocITé’s greatest merit is its openness and its innovation. The training center could easily have stuck to the relatively well-defined avenues of conventional ICTs. And yet, it took the risk to invest in more specialized skills and in “niche” markets such as gaming. Don’t do what everyone else does, do it excellently!”

/AN ACADEMIC, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY



5.000 individuals trained in digital

activities each year

- -+ 100

high-tech SMEs

- -3.000

JOBS CREATEDAND COACHED:

1.000in the Digital Innovation Valley

1.000 in the creative industries

1.000and freelancers working in the

digital economy

The origins of Mons’ digital development, in particular through the decisive role of TechnocITé, actually lie a few miles away from the city, at the industrial

mining site of Le Grand Hornu. It was while rehabilitating this exceptional neoclassical heritage in the eighties that a team of five visionaries, headed by Claude Durieux, imagined breathing new life into it. “Initially, the idea was to create a new utopia – a laboratory of new ideas that would combine culture and new technologies,” recalls Georges Ollinger, who was part of the team and who would become TechnocITé’s first chief executive. “I was in charge of technology projects, which I oriented towards IT, telecommunications and digital technology. The starter culture for TechnocITé and for the development of digital projects was in place.” In 1991, a center of advanced technologies devoted to digital technology saw the light of day, followed in 1995 by a center of excellence in telecommunications. These two structures merged in 2000 to form TechnocITé.

“The allure of Le Grand Hornu was decisive, as was the ensuing enthusiasm of Elio Di Rupo to support the project and take it to the next level with the Digital Innovation Valley. A positive spiral thus materialized, adhered to by institutional partners such as Europe, the Walloon Region, the province of Hainaut, Le Forem, and especially by technological players of international renown,” points out Georges Ollinger.

/A LABORATORY OF IDEAS THAT CAME ABOUT AT THE SITE OF LE GRAND HORNU

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44 4510 D/Y/M CHAP. 02

MICROSOFT INNOVATION CENTER: BUSINESS EMERGENCE AGENT


A strong community around the innovation at the MIC © Microsoft Innovation Centre

CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

46 4710 D/Y/M CHAP. 02


/ ITW: BEN PIQUARDDIRECTOR OF MICROSOFT INNOVATION CENTER

INTERVIEW BY BRIGITTE DOUCET

Within an ecosystem, each player provides his share of ingredients to form the overall alchemy. This is the case with the Digital Innovation Valley located in Mons, whose various players — both private and public — are the drivers of activity. Among them is the Microsoft Innovation Center which represents the anchor point and a source of initiatives combining incubation, training, and impetus for innovation.

In 2008, the interests of various public and private actors merged together around a common project for the Mons region’s economic revitalization. For their part, the public authorities sought to address certain weaknesses and needs in the region: insufficient IT facilities among SMEs and, to a certain extent, administrations; lack of IT professionals; the necessity to help both job seekers and job holders to develop additional IT skills, and so on.The ground on which Mons could establish its transformation into a technology-oriented region had clear artistic and cultural undertones. Indeed, this fertile ground was favorable to the inventiveness of digital technology.

However, the success of any new business park is contingent on having competent actors to serve as poles of attraction and to drive and stimulate activity. On the heels of Google and its data center, Microsoft saw the Digital Innovation Valley as an initiative corresponding to its own objectives. In order to promote its own model, the company needed to boost local SMEs’ proficiency in IT, generate new demand for its solutions, and enhance its partners’ level of maturity.

Hence the initiative to install a Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) in Mons. A MIC that would become one of the links in the ecosystem, participate in the creation of value, incite innovation projects, and instill or inspire new digital skills among young people and job seekers.

The first MIC of its kindThe convergence of these two public and private needs provided an opportunity to develop the model on which the Microsoft Innovation Center concept rested. Up until then, these centers were only created in so-called “emerging” countries, usually in partnership with traditional reservoirs of talent, namely universities. For the first time, an MIC would be installed in a mature country in the form of a public-private partnership (other countries and regions would quickly follow suit). The Region committed to co-finance the center, while Microsoft provided the seed funds and, especially, the long-term human and technological resources.

Scalable DNAThe MIC’s initial threefold leitmotiv was learn, innovate, undertake.Three areas of activity were thus initiated:- Learn, via training, certifications and courses;- Innovate, by instigating calls for projects;- Undertake, through boostcamps for project initiators.

“To begin with, the MIC’s vocation was to act as a laboratory in which start-ups would try out and make use of new technologies,” explains Ben Piquard, Director of the MIC. Very quickly, this model branched off into a new direction at the instigation of its primary stakeholders, namely the project initiators. The gradual shift in terms of the MIC’s activities was driven by the local context and by demand from players in the field (SMEs, fledgling start-ups, job seekers, etc.)

“In fact, we realized that the courses offered to students in higher education establishments were often uneven in quality, and fell short of expectations. At the same time, the region’s SMEs and especially its start-up companies were unable to find the employees they needed; they have neither the time nor the means to oversee trainees. Thus emerged the idea of a virtuous triangle: the MIC receives the trainees, provides them with training and supervision, and help them to obtain certifications; the young people receive high-quality training and can work on innovative projects that further their chances of securing a job on completion of their studies; and the SMEs and start-ups can focus their support on the purely business-related part of the project.”The MIC also has a very substantial stimulative effect by initiating various calls for projects in innovative fields. One of the first, symbolic examples of this concerned serious games: Fishing Cactus

was a small video games development studio that would seize the opportunity to embark on a new sphere of activities which has since sealed its international reputation. The team was considerably strengthened, contracts were signed with recognized international clients, and before long the start-up even established a foothold in the United States. And the effect is not limited to a single company; it often leads to spin-offs and rebounds. Consequently, Fishing Cactus inspired others to create their own video games or serious games start-ups; they took advantage not only of the emulation effect but also of the demand which had grown in the meantime.

Clearly, an exclusively top-down approach would not have produced the same results. The model deployed is that of a bottom-up or peer-to-peer approach, one that involves listening to needs and transposing them into new service offerings and, all the while, upholding Microsoft’s interests.

Butterfly effectThe same pattern was repeated via a call for projects oriented towards the development of Windows Phone applications, arousing interest by a number of fledgling and start-up firms which have since added this environment to their portfolio. “In the early stage, our workshops and calls for projects represented the main source of apps for Windows Phone. During this phase, 250 of the first 400 apps listed worldwide came out of the MIC.” These dynamics unearthed developers who immediately recognized a new field of activities and who gave the bug to the companies that would subsequently hire them.

/ QUICKLY ADAPTING TO THE CHANGING ECONOMIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL CONTEXT AND TO THE NEEDS OF THE MONS REGION. /

Boostcamp at MIC © MIC

Innovating at MIC, a top priority © MIC

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/MICROSOFTINNOVATION CENTER: BUSINESS EMERGENCE AGENT

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This is precisely how a trainee who had developed a small, seemingly insignificant app for Windows Phone effectively converted his future employer to this environment. “And when the company had to find a hosting solution, it quite naturally turned to Azure rather than to Amazon. All its customers have since followed suit.” Conclusion by Ben Piquard: “The initial investment we made with this trainee has been profitable, to say the least.”

The imagination comes to powerAnother example of an activity which has given rise to vocations and brought young people to discover talents they didn’t realize they had is that of robotics workshops for students.

As for the MIC, it is continuing with its philosophy of providing the impetus and testing new ideas. Thus, 2014 will see the creation of SoftLabs, the software suffix to FabLabs. “We will make software resources available to SMEs, start-ups and individuals who do not necessarily benefit from a technical profile, thereby allowing them to test and prototype ideas with genuine business potential, all in the space of a few days. We provide the technical know-how. Our goal is to boost 40 start-ups a year. The resulting ideas will be pooled and implanted in the ecosystem.”

Tangible impact and spin-offOne of the MIC’s quantified objectives defined jointly by the public authorities and Microsoft was to generate one hundred new jobs a year.This objective has been achieved if we measure all of the activities created: new start-ups or the expansion of existing up-start firms, new activities launched by more mature companies, etc.

And sometimes the effects reach well beyond Mons. There is definitely a spin-off effect at work.The success of the incubation and project support activities has encouraged others to adopt the formula. Similar activities have thus emerged elsewhere, starting with the MICs that have opened up in Brussels and Flanders. Other local players, both private and public, have also appeared.

Here again, the results have gone beyond initial projections. Trainees were given free rein to their inventiveness to combine, for example, robotics and the cloud: storing intelligence (programs and scenarios) in the cloud to make it constantly available for the requirements of robots, such as Nao. The idea received a warm welcome by the international media, prompting its author’s selection among the five best projects in the Microsoft Next competition, in which no fewer than 27,000 applicants were competing throughout the world...

From innovation to incubationHaving started out as a technological experimentation site, the MIC would also become an incubator for start-ups firms. Here too, the transition was brought about by the field. “Lots of entrepreneurs looking to launch a project would come to us with a whole series of questions that were more to do with business aspects than technology: choice of pricing, quality of their business model, visibility, and so on. As a result, we organized workshops and “expert days” in which specialists would come and talk about specific issues. We thus switched to knowledge transfer mode”.

This incubation activity attracted attention from other organizations that reproduced the idea. To the extent that the resulting abundance of initiatives now requires the MIC to reposition itself: from now on, the MIC will no longer oversee its Boostcamps; it will merely organize activities and pass on the skills to other players who will take up the torch. others “steal” its ideas, while maintaining enough drive to renew itself and to find the next generation of ideas...”

For its part, the MIC has started down the road towards decentralization. From 2013 on, the Boostcamps left their birthplace in Mons to travel further afield throughout Wallonia and take their training and incubation sessions closer to project initiators and other support structures — business centers, public economic stimulation bodies, other business incubators, and so on.

As for the formula based on traineeships for the benefit of SMEs and start-ups, it has since been adopted by the Brussels MIC.

Another impact on the local economy is that of the professional insertion rate. The traineeships overseen by the MIC and implemented in small, innovative firms and the certifications granted to the trainees have had a significant effect on the professional integration rate. “It has been proved that a person who obtains a certificate improves his or her chances of finding a job by 65%,” explains Ben Piquard.

Another direct effect: by consolidating the local ecosystem, those who benefit from training and certification are more likely to find employment in their region, rather than having to “expatriate” to Brussels or other areas that were once more prosperous.

/ OUR PHILOSOPHY IS BASED ON PROVIDING AN IMPULSE: KNOWING HOW TO ENCOURAGE A GOOD IDEA BY PROVIDING IT WITH FINANCIAL BACKING OR EXPERTISE AND GIVING IT THE MEANS TO THRIVE. / BEN PIQUARD

/ ONE OF THE KEY FACTORS AT PLAY IS THE SPIRIT OF THIS NEW GENERATION OF TRAINEES. THEY DON’T HAVE ANY DOUBTS. AS FAR AS THEY ARE CONCERNED, IT’S AS IF THEY WERE WORKING IN SILICON VALLEY. FREE FROM COMPLEXES, THEIR AMBITIONS ARE GLOBAL.” / BEN PIQUARD

CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

Jean-Claude Marcourt, Minister of Economy, SME, Foreign Trade and New Technologies at MIC @ MIC

50 5110 D/Y/M CHAP. 02

Helping to boost the economy by creating new business potential for local players. Herein lies one of the objectives of a public-private partnership which has chosen to focus its attention on the multi-faceted needs of Walloon municipalities, both small and large alike. FuturoCité seeks to foster their commitment to sustainable innovation and to becoming “smart cities.” Municipalities see that efficiency improvements, modernization and innovation necessarily involve implementing new digital technologies.

Paradoxically, to better explain FuturoCité, we need to take a quick step back into the recent past. FuturoCité is actually the reincarnation of EuroGreen IT, an R&D and prototyping center created in Mons in 2010 to serve as an econom-ic development cluster oriented towards sus-tainable growth and innovation. Its mission is “to stimulate the creation and development, by Walloon SMEs, of IT solutions aimed at im-proving the energy efficiency of all sectors of the regional economy.” A multiple role has been entrusted to the center: devising, stimulating and inspiring innovative projects, identifying and exploiting new technologies, promoting the innovation and activities of local players involved in these green and sustainable concerns, stimulating innovation as well as changes in be-havior in terms of environmental efficiency (on behalf of citizens, businesses and public authori-ties), and promoting the creation of start-ups and employment in this new sector.

Green IT and IT for green thus became the center’s hallmark. All of this within a series of priority domains: mobility, buildings, urban space and even public lighting. Besides the chosen orientation – information and communications technologies for the benefit of sustainable devel-opment – one distinctive aspect of the center of expertise was that it immediately structured itself as a public-private partnership. Direct funding from the Walloon Region was matched by the skills and human resources offered by a number of private companies actively involved with the ICT industry1.

New common thread for “greenness” At the end of the first three years, an assessment was drawn up to ascertain the effectiveness of the steps taken. Among the factors that had greatly influenced the center’s activities, the economic context was clearly a consideration that could not be denied. The budget squeeze that hit all of the players of the economy, large or small, as well as ordinary citizens at the start of the decade often proved too much for the otherwise well- intentioned fervor that sought to encourage homo dilapidus to change his behavior and become aware of just how urgent the issues

really were.To optimize the center’s action, it was decided to partly refocus its charter and its fields of action. Without calling into question the underlying issue of energy efficiency, a new common thread was chosen, namely that of towns with increasingly large populations and a high number of problems related to efficiency. This explains today’s structural shift towards what are referred to as smart cities. Far from the buzz and marketing hype that often surround the smart city concept, FuturoCité seeks to put urban intelligence at the very core of the operations, projects and transformations initiated by towns and municipalities.

From now on, its mission is to put technological innovation at the service of regional economic growth and revitalization by stepping up the development of smarter towns and municipalities. To this end, FuturoCité can build on the foundations laid down by EuroGreen IT and on certain projects, cases and analyses that are already underway. The redefined scope of action is one of mobility, building energy management, and security.

Putting words into actionFuturoCité intervenes further downstream than EuroGreen IT, placing greater emphasis on the implementation of concrete projects than on intelligence and technological experimentation. The charter signed with the Region anticipates a tangible impact on the local economic activity of numerous towns and municipalities in Wallonia (see box). In order to fully focus and optimize its action, FuturoCité is primarily targeting 40 major communities. While representing ideal areas for launching initiatives with immediate tangible effects, these towns and municipalities will also become textbook cases, sources of best practices, and an inspiration for other communities,possibly more modest ones.

LOCAL SUSTAINABILITYAGENT

/FuturoCité

/ ENCOURAGE HOMO DILAPIDUS TO CHANGE HIS BEHAVIOR AND BECOME AWARE OF JUST HOW URGENT THE ISSUES REALLY WERE. /

FUTUROCITÉ, LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY AGENT

Technological innovation Upon completion of its initial three-year term, the center will have raised the awareness of Walloon municipali-ties and administrations and will have rolled out projects with the forty

or so biggest communities, which represent a population of 1.7 million inhabitants.

Growth and economic revitalizationFor its first three-year term, FuturoCité has set the following objectives:- engender a Walloon market for urban intelli-gence with a minimum value of €100 million,- stimulate the creation of some twenty start-ups actively involved in new information technolo-gies dedicated to optimizing the energy efficiency of towns and municipalities,- directly or indirectly create two hundred jobs in the local IT sector.

/FUTUROCITÉ’S MISSION COMPRISES TWO SPHERES OF ACTION.

/ ITW: FRANCK BUTSTRAENDIRECTOR OF FUTUROCITÉ

INTERVIEW BY BRIGITTE DOUCET

1 // The private partners who subscribed to this public-private partnership from the onset were IBM, CISCO, Mobistar, Alcatel, Microsoft and Deloitte. The partnership model was renewed when EuroGreen IT became FuturoCité. Today’s active partners are IBM, CISCO, Mobistar, Microsoft and NRB. Others may join them.

/ POOLING IS A TOOL THAT SHOULD BE USED MORE EXTENSIVELY. IT’S POSSIBLE TO FIND CERTAIN SIMILARITIES IN TERMS OF THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TOWNS AND MUNICIPALITIES. THIS INFERS WORKING TOGETHER TO INITIATE BEST PRACTICES AND SHARING MEANS AND SOLUTIONS. /FRANK BUTSTRAEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FUTUROCITÉ

CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

52 5310 D/Y/M CHAP. 02



Low hanging fruitWhile awareness of energy, environmental and perennial issues has now been established, economic constraints have occasionally led to the shelving of projects intended to promote a sustainable economy. Concrete examples of successful achievements are therefore needed to simulate investment.

In the public sector, one of the most acute issues is that of energy costs. In this respect, obvious and substantial gains can be made relatively quickly. A number of parameters are involved, starting with the advanced age that all too often typifies public buildings (administrations, schools, etc.).

70% of public property was built before – and often well before – the end of the last century, at a time when energy costs were significantly lower. Some of these buildings date back to before the first oil crisis more than forty years ago. These are the buildings that guzzle the most energy resources.While the energy bill usually accounts for 30% of a building’s total operating cost, this figure is significantly higher for older buildings. And yet, it has been proved that, without necessarily taking on extensive, costly renovation work, simply installing a solution used to constantly monitor consumption can lead to a reduction in energy consumption levels of 10 to 15%. Such a solution serves to pinpoint shortcomings and waste, which in turn helps to optimize the use of the building and to adapt behavior accordingly. For towns and municipalities, whatever their size, this can easily amount to savings of tens or even hundreds of thousands of euros a year. Here then is a promising breeding ground for generating innovation and business for the local ecosystem. FuturoCité’s role is one of advisor and a project consultant (see box).

As such, the Center promotes the mobilization of new resources. Based on its own activities and work, its goal is to stimulate the creation of new software applications or services, notably for the monitoring, analysis and interpretation of consumption readings, whether in the cloud or elsewhere. A whole host of services and applications can subsequently be added, effectively inspiring both major players and SMEs, whether they be start-ups or spin-offs.

/ THE QUEST FOR EFFICIENCY IS NOT NECESSARILY AN INNATE REFLEX, BUT IS USUALLY INSPIRED BY CONCRETE EXAMPLES, PROVIDED THAT THEY ARE ASSOCIATED WITH TANGIBLE, MEASURABLE, QUICK ANDADEQUATE EFFECTS. /

CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

A smart city designed by IBM

Pierre Leclercq, fonder of EuroGreen IT and Jean-Claude Marcourt, Minister for Employment and New Technologies © MIC

The first municipal entity to call on FuturoCité’s services was Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve. A number of towns and municipalities have already shown an interest, including Andenne and Verviers. Others have been contacted (Liège, Namur, Mons, Seraing, Marche-en-Famenne, etc.) and have received preliminary information.

Building bridgesFor maximum impact and efficiency, FuturoCité leverages partnerships, not only with companies and commercial operators involved in the public-private partnership, but also with organizations and associations working in areas related to its mission, and with which synergies and complementarities can be organized. These intermediaries and associates may come from diverse backgrounds: associations of towns and municipalities, service providers who specifically target these municipalities, solutions developers, etc. not forgetting higher education institutions and universities. The task of raising awareness and mobilizing attention also involves channels that are both more modest and more viral. Collaborations have thus been initiated with co-working spaces and with initiatives such as Les Cafés Numériques for passing on the message and reaching the widest possible audience. Social networks are also used.

The consultancy mission takes place in two phases and is based on a methodology and on data analysis

tools developed by IBM in collaboration with FuturoCité. The first phase involves collecting the information needed to establish the energy survey (calculation of surfaces, energy consump-tion from heating, air conditioning, lighting, electricity, hot water, and so on). The figures obtained are then analyzed and contextualized (type of building, environment, usage scenario) to draw conclusions.

A report is then drafted in which a series of priorities and recommendations are documented: projects for efficiency improvement or enhancement, change of use of the building, organizational or technological adjustments, medium- and long-term plan, etc.

FuturoCité is also in charge of training municipalities’ energy supervisors: presentation of t h e m e t h o d s f o r e v a l u a t i n g e n e r gy performance, instruction on the parameter selection criteria to be used, training on the encoding tool, the use of summary tables, etc.

/FROM THE AUDIT TO THE IMPLEMENTATION

54 5510 D/Y/M CHAP. 02

1 // Note: in December 2013, in a combined effort by Mundaneum, Google and TechnocITé, an important delegation composed of represen-tatives from cultural insti-tutions and entrepreneurs working in creative industries coming from the Kotka-Hamina region came to Mons for a series of meetings and workshops with local partners. These encounter have resulted in the creation of various partnerships, and a delegation from Mons is due to go to Finland in 2014

Inaugurated in 2010 in the municipality of Saint-Ghislain, the Google data center has since met with a great deal of enthusiasm: “Google is coming to Mons!” Quite like the electrical power generators of our information society, data centers constitute the infrastructure of the Internet. With an eye to Mons 2015, European capital of culture, Google is positioned as one of the active sources of support for local pro-ject leaders seeking to raise awareness of digi-tal technologies. From global to local: we met up with Bill Echikson, Head of Public Affairs at the Saint-Ghislain data center, to discuss the world technology leader’s presence in Mons.Google in Mons: an economic reality but also... a symbolic one?

If information was important a century ago, it is even more so today. “Information is the oil of our century.” The Internet is the key to modern economic growth...and its infrastructure is more essential than ever. To meet the growing demand generated by our services in Europe, we have had to strengthen our data center installations, and for this purpose our choice fell on Belgium and Finland. These investments were strategic for the company, both in terms of service offer-ing and development: Google’s installation in Saint-Ghislain is a long-term investment.

build a concrete project that draws on the vital forces surrounding our industrial sites. In both Mons and Hamina, we simultaneously launched a mediation program with the local community and with local partners1. The Kotka-Hamina region has a population of 87,000 inhabitants; Mons and the Borinage area are home to 250,000 inhabitants. Today, these two European regions share much more than a flourishing industrial past: beyond being countries chosen to host Google’s infrastructure, both have their sights set on the future by fully integrating information and communication technologies into their renewal process.

On the international scene, Finland is more specifically recognized for the development of its gaming industry, while Mons focuses more on culture and tourism as the drivers of the local economy’s development. Our action in Finland consists in supporting regional development through digital entrepreneurship. In Mons, up until now we have invested in raising awareness and educating the public with regards digital culture. As an overseas majority investor in these two European regions, it is also our responsibility to invest in the local sphere. Moreover, we believe that we should encourage the transfer of experience between our Belgian and Finnish partners to fully take part in this renewal effort founded on our data centers.

A MAJOR PLAYER IN SUPPORT OF DIGITAL CULTURE

/ ITW: WILLIAM ECHIKSONHEAD OF COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS FOR FREE EXPRESSION IN EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, GOOGLE

INTERVIEW BY DELPHINE JENART

/GOOGLEToday, Google represents one of the biggest overseas investors in Belgium. Beyond the construction of a new site, the creation of new jobs and of business opportunities for local suppliers, this implies getting involved in local community life, since we are here to stay. However, there is clearly a more symbolic link that associates Google with Mons. Mons is where you can discover “the birthplace of the web” – the Mundaneum. When we stumbled upon Mons while identifying the Internet’s pioneers throughout Europe, its exceptional heritage seemed strangely familiar to us. And so we sought to highlight this relation with Google’s leitmotiv: organizing access to information that is useful to all, and the willingness of its two founders who, at the end of the twentieth century, conceived this fantastic information indexing system.

As the world’s leader in the technology indus-try, Google has chosen to establish a foothold in a region with a rich industrial past, one which currently integrates digital technology in its strategy for economic renewal. What is your view on this reality? Is the company look-ing to play an active role in this ecosystem?To tell you the truth, this reality can be found in other regions of the world, especially in Finland. In 2009, just as we were setting up our data center in Saint-Ghislain, we acquired the former “Stora Enso” paper plant in Hamina (editor’s note: a subregion of Kotka-Hamina, Finland), to convert it into one of our most modern and efficient infrastructures. This acquisition also offered a fitting symbol: “from paper to digital,” in other words, the transition from the second to the third industrial revolution! Today, however, we seek to do much more than simply establish ourselves in a region to go about our business. Our goal is to

GOOGLE, A MAJOR PLAYER IN SUPPORT OF DIGITAL CULTURE

CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

/ TODAY, WE SEEK TO DO MUCH MORE THAN SIMPLY ESTABLISH OURSELVES IN A REGION TO GO ABOUT OUR BUSINESS. /

A Google data center in Douglas, Georgia© Google

Server cooling system in a data center, The Dalles, Oregon © Google


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56

The city of Mons is placing a great deal of importance on its cultural wealth as an economic asset, especially via Mons 2015. How does your worldwide support for culture form a strategic part of Google’s policy?It is important for us to contribute to Europe’s economic and cultural development. In this respect, we have taken a number of very concrete steps in recent years. At a global level, the Google Art Project seeks to put the art collections of European museums online, including those of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The Google Cultural Institute in Paris is one of our finest efforts to promote online culture with, in particular, an archives platform compiling the collections of a great many museums and institutions throughout the world, including the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Yad Vashem memorial complex, the Paris City Hall, the Acropolis Museum of Athens, the National Library of Ireland, the National Museum of Korea and, for Belgium, the archives of the Mundaneum. The Mundaneum’s founders, Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, have found themselves at the center of one of our campaigns to pay tribute to the forgotten pioneers. Google launched this international memorial program in 2011 to tell this fabulous story: throughout the 20th century, Europe played a key role in the genesis of information and communication technologies... and is barely aware of it. We often refer to American successes, but let’s start with Belgium: Paul Otlet from Brussels and Robert Cailliau from Flanders who co-founded the web at the CERN (editor’s note: European Organization for Nuclear Research) along with Tim Berners-Lee! This program has taken us to many regions of the world: from Spain to Ukraine, passing through Austria, Israel and England with the exceptional Bletchley Park site, home to the famous code-breakers of the Second World War... This heritage is largely unknown to the general public, and yet truly exceptional! This network has also led to the

creation of an informal European network of pioneers, the representatives of which we brought together at the London Science Museum in 2013. Freedom of expression on the net is also part of our priority actions, one for which we are establishing numerous partnerships throughout the world to raise awareness among the younger generation. In Belgium, we have carried out a joint operation with the Ghent University for scanning old books (more than 200,000), as well as developing a partnership with the Sabam to better promote Belgian artists on our video-sharing website, YouTube. At a more local level, we have sponsored an interactive device for an exhibition at the Mons Fine Arts Museum: “Andy Warhol. Life, Death and Beauty,” and we have set up a WiFi network in one of Mons’ finest cultural infrastructures – the Manège Theater. And this is only the beginning. There is also our solid partnership with the Mundaneum, of course.

Google’s investment in Mons is intended to last and gain momentum in the coming years. What are the future prospects, not only in terms of technical infrastructures, but also concerning investment in the community?We are delighted with our investment in Wallonia. The increasing demand for our services means that we have to extend our data centers. For example, 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube alone every minute! These huge masses of data have to be stored somewhere. At this stage, we are unable to give details as to the extent of our future investments, or when and where we will invest. But, for the time being, we are pursuing the expansion of our Saint-Ghislain infrastructure with, in due course, a growing demand for capacity and jobs to be filled.

Google brought about one of the highlights of the cultural events of 2013 in Mons when one of the fathers of the Internet, the American Vint Cerf, made the trip specially to pay tribute to these “unsung heroes of the Internet”... More than 500 people came to the Manège Theater for what was a memorable encounter organized with our Belgian partners, including the Mundaneum and the Ghent University. These special moments spur on our commitment to invest in local life. Vint Cerf played a key role in the invention of this revolutionary technology of the twentieth century, namely the Internet. The reason for his trip to Mons was twofold: as Vice President of Google, he was visiting the data center to meet all those who work behind the scenes and who make Google’s activity possible. He also came to participate in a stimulating exchange of ideas with young digital entrepreneurs, giving him an opportunity to pass on our message: “Google is more than just a search engine built on its data centers; it is a new vision of entrepreneurship. In fact, Google plays a key role in terms of providing support to entrepreneurs; it allows them to create new services using its infrastructures.”

During this celebratory time (editors note: 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the Internet), Vint Cert also sought to pay homage to his ancestors, those forgotten pioneers of the Internet that include Belgians Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, founders of the Mundaneum. His message in this regard was tinged with humility and pragmatism: “The Mundaneum reminds me that there is nothing new: it always boils down to doing something that has already been done before, but doing it differently, using new technologies and new capabilities. The Mundaneum, the Memex and now the Internet and the world wide web are merely the latest demonstrations of this notion. I can’t wait to discover what’s going to happen next!”

CHAP. 02 10 D/Y/M

/ IT IS IMPORTANT FOR [GOOGLE] TO CONTRIBUTE TO EUROPE’S ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT. /

58

It’s a little-known fact that Mons 2015 was instigated as early as 2004. Recognised as Cultural Capital of Wallonia in 2002, a few years later the city of Mons announced its candidature for the title of European Capital of Culture. Culture was already one of the five priority axes of the City Project. The result was a tangible cultural dynamic in Mons, and the press were already talking about a possible resurgence of economic activity, based on the digital economy, in a Digital Innovation Valley.

In this favourable context, a small group of teachers and researchers from the UMONS1

decided, in 2005, to launch a vast research program. Thierry Dutoit, instigator and now project director, explains: “Open to culture, we foresaw the importance of collaboration between the arts, science and technology for the development of products and services linked to the digital economy, and we gathered an essential mix of skill-sets required for such a project. We therefore introduced the numediart program in an appeal to the Wallonia region centred on programs of excellence outlined in the Marshall Plan. It quickly received the support of the Region. I am very grateful for the confidence they showed us and I am thankful that the Mons decision-makers who, without realising it, directed our creative energy towards Mons 2015.”

WHEN RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY TAKE ANINTEREST IN CULTURE

/ ITW: THIERRY DUTOIT DIRECTOR OF NUMEDIART PROGRAM AT UMONS

INTERVIEW BY JACQUES URBANSKA

/NUMEDIART What gaps did the numediart project fill? What is the current situation?Thierry Dutoit: We gradually realised that the development of digital creativity2 is essentially faced with three obstacles: technological com-plexity, the lack of ad hoc training and the diffi-culty in starting joint-production projects. Since 2007 we have been progressively tackling each of these problems. In numediart we have added to our research mission that of engineering sup-port. This is a recurring request from the artists and entrepreneurs who contact us: the techno-logical viability of complex ideas and the budget required. The answers that we can offer often in-clude technical advice, helped by our knowledge of the latest developments and practical solutions (software and/or materials). Only then can we of-fer more in-depth assistance3. In order to achieve this we have had to take on and train qualified personnel, able to rapidly respond to such re-quests, familiar with current technological tools.

We have also equipped our lab with a significant amount of material. In terms of training, in 2011 we started evening workshops called Créactifs! destined for university students. They are de-signed to give a hands-on approach to digital creativity, such as Processing, Arduino, Open-Frameworks… and more broadly to creative pro-gramming (with Android or iOS applications). We extended this initiative to include sixth-form students in 2013 via the educational CYBER-PACK4 project. We also organised several inter-national conferences in Mons5 as well as master classes CUTE6 in 2013 and 2014. For example we hosted Miller Puckette, inventor of MAX and PureData, professor of the uCSD in San Diego, who is now very much a friend of our establish-ment7. Finally, in 2014, we did the groundwork for an option in the cultural and creative indus-tries. It will be included in the curriculum for IT students, engineers and economic scientists and

1 // Still at that time the Mons Polytechnic

2 // Which is essentially seen via what Europe has identified as the cultural and creative industries, CCI

3 // For example, make available technology which is still at conceptual stage in research terms.

4 // Subsidised by Smart People/Creative Wallonia.

5 // The Journées d’Informatique Musicale in 2012, NOLISP and INTETAIN in 2013.

6 // CUlture et TEchnologie.

7 // He was made a honoris causa doctorof UMONS in 2009

will therefore be truly inter-disciplinary. It’s a significant first in the university: students from different horizons will meet for joint projects, each adding their own skill-set. The lessons as-sociated with this option will enable students to become familiar with mechanisms for the financ-ing and administration of projects in the field of CCIs. Business people will be involved in the seminars.

Is there a project or a structure in particular which inspired the birth of numediart?There are in fact only a few structures like nume-diart in the world. We could mention, amongst the better known, the IRCAM in Paris, ZKM in Karlsruhe, or HEXAGRAM and CRRMIT in Montreal. We have very good links with these different structures whereas none of them are 100% similar to us. IRCAM is certainly the clos-est, but is only focused on sound.

If you had to make a rapid appraisal of the numediart project, which main features would you highlight?Firstly we have been fortunate to be able to form a solid network. It is without doubt the part that requires the longest time and is the least visible, but it is nonetheless the most essential. Thanks to the numerous contacts made between research-ers, artists, cultural operators, firms and other research centres, our activity is today recognised both at local, regional and international level. There have also been numerous longer-term re-search projects that have enabled us to raise funds (again supported by a range of partners8). They will contribute to keeping our senior researchers who have been with us from the beginning, and via them, the dynamism of the institution itself.Finally, I would like to highlight the fairly unique infrastructures that we have been able to put in place thanks to a variety of financial sources. Our numediart lab is equipped like an all digital stage scene and allows the researchers to test the tech-nologies developed in the context of our projects under real-life conditions. Besides the HD video equipment and audio 8.1, the lab has, for exam-ple, a motion-capture suit (IGS190), a system for facial motion capture (OptiTracks) and a pro-fessional system that can follow a gaze. To this will shortly be added an optical motion capture system9. Lastly, we are in the process of install-ing a FabLab involving TechnocITé, ARTS2, the ‘Haute École’ in Hainaut (HEH), the Maison du Design amongst others… all of this thanks to the support of UMONS of course, but also thanks to Google.

8 // FNRS, Wallonia Region, European projects, the program of Interactive Experiences by Pictanovo-Lille, etc.

9 // Thanks to joint support from FNRS, Europe and the Wallonia Region.

10 //nataliademello.com

11 // creaceed.com

12 // nicolasdalessandro.net

13 // tanastringquartet.be

14 // blackmoon-productions.com

Are there projects which have gone beyond their initial remit?In fact there are quite a few. One of the first very interesting artistic experiences was developed in the context of our MORFACE project, in collaboration with the Métamorph’Oz10 collective. The installation that resulted allowed an observer who spent long enough looking at a reproduction of the Mona Lisa to see the woman’s face be progressively transformed into his own image. The development of this mechanism required collaboration between artists (for the idea and the final concept), researchers (for the analysis of the visitor’s face) and the Mons Company Creaceed11

(who provided a tailor-made version of their morphing software). This installation which enjoyed and is still enjoying great success, has applications which go beyond digital art: this type of interaction can be fully used for digital signage applications, for example for interactive street advertising. The musical instrument Handsketch was used in several performances by its inventor Nicolas D’Alessandro12, notably in ChoirMob in collaboration with the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, or during concerts with Jean-Paul Dessy. It is currently being used in research work by the Tana13 quartet. This is a great reward for his work: to create a new musical instrument that is appreciated by musicians is a considerable challenge... In another domain I could also mention our involvement in the Parallaxe project by Patric Jean and Blackmoon productions14. Based on an original idea by Patrick and his team, we produced a digital window onto a virtual theatrical space. When the visitor to the installation approaches this window (i.e. a video screen), the content of the window adjusts to simulate an effect of natural parallax. The layers of video content were produced by Blackmoon Prods. And then there are also the numerous mapping3Ds on which we worked in Namur, Maubeuge and Mons in liaison with digital artists and companies specialising in projection.

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NUMEDIART, WHEN RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGYTAKE AN INTEREST IN CULTURE

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60 6110 D/Y/M CHAP. 02



What is your method for project manage-ment? Have you perhaps changed your approach over time?We have really learned a lot... From the outset our approach was based on a short time period (typically three months). We have maintained this approach which enables us to respond rap-idly to requests and directly test technological ideas. Each three-month period culminates in the public presentation of results and includes, halfway through, a one-week workshop at which the researchers involved are together in the same venue15: research residentials to use the artistic vocabulary.

Over time, however, certain projects were spread over six months and a certain continuity in our projects appeared which initially matched the three axes that we had planned to follow. This moved progressively towards the six current themes: motion capture, performing media, in-telligent space, multimedia navigation, 3D de-sign and increased reality. Lastly, we have also become gradually aware of the importance of making a better distinction between long-term research and immediate engineering support, as well as adding on-going training in conjunction with more overt economic activity. It is with this aim in mind that we are currently finalising the DigiSTORM16 program which aims to create a genuinely LivingLab to serve the cul-tural and creative industries’ sector, as well as, in a broader sense, the ICT sector. The main thrust of DigiSTORM will be the new digital territories, the cultural and creative industries that are at the heart of the urban landscape. We are expecting a lot from this project!

What has changed with the ending of your program of excellence?The numediart Institution was inaugurated in 2010. It was the first of UMONS’ ten research institutions today. This step was decisive: in this way UMONS has ensured the continuation of our research work well beyond the numediart program of excellence which ended in August 2013. Since that time we feature across all the University’s communication networks. The number of research centres linked to numediart has grown from four to ten and our research areas from three to six. And then of course the researchers who have stayed with us throughout this adventure are now senior researchers. They

hold technical management posts for each of our research areas and contribute directly to the growth of the Institution.

What links does the Institution have with the sociocultural artists and entrepreneurs in the Mons region (TechnocITé, Virtualis, Transcul-tures, le manège.mons,…)?When the numediart Institution was formally launched, we wanted to constitute a consorti-um of interested parties working in research, culture and the cultural and creative industries. Today the initial fifteen members have grown to twenty-five. The members of this consortium are invited to our termly public presentations as well as to the annual Open Day of the numediart Institution. Even if they don’t come every time, the contacts that we have made in this way have several times enabled us to further develop our projects. We are also founding members of the Cluster TWIST17 and an active member of the digital forum for Mons201518.Links to industry occurred quite naturally: for the last fifteen years the Wallonia region has systematically linked its tenders for research pro-jects to regional firms. More recently, the desire to federate local strength in the creative economy has led to such initiatives as Creative Wallonia (I’m referring in particular to programs such as Creative People, Boost’Up or Nest’Up). Several living labs are being prepared around particular themes, and there is talk today of creative hubs in the major Walloon towns. We are obviously involved in all these changes.

Are there projects that have gone beyond the specific framework of numediart?Several projects that we led as part of our three-month sessions have resulted in longer-term financing in liaison with Walloon companies. I’m thinking for example about our project using the phase vocoder for sound alteration which caught the attention of a firm in Liège and led to two public/private partnerships. This meant that the researchers involved could continue their re-search for a further five years. Recently we pro-posed and obtained approval for three industrial research projects co-financed by one firm and the Wallonia Region. Our CAPTURE project, one of many, is based on motion capture and follows collaboration with Belle Productions and Tapage Nocturne19. In fact in 2009 we worked on the production of video capsules to project the mascot of the cartoon character Mamemo. The

15 // If possible outside UMONS; we have worked with the Theatre Royal in Mons, at the Wiels, at IMAL, at the University of Gent, with Transcultures, at the Mundaneum, with ARTS2, at the MIC, etc.

16 // Joint venture with numediart, humanorg at UMONS, TechnocITé and IDEA

17 // A Cluster of Walloon companies specialising in visual, sound and textual technologies

18 // This regroups non high-street digital artists in the Mons region

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Nicolas d’Alessandro, Handsketch © numediart

Espace numediart © numediart

62 6310 D/Y/M CHAP. 02



What will be numediart’s involvement in Mons 2015? To answer you specifically, the numediart (UMONS) Institution and the Mons 2015 foundation have agreed to collaborate on three digital installations. They are based on technologies developed and produced by the Institute, and artists associated with the Mons event will be able to use and readapt them in their work. The CityLight project is aiming to create, on the façade of the UMONS23 building, an area for architectural mapping open to public participation.

The CityGate project aims to establish a telepresence channel between Mons and Plzen24

whose audio and video imputs25 will be open for public contributions. The idea is to set up at different points around the capitals public telepresence zones to exchange visual and audio 3D images between groups in different locations. The Voix des Anges is an interdisciplinary project jointly run by the numediart Institute and Sciences du langage of the Université de Mons, Patric Jean of Blackmoon Production26, le manège.mons27 and Transcultures28. The project’s main aim is to give different objects and urban areas in Mons a unique and expressive vocal interactivity. Other one-off events will be added to these three primary projects. All of which amounts to a lot of great experiments which are being prepared for this coming year and which we can’t wait to experience.

19 // The authors of MAMEMO – mamemo.com

20 // ilhaire.eu

21 // i-treasures.eu

22 // linkedtv.eu

23 // Rue de Houdain

24 // The other European Capital of Culture

25 // Including 3D videos and interaction between people’s skeletons

26 // blackmoon-productions.com

27 // lemanege.com

28 // transcultures.be

challenge was to use motion capture in order to accelerate the editing process. We managed to create, with the help of the NeuroTV Company, an initial cartoon virtually in real time, which was enough to convince the TV station France3 Corse. We also have two spin-offs that are being prepared, based on two of the three initial themes chosen by numediart. The first will commercial-ise instruments for enhanced music. The second will offer clients an analysis service for web pages based on a model of visual alertness. This is a good example of the by-products of our activi-ties: an arts/science/technological problem leads to specific applications in related fields (in this case, marketing on websites)

What will be the major projects for numediart in the years to come?Our biggest project is the DigiSTORM program. In addition, we have launched or are participating in several European projects such as ILHAIRE20, a Future and Emerging Technologies project exploring the analysis and synthesis of laughter. We are also part of the iTREASURES21 project, which aims to contribute to the safeguarding of immaterial heritage. Lastly, we are part of the consortium for the EU LinkedTV22 project, whose aim is to prepare the transformation of the web and TV into a gigantic hypermedia environment. We are in charge of the Media Arts scenario.

/ WE HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE TO BE ABLE TO BUILDA SOLID NETWORK. IT IS WITHOUT DOUBT THE PART THAT REQUIRES THE LONGEST TIME AND IS THE LEAST VISIBLE, BUT IT IS NONETHELESS THE MOST ESSENTIAL. /

Today, the numediart institute is one of our ten research institutions at UMONS, the only one of its kind in Wallonia. It pro-vides training and research

opportunities, as well as validating new activities in the creative industries’ sector. It includes a dozen research services, five faculties, over sev-enty researchers and over twenty PhDs that are being prepared. Lastly, it generates over two million euros in annual turnover, has four active patents and two on-going public/private partner-ships. It is logical that this sector be situated at the heart of the Mons University, since the digital economy has been strongly developed here. The Digital Innovation Valley unites the local con-tributors to this theme and it has recently taken an important step forward with the arrival of a Microsoft Innovation Center and one of Google’s two European Data Centers.

/MR CONTI, RECTOR OF UMONS

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HIGH-CALIBER RESEARCHERS SUPPORT THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

The Belgian city of Mons and its surrounding area are home to no fewer than three research centers – CETIC, Multitel, and, on a smaller scale, materials specialist Materia Nova – which all benefit from leading-edge skills that are complementary to the development of a digital economy cluster. A more recent addition to the list comes in the form of numediart, an institute dedicated to new media art technology. Here is an overview of how these creative entities interconnect with the regional economic fabric.

A university city, Mons is fortunate in that it benefits from internationally renowned research centers. These centers are part of the vital forces that have helped to build and develop a fabric of forward-looking SMEs and start-ups. Most, but not all, are directly involved in digital activities. While Information and Communications Tech-nologies (ICTs) and digital media do not neces-sarily form the core business of these SMEs, they nevertheless represent a main source for growth. In fact, various studies by the European Com-mission have shown that, on average, the use of ICTs both in industry and by the public sector accounts for more than 30% of the gains made

BY OLIVIER FABES

in productivity and competitiveness. CETIC’s mission is to stimu-late innovation among businesses in Wallonia by offering them ICT expertise so that they may take on new technologies more quickly and respond to new needs. This may involve providing cutting-edge technological expertise (in cloud computing, big data or the Internet of Things) so that businesses may incorporate more intelligence and more connectivity in the systems that they design.

Anticipating the needs of SMEsEach year, CETIC provides dozens of project leaders and start-up companies with backing and technological support to allow their ideas to be transformed into proof of a concept that can be tested on the market, until the company founded ultimately becomes self-sufficient. This is the case with companies such as Kollector (web-based management of the distribution of artistic works) and Gemotions (games including treasure hunts and educational trails by mobile phone). CETIC also helps a number of mature organizations – SMEs and large corporations alike – to resolve advanced methodological and technological problems, while giving consideration to the constraints of the sectors in which they operate (health, logistics, etc.). By way of example, in the e-health sector, CETIC has helped MIMS (a company which creates management software for hospitals) to effectively handle ever-increasing volumes of digital data concerning patients.

Opening doorsSimilarly, Multitel provides local firms with daily technical and scientific support in the field of the signal processing (sound and image). Here too, the underlying objective is to help develop the products of tomorrow. Multitel also opens up international doors via its participation in at least thirty European projects. More than ever, its mission consists in promoting regional economic fabric within a European context.

Unifying projectThese research centers are unanimous when they acknowledge the fact that Mons has managed to integrate them within an ecosystem, sometimes referred to as the Digital Innovation Valley, which has reached a certain critical mass having brought together such high-profile players as the Microsoft Innovation Center, TechnocITé, numediart, FuturoCité, the Google data center, the Mundaneum, and so on. They are also convinced that Mons 2015 will truly be a unifying project, one that will bring cultural, technological and economic players closer together, thus becoming the source of many economic development initiatives. A positive image builder for Mons and for all of Wallonia.

By investing in cutting-edge technological fields such as cloud computing, big data, software engineering, the Internet of

Things, e-health or security, CETIC has established partnerships with industrial and technological leaders, at both regional and European levels, thereby speeding up the transfer of technology for the benefit of local businesses. This certified research center was founded in 2001 in the Charleroi Aeropole Science Park on the initiative of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), the University of Namur and the University of Mons. Forty or so experts from CETIC are actively involved in regional R&D projects together with industrial and academic actors to promote Wallonia’s economic development, notably in the fields covered by the so-called Marshall plan. In fact, they have successfully positioned CETIC as a top-notch partner in numerous European programs.

Established in the heart of the Digital Innovation Valley on the Initialis site in Mons, Multitel

employs a workforce of 65 in R&D activities based in five areas of expertise: applied photon-ics (the study of photons), telecommunications & network engineering, signal processing & em-bedded systems, image processing, and railway certification. Multitel enjoys international recog-nition, in particular as an accredited independent laboratory for ERTMS certification in the railway signaling sector. The research center is actively involved in European research programs within this field, notably those of the European Railway Agency (ERA) and the European Commission. Multitel has drawn on its expertise in IT, signal processing and image processing to reduce the process time for railway certification (from 9 months to 4 weeks). This technical expertise has allowed Multitel to acquire clients who are leading players in Belgium, Europe (Invensys, Ansaldo) and throughout the world (Hitachi in Japan, among others).

/CETIC

/MULTITEL

SUPPORT THE DIGITALECONOMY

/HIGH-CALIBER RESEARCHERS

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BENCHMARKING. FROM SOME INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES TO THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF TECHNOCITÉ

How can promising initiatives combining digital cultures and training, in association with different economic and social realities, help define a strategy and a unique project integrating these different and increasingly complementary fields? Two edifying international examples give us a better understanding of the specific character of the TechnocITé project and the prospects for the immediate future.

In an announcement about conferences organized in Paris on the subject of “Knowledge and industry”, Caroline Stiegler1 made this general observation: “The 20th century saw the birth in America of a new industrial era - a Taylorian and consumerist one, based on marketing and the cultural industries, forming mass markets by taking control of behaviour, short-circuiting know-how and dominating through American soft power - the 21st century sees the question of knowledge and its relationship to industry return to the foreground. With this new question of knowledge a smart power (that is to say, a new planetary strategy) emerges, while very profound transformations in industry are taking shape at great speed (including the teaching industry) via the digital network, 3D printers and generalized automation.” Today these “mind technologies2” are central to the debate.

/ TODAY, MIND TECHNOLOGIESARE ALSO RELATIONAL. /

/BENCHMARKING FROM SOME INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES TO THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF TECHNOCITÉ

BY PHILIPPE FRANCK

Bernard Stiegler, with Ars Industrialis and other intellectuals, business managers, educational and cultural structures, believes that the latter, subject to the law of the market alone, risk only being “control technologies” and also that today they are “relational technologies” 3 of which social networks are the most visible manifestation. However, states Ars Industrialis, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are “only a part that falls more globally4 within the technological environment comprising the Internet and the web, an associated technological environment that enables the development of bottom-up and contributory logics.” Although many structures involved in digital technology have integrated these problems, we cannot, however, extract a “model”, but rather draw inspiration from certain strong lines and also indicate the weaknesses in a benchmarking approach5 drawing inspiration from “best practices” to better position ourselves and adapt to the societal, economic and cultural context.

Among recent flagship structures associated with the city’s cultural policy, we can cite the example of the Gaîté Lyrique6, opened in 2009 in Paris and constructed on a mixed model both in terms of private-public partnership7 and its overlapping fields, digital cultures and current music. Defining itself as a “media environment”, the Gaîté is mainly involved in dissemination. It also accommodates, on the top floor of its building situated on the boulevard Sébastopol, some forty “cultural entrepreneur residences” (in incubator or local co-working proximity formula) with the CREATIS platform devoted to entrepreneurship and innovation in very diverse cultural fields.8. This system aims “to support and accelerate the development of enterprises from the cultural sector, which bring together

excellence and creation of meaning, while offering them not only a flexible and evolutive accommodation solution but also integration in a virtual ecosystem, support by personalized experts and facilitated access to funding.”9 We see here the networking between the inno-vation processes carried out by these enterprises and this new pop culture (which today takes the form of digital technology) that the Gaîté wants to promote.

Ars ElectronicaLinz (where the company Vöst Alpine AG10 invests a hundred mil-lion euros annually in research and development) banked successful-ly on Ars Electronica, which has become the international Mecca of the digital arts and innovative creativity with a festival that receives a hundred thousand visitors every year on the banks of the Danube. This initiative was founded in 1979 with the desire to move from ob-solete industries to the information society.

It was followed by the launch of the prize of the same name11 in 1987 and by the establishment of the Ars Electronica centre in 1996 (refur-bished in 2009) with its Future Lab, to offer educational exhibitions, research work involving laboratories and companies from all over the world. While some12 rightly noted in Ars Electronica publications and symposiums a discourse that was eternally positive, barely analytical and scarcely critical of arts-society-technology relations, contrary to what the themes of the festival13 might lead one to think, one can only observe the success of Ars Electronic, which has become permanently established and succeeded in developing the loyalty of a whole city and creating strong international offshoots.

04 // “globalocalization” (bringing together “global” and “local”) is an expression also used in the economic world (since the 80s) to represent the diversificaton effort or adjustment of supply in accordance with quality and the sociological analysis of the local clientele (as of the 90s), as well as in cultural movements described as alternative in view of personallization of goods industrialized by the users. We also find this trend in the domain of NTIC supplying both global services and services adapted for local communities in order to improve their communication.

05 // Marketing technique (developped in the early 80s by Xerox) consisting of studying and analyzing management techniques, other companies’ methods of organization in order to draw inspiration from them and get the best out of them.

06 // Some other French examples are worthy of mention. For example, for some years now France has been organizing workshops and an Arts-sciences biannual exhibition (the recontres-i) in Meylan, l’Isère, a bridge that has chosen this atypical national scene for definition.

07 // This project took many long years to materialize. It is run by the cultural engineering agency Le Troisième Pôle with the group Naïve and significant involvement from the City of Paris, where La Gaîté is an important cultural establishment.

08 // From audiovisual technology to the web culture, not forgetting advertising, video games, fashion, design or even the “culinary arts”.

09 // See the website www.residencecreatis.fr

10 // The CEO, Wolfgang Eder, states that “to innovate, companies must not limit themselves to observing changes, they must bring change about.”

11 // Ars Electronica prize winners are exhibited at the festival, the categories evolving along with new practices.

12 // Read the article by the new media curateur/essayist/new artist, Armin Medosch, From Total Recall to Digital Dementia on our blog www.thenextlayer.org

13 // Infowar, Goodbye Privacy,Total Recall-The evolution of memory,…

01 // Caroline Stiegler (formerly a lawyer) is involved in Ars Industrialis, an industrial association for an industial mind technology policy cofounded with her husband, the philosopher Bernard Stiegler, with whom she works closely.

02 // Ensemble formed by the convergence of audiovisual, telecommunications and information technology.

03 // “Relational Technologies”, as defined by Ars Industrialis, “designate all technologies that, not only create a link but sustainably consolidate this link.” (www.arsindustrialis.org)

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Six Mil Antennas at Société des Arts Technologiques, Montréal © Sébastien Roy - SAT Soma Mapping II - ZHAN JIA-HUA - Bains Numériques#7 Enghien-les-Bains© Nicolas Laverroux

Dromos at SAT at SAT by Fraktion & Maotik © Fraction & Maotik - SAT Strata - Maria Donata D’Urso - Bains Numériques #7 Enghien-les-Bains- © Nicolas Laverroux

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/ CONTINUOUSTRAINING MUSTALSO EVOLVECONTINUOUSLY. /

Networked digital cultures In Montréal, the world renowned Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT), established in 1996, is a pioneer in the field of digital cultures and is also very proactive in networking with applied research. Its Metalab research and development laboratory is defined as a “living and open environment where users and communities of creators integrate with researchers, designers and developers.” It banks on “dynamic relations between art, technology and society to emphasize its role as incubator of ideas and projects in the fields of immersion and interactivity.” The SAT works regularly with companies. In addition, they contribute to their funding by renting this multipurpose space14, where you can go from a Moby set to a work in progress on telepresence, to a evening business event or even taste the latest gourmand invention at the Food Lab.

The SAT also offers a techno-artistic training programme and original initiatives such as souk@sat which, for four days, transforms the building into an immense loft inhabited by young Montreal creators. Following the example of some forty international operators,15 the SAT joined the Réseau des Arts Numériques (Digital Arts Network, RAN) initiated by the Centre des Arts d’Enghien-les-Bains in which the City banked on digital creativity16. The RAN develops collaborations between members, combines expertise and creation, training and research in connection with economic development. This type of association of interests is growing given the evident need to exchange skills and at the same time regroup to consolidate not only its territorial presence but also its logistical, economic and innovative power, and more broadly its ability to bring forth proposals.

Developing continuous educationDriven by political will but also by local stake-holders on the ground, Mons has been able to cover a number of needs in the field of creativity and digital technology in a relatively short time thanks to university,17 cultural and private sec-tor operators who have been able to work well together. As regards training, it is undoubtedly necessary to go back to 2001 and the launch of technological competence centres18 in the Wal-loon Region and the Marie Arena initiative that put a real political programme in place for digital development in Wallonia. A unique structure like TechnocITé, says its director, Pascal Keiser, “can cover different domains, secondary and further education, the self employed, job seekers and employees (businesses) and thus address five objectives using economies of scale (using the same equipment, sometimes the same instruc-tor if he or she is able to train different groups of people, etc.). In France or other regions of Wallonia or in Brussels, on the other hand, each of these domains is segmented. Here, with a budget of three and a half million euros, we train five thousand people a year for two or three weeks per person, which in other more segment-ed and therefore less effective structures would incur three times this cost.”

Unlike other Walloon competence centres oriented more towards “traditional” sectors of TIC, TechnocITé has been focusing on creative industries since 2003. It was at this time that the Images et sons numériques (Digital images and sounds) project was born, begun at the Carré des Arts then the Centre for Contemporary and Digital Scripts (CCDS) in the Manège.mons arts centre, TechnocITé’s most favoured partner for European projects in particular.

This same transverse vision makes it possible to establish “a precious complementarity, that was fairly unique at the time, between training in technological tools and new artistic practices related with digital technology, particularly in the field of scenic arts.” Continuous training, which Mons banked on, made great progress, benefitting form a notable technological breakthrough during the early years of the century. “With professional software, you had to go into a studio that was often costly and therefore inaccessible to many people, whereas there these technologies had become accessible. All these new portable tools suddenly changed the spectrum of people to be trained. Instead of specialized technicians, everyone who had a computer had the possibility of access and continuous training became an even more fundamental issue.” Since then, continues Pascal Keiser, “this phenomenon has only grown as all technologies are accelerating with software that evolves very quickly. It became a challenge to society to better itself, to learn... Similarly, unemployed people today must acquire additional skills and therefore, this type of updated training is in demand.” This range of possibilities and concern for adaptability make TechnocITé a fairly unique continuous training platform that meets a social need, also sensitive to the integration of artistic creativity (in particular via various collaborations with Transcultures and at the CCDS with French partners such as Studio national des Arts Contemporains Fresnoy in Tourcoing or Flemish ones with the Vooruit in Gent19).

“TechnocITé’s specific feature when compared to its counterparts is also the fact of having embarked, beyond the better known domain of the TIC, immediately on video games, the latest audio technologies, interactive television or more recently Internet of Things. Many stakeholders realize today that continuous training must also evolve continuously, live, and that is perhaps what explains the fact that TechnocITé is often cited as an example.” Mons 2015, European Capital of Culture should also facilitate complementarity between creativity, training and economy to find a visibility, a wider audience and a springboard both for regional and international development. In the same vein, the French government has just launched “French Tech”, an initiative with major resources, a vision that from the outset is more “systemic”, likely to bring

together diverse stakeholders and fields of digital innovation. This proactive and structural approach adapted for the specific characteristics of the territories, and the strengths and weaknesses of operators, should certainly be considered in order to move away from our obsolete silos and work for “collective intelligence.”

14 // In 2011, the SAT acquired a new floor with an immersive theatre in the form of a dome - the “Satosphère” - which is a 360° spherical screen, the first permanent immersive environment dedicated to artistic creation and visualisation activities.

15 // The RAN brings together ten countries, as many associated festivals and also research laboratories, universities and art colleges.

16 // Enghien-les-Bains was recently selected by UNESCO to join the creative cities network. Today, it is the smallest city in the network and the third city in the world to be designated in the “digital arts” category along with Lyon in 2008 and Sapporo.

17 // For instance the Institut pour les technologies des arts numériques Numediart (Mons University), which is also a consortium with some fifteen members from the worlds of culture, business and education.

18 // Besides TechnocITé, the other TIC competence centres in Walloon region are Technofutur (Gosselies), Technifutur (Seraing) and Technobel (Ciney).

19 // Within the context of the European cross border programme, Transdigital (2008-2012), an exchange platform for knowledge across sectorial boundaries that brings artists, scientists and businesses into contact with one another.

At the end of November 2013, Fleur Pellerin, Minister respon-sible for the Digital Economy of the French government, presented the “La French Tech” initiative, which follows the “quartiers

numériques”, a discerning certification program for metropolitan areas that develop a dynamic and ambitious start-up ecosystem. These will have access to services and resources that aim to support their growth and will benefit from inter-national visibility.

The aim is to “create a movement of collective mobilisation for the growth and international influence of French digital start-ups” while actively supporting the diversity of digital talents. Besides the enterprises, this certificate, which is also a continuous training and “acceleration” program with opportunities for co-investment, is likely to affect all those who participate in the digital dynamic in what would be a future “start-up republic.”

Some ideas of the French Tech program are similar to the strategies at work in Mons, such as the large scale training, the start-ups incubator in private-public partnership the creation of an emblematic building and the creation of a label, similar to the DIV.www.lafrenchtech.com

/THE FRENCH TECH

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THE VIA PROFESSIONAL ENCOUNTERS, LABORATORY FOR MONS 2015

BY BERTILLE COUDEVYLLE

/THE VIA PROFESSIONAL ENCOUNTERS, LABORATORY FOR MONS 2015

Pro.Via represents three days of very tight schedules in order to outline a range of propositions that integrate technologies in their processes or offering a critical appraisal of them. This mirrors the themes developed in the context of the magazine Patch (Actor #1 by Kris Verdonck, presented in March 2010, echoing the dossier Acteur/Machine in Patch 10; a portfolio about Rémanences by Thierry de Mey in Patch 11, presented in March 2010). The desire to encourage the debate between artists and cultural institutions led CCDS to test different types of encounters: from debates after presentations to speed-dating, in which the artists defend their projects, dossier in hand and in record time, in front of a maximum number of programmers, and often end by finalising co-productions. Although the work of established artists is presented, there is a greater weight of support for young creators via the program “Youth Creation Mornings”. Then comes “To be followed” and the awarding, by a jury of industry professionals, of the Professional Encounters prize to an emerging outfit (t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e, Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger, Jacques André and les Hommes Penchés, Mylène Benoit).

Alongside the artistic propositions, roundtable discussions or conferences welcoming representatives of important industry structures (Mapping festival, L’Hexagone, Timelab etc.) attempt to assess latest developments or suggest possible areas of research. Workshops analyse industry practices: which tools for which type of scripts? Does digital art bring greater satisfaction to the spectator? Is it possible to create, using technology, artistic forms appropriate to different handicaps? What are the latest creative perspectives?

The professional encounters Via.Pro, organised in Mons by the manège.mons and TechnocITé alongside the Via Festival, repre-sented from 2007 to 2011 the high point of the CCDS season. This time of programming and meeting presented to a European pro-fessional public (artists, technicians, researchers, heads of cultural structures and students) a shop-window of the Centre’s compe-tences in terms of training, artist support, publications, research and knowledge sharing, validated by an integrated approach.

The Via.Pro professional encounters stem from the observation that artistic propositions with a technological component are victims of an a priori approach on the part of programmers who are not familiar with these new forms. The encounters are therefore proposed in a spirit of mediation in order to encourage meetings between artists and heads of cultural structures with productions being performed elsewhere and not only in theatres dedicated exclusively to digital scripts.

Reflecting the CCDS1 collaborative approach, Via.Pro favours multidisciplinarity and a diversity of artistic forms, combining dance or theatrical performances, installations, concerts, interactive and immersive productions…which alternate with discussion forums and knowledge sharing. Amongst the projects presented – finished productions or still incomplete – several have emerged from residentials held in the context of CCDS2 and Transdigital projects, thereby benefitting from the support of the Interreg IV (FEDER) program. This is only one example amongst the various connections established, when the productions are being performed, between the different specialised areas at the Centre: training, research and residential programs.

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Between one hundred and thirty and two hundred professionals take part in the meetings and in a desire to transfer knowledge, the whole program is open to tomorrow’s artists and technicians, including students, in the context of the Digital Ambition program, which aims to increase awareness amongst a younger public. Similar to training cycles offered by CCDS, Fresnoy students demonstrate their work, and teams from UMONS/Numediart, the Transforme program at the ‘Centre de Recherche et de Composition Chorégraphiques’ by the Royaumont Foundation or the ‘Virage’ research platform at GMEA are invited to share their latest investigations. The event also serves to support a workshop aimed at trainees in digital media at TechnocITé. Photographers, cameramen, editors and sound engineers record all the meetings live in the context of the Web TV workshop.

Under the paving stones, the stageWith no concerns about filling venues, more intimate and in situ productions are favoured with a series of performances for one, two or three spectators, including Un doux reniement by the Veilleur Company, presented in the context of ‘Inopinés’ in 2010, and still being performed. And with a desire to create a close, even destabilising relationship with the spectator, why not go the whole way and remove the actors… Again in 2010, a robot, then a hologram and a smoke machine in that order welcomed spectators at the margin’halle (Maison Folie), with Actor #1 (Mass, Huminid, Dancer #3) by Kris Verdonck. Happy Digital? asked the 2011 edition, but also it’s a “Happy few”, who are free to choose their compositions à la carte!

In the course of time, the program focussed increasingly on the main theme chosen for Mons 2015, “Where technology meets culture”, accompanying the reflections of the future European Capital of Culture about the social and urban implications of technologies. The Parcours urbain (2011) invaded the city: around a corner, on a façade, the artistry was everywhere that we didn’t expect it to be! At around midnight, on a

freezing cold night, Benoit Labourdette invites the public to join him on a nocturnal stroll and shows them on the streets around Mons a projection of short films made with a smartphone (Fast Movies, 2011). Instead of trying to provide the public with a maximum of comfort, the festival doesn’t hesitate to boldly disrupt the spectator’s habits. Secrets are kept, questions are raised. The venue is only revealed at the last minute (Wondermarkt, Rotozaza). With Carcans by Patric Jean, the spectator doesn’t know what experience awaits him, and has previously received mysterious information by post…

The role of spectator starts to look more and more like a mystery game in the city, “in which you are the hero”. A performance in which a sole spectator is the actor in an “auto-theatre” is organised in a local supermarket, with Wondermarkt by Rotozaza (2011). The same year, CREW/Eric Joris troubled our perceptions to the point of vertigo, with the immersive production C.A.P.E, a virtual stroll through Brussels, which reawakens our dreams of teleportation. With Roger Bernat, the whole audience, remotely directed by voices which they blindly obey, improvised a demonstration (Domini Public, presented in 2010) or interpreted more or less gracefully the mythic Sacre du Printemps by Pina Bausch (2011). “spect’actor”, manipulated participant, curious passer-by, the public is heavily involved in the co-production of these artistic journeys whose main characteristic is to repeatedly surprise those who accept to play the game.

The playful character of these participative performances with their added technology prefigures CCDS’ progressive orientation in favour of artistic practices inspired by gaming, performed in the urban space. As early as 2012, social gaming experimented with the possibility of creating social links with the help of video games, a Mons city-wide project. The follow-up to these experiments, taken further each year, will be revealed in 2015.

01// 8 partners from CCDS2 and 6 from Transdigital. CCDS2 : Le Manège - Maubeuge, Le manège.mons, TechocITé (Mons), the city of Jeumont, Danse à Lille/CDC, Charleroi/Danses, Le Fresnoy (Tourcoing) and Art Zoyd (Valenciennes). Transdigital : TechnocITé (Mons), Le Fresnoy (Tourcoing), Latitudes Contemporaines (Lille), Le manège.mons, Le Manège – Maubeuge, le Vooruit (Gand).

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CCDS, TRANSMISSION AND DIFFUSION OF ARTWORKS


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Covers of the CCDS magazine, 8 issues published between 2004 and 2008

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2004, year of enlightenment. Two cultural centres and a training centre initiated a pilot project in Europe on the Franco-Belgian frontier zone by developing the first centre dedicated to training art-industry professionals in the latest technologies. TechnocITé, a training centre for digital media in the Wallonia region brought to CCDS its pedagogical expertise; the ‘manège’ centres in Mons and Maubeuge brought their platforms and their artist support expertise.

The idea for such a centre emerged at a key moment in the history of the Franco-Walloon territory. Maubeuge and its national theatre benefitted directly from the experience and afterglow of Lille 2004, under the leadership of Didier Fusiller. And Mons had established as early as 2003 the basis of a solid partnership between the new cross-border cultural centre directed by Yves Vasseur and his homologue in Maubeuge. On either side of the border, thoughts were already turning to the future…Visionaries were already seeing the transformation of a modest Euro-region which, not much more than ten years later, would have made a remarkable leap forward

BY BERTILLE COUDEVYLLE

in terms of development. The foundations stones were laid that would lead to Mons, European Capital of Culture and, uniquely, to Maubeuge being the Region’s Cultural Capital the very same year, in 2015… Back in 2004, the Belgian press were welcoming the emergence of a digital innovation valley in Mons. The city had taken the gamble of basing its economic reconversion on an ambitious project centred on new technologies and digital media; a resounding success. Its ability to attract powerful multinationals such as Google or Microsoft as well as start-up Companies (Acapela, I-Movix, Fishing Cactus…) is clearly linked to the cultural renewal of the City which is exploring the same dynamic. Faithful to its artistic past, Mons is again becoming a place that is ripe for creativity.

Since that time, Mons 2015 incarnates the culture-technology synergy of the City project summed up by the slogan that identifies its main theme: “Mons, where technology meets culture.” CCDS was then launched to provide artists with the means to develop their exper-tise and create new technologies, to design unique, made-to-measure projects and to open the debate on possible changes to the City via art and technology.

The creation of the CCDS filled a vacuum in terms of training in digital technologies applied to the dramatic arts. In order to supply the training requested by professionals, the program proposed short-term training courses (3-5 days) combining theory and practice and being built around the trainees’ own projects. The latest innovatory technologies were presented: motion capture, voice treatment in real time, video, MAX/MSP, Isadora, robotics, construction of captors, mobile technologies…

In 2008, thanks to the support of the European Interreg IV, further training courses were proposed in order to exploit opportunities offered by biotechnologies and durable development which are tending, like digital technologies, to influence contemporary creativity. And thanks to new partnerships, the CCDS2 can now offer an approach that is either cross-disciplinary or job-specific. Danse à Lille and Charleroi/Danses provide dance skills, Art Zoyd and Musiques Nouvelles (via the manège.mons), musical competence, and Le Fresnoy, provides training in cinema/plastic arts.

TRANSMISSION ANDDIFFUSION OF ARTWORKS

/CCDS

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Superamas, THÉÂTRE. Superamas has intensely worked with CCDS and TechnocITé, especially on the 3D modelling workshops whose results were used on stage

© Superamas

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t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e/Pierre Larauza, Paysages rhizomatiques© t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e/Pierre Larauza

LAb[au], Liquid Space, presented during City Sonic festival at Abattoirs, Mons in 2006. With the support of CCDS © LAb[au]

Cie Adrien Mondot/Claire Bardainne, Convergence © Cie Adrien Mondot/Claire Bardainne

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Residential workshops are also offered to Companies seeking to develop a specific technological aspect of their productions or simply wishing to experiment without having to produce immediate results. The possibilities offered by the technologies discovered during the training course can then be explored during research time and often lead to creative production. In this area the CCDS holds an advisory role and connects teams of artists with professionals known for their technological expertise. Well-known artists are accompanied (Adrien Mondot, Superamas, Michèle Noiret, Myriam Gourfink, Denis Marleau, Thierry De Mey…) but also young emerging Companies such as the ‘compagnie du Veilleur’, Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger, Clémence Coconnier, the Haut et Court Company… In this constantly evolving sector, the archiving of projects using technology is often deficient. CCDS is working on conservation and knowledge-sharing via an editorial pole, of which Patch, their six-monthly magazine, is the main tool that includes special dossiers produced in collaboration with Mouvement. Themes such as light, bio-art, Actor/Machines or Video/Stage are the focus of special dossiers and the significant creative processes of artists and technicians are decrypted in order to enhance the transfer of knowledge.

But the project’s greatest success lies in its capacity to integrate its different branches into a global synergy – training, production, research and performance – and its efficient networking with artists, technicians and researchers. CCDS tries to discourage practitioners from working in isolation; training is viewed as a transmission from one artist to another. CCDS welcomes established artists, but especially aims to help young Companies to develop, favouring long-term commitment. In practice, the perfect way to accompany an artist would be to train them, to accompany them on residentials by providing technological advice and presenting the result of this collaboration during the Pro.Via professional encounters, which would lead to performances with one or several of the project partners. In practice, the future of these new scripts depends on their performance and presentation to both professionals and the general public. Lastly, in cases of practice development or unique productions, some Companies will even be asked to share their experience in the context of a future training course…This will be the case for Cyrille Henry and Mylène Benoit on embedded sensors or Thierry De Mey, author of Light Music. Others will mix their practices, such as Kitsous Dubois and Eric Joris for a workshop based on immersive mechanisms and weightlessness… The key being to never break the transmission chain.

/ CCDS WAS LAUNCHED TO PROVIDE ARTISTS WITH THE MEANS TO DEVELOP THEIR EXPERTISE AND CREATE NEW TECHNOLOGIES, TO DESIGN UNIQUE, MADE-TO-MEASUREPROJECTS. /

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Covers of Patch magazine, n. 09 > 12, published by CCDS in 2009-2010 © CCDS

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TRANSDIGITAL,FINAL REPORT AND OUTLOOK

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Covers of Trandigital Cookbook, a serie of international publications dedicated to the relationsbetween art, technology, science and private companies © TechnocITé

Transdigital is the fruit of a cross-border partnership between cultural (Le Manège – Maubeuge and Mons, Le Vooruit – Ghent, Latitudes Contemporaines – Lille) and training organizations (TechnocITé – Mons, Le Fresnoy – Tourcoing); it also is associated with and receives support from research centers (IBBT – Ghent, UMONS/Numediart) and centers of excellence such as Euratechnologies – Lille or Virtualis SA – Mons. It strives to network the arts, research, and the industry around digital technologies in order to foster the innovation, competitiveness, and influence of the Nord-Pas de Calais/Wallonia/Flanders cross-border area. Transdigital was initiated with the help of funding of the European program Interreg IV and will come to a term on June 30, 2012. Let’s look back on the achievements that this unprecedented transnational partnership made possible.

Transdigital came to light as a response to the observation that artists of the digital arts field were confronted with great difficulties in accessing a high level technology watch or in obtaining support from researchers to carry out their projects. Yet, the skills in this field are well represented in the cross-border area with the presence of several research centers and innovative businesses, such as Multitel, the University of Hasselt, or the IBBT in Ghent, to name but a few. What was missing therefore was a network linking these various players to allow synergies to emerge between art, science, and technology. As an example, the methodology developed by the Fresnoy is representative of this sharing of knowledge and know-how, since the artists that study there regularly benefit from the support of research laboratories such as the IRCICA (University of Lille 1 and CNRS), the INRIA Lille-Nord Europe or the CITU (Universities of Paris 8 and Paris 1).

To bring together the various players, Transdigital organized ten meetings and seminars alternately between Lille, Tourcoing, Mons, Maubeuge, and Ghent, around subjects such as mobile applications, serious games, innovative textiles, speech synthesis, or 3D images. Workshops have also been developed based on the presentations made during the meetings, in order to deepen the lines of research through practical experimentation. Their goal is to lead to real collaborations between artists, engineers, and researchers from the three regions around common projects. Sixteen projects have thus been carried out successfully on as varied topics as: RFID chips

BY VINCENT DELVAUX

/TRANSDIGITALFINAL REPORT AND OUTLOOK

and localized media (Thierry Coduys and Serge Hoffman), the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree camera dedicated to immersive experiments (Crew_Eric Joris), immersive devices and the weightless body (Kitsou Dubois, Eric Joris, Jean-Louis Larcebeau, Vincent Jacobs), energy self-sufficiency (Keiko Courdy and Cédric Sabato), “smart” projection (Daniel Danis).

The Crossroads came into being in 2012. These events consist of a time for reflection and preliminary research leading up to the thematic framework for Mons 2015: “Where technology meets culture.”

The Crossroads are broken down into two periods: a day of reflection, behind closed doors, followed by five laboratory days that enable an artistic team assisted by businesses or researchers to draw up the rough draft of a project that is likely to be developed in 2015. The first laboratory was entrusted to Patric Jean around the concept of social gaming and the second to Crew to carry out research around new variants of immersive devices. Lastly, Transdigital supports artistic production through artists’ residencies revolving around digital technologies. The productions are distributed in partner organizations from the three regions, particularly within the scope of the festivals and exhibitions interspersed throughout the season: Via (Mons, Maubeuge), Panorama (Tourcoing), Latitudes contemporaines, The Game is Up (Ghent).

The Superamas Company was thus able to benefit from the crosscutting support of Transdigital’s various partner organizations. Youdream was co-produced and distributed by the Vooruit in Ghent, the Kustencentrum Buda in Courtrai, and the Manège in Maubeuge within the scope of the Via festival. The film Liberty Chérie, which is part of the show, was co-produced by the Manèges of Mons and Maubeuge, TechnocITé, as well as Le Fresnoy and was shown during the “Rencontres numériques” seminar (with the support of the French embassy in Belgium), on November 22, 2010. Lastly, TechnocITé and the manège.mons invited the company to take part in a meeting around video/stage relations during Via.Pro 11. Transdigital’s expert knowledge notably enabled the collective to receive technical support from the Walloon company I-Movix, specialized in the development of extreme slow-motion solutions used in the field of broadcasting.

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Tuur Van Balen, SynIS © Tuur Van Balen

TRANSDIGITAL, FINALREPORT AND OUTLOOK

TRANSDIGITAL, FINALREPORT AND OUTLOOK

/ TRANSDIGITAL CAME TO LIGHT AS A RESPONSE TO THE OBSERVATION THAT ARTISTS OF THE DIGITAL ARTS FIELD WERE CONFRONTED WITH GREAT DIFFICULTIES IN ACCESSING A HIGH LEVEL TECHNOLOGY WATCH. /

The company’s new play, provisionally entitled Théâtre, was also the subject of a residency at the Vooruit in Ghent, during the festival The Game is Up! in March 2011, then in Mons in June 2011. Drawing on its collaboration with Transdigital, the company is developing a collaborative working methodology open to experience sharing, since it took part in a 3DS MAX simulation workshop at TechnocITé in November 2011, the results of which will directly benefit its new creation.

Artists and projects supported since the start of the program: Yukie, Daniel Danis, O’REX, Line-Up, Immercity (Bolscan, CAPE), Terra Nova, Eric Joris_CREW, Actor #1 and K, a society, Kris Verdonck/A two Dogs Company, Rémanences, Thierry De Mey, Domini Públic, Roger Bernat, Dancers!, Bud Blumenthal, Walden, Jean-François Peyret, Into the Light of the Night, Plan B, O Oui !, Benoit Lachambre, Cie Par b.l. eux, Permafrost, Aernoudt Jacobs, Les Corps Oubliés/Les Cavalières#2, Thierry Alcaraz, Walk man, Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger, Souffles, Vincent Dupont, Pharmakon, Matthieu Adrien Davy de Virville, Roadside Attractions, Jacques Loeuille, The Cradle of Humankid, Steven Cohen, Youdream, Liberty chérie, Superamas, Distorsions urbaines, t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e, Crimes sans Victimes, Aniara Rodado, Halo-CR, Keiko Courdy and Jacques Parnel, Dance with Viola, Todor Todoroff, Blink, HC Gilje, Chevalier de la résignation infinie, Diane Landry, Grues and Migrations piano, Kathy Hinde, Espace au-delà ME, Julius von Bismarck, Boucle Continuization, Wim Janssen, Effektgerät, Tina tonagel, Disclaimer, Wouter Huis, Ce n’est pas mon Expression de Voix, Ant Hampton & Britt Hatzius, Circonstance – Notre voix cassée, Duncan Speakman, Toujours à chaque Minute, Mélanie Wilson & Abigial Conway, J’ai fait une promesse, RANDOM SCREAM – Davis Freeman, The diaries of Richard, Création titre provisoire, This is Major Tom to Ground Control, Véronique Béland , Tempo scaduto, Vincent Ciciliato, Cellulairement, Dorothée Smith.

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SUPERAMAS: TECHNOLOGY UNDER THE TEST OF ART


THÉÂTRE © Superamas

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TECHNOLOGY UNDERTHE TEST OF ART


/SUPERAMAS

Through some fifteen years and about thirty creations (performances and multimedia installations), the Belgian-French-Austrian collective, Superamas, has established itself on the international theatre scene and today flirts with a degree of stardom, which it still enjoys though qualifies as hollow... Superamas’ stage works have always set out to innovate, both in terms of content and form: hard hitting, disturbing. It’s techno, it’s noisy and it aims to be enjoyable... You might say that the only people who are indifferent are those who don’t go to the theatre, which is quite a lot of people. And it is perhaps on this point that the six members of the collective display their most unchecked ambition: trying to get the theatre to attract new crowds.

Is there still a need to highlight the fact that the purpose of art is to question limits, deconstruct the role of the spectator and declassify forms?Art should always continue to question limits, deconstruct, shake things up... Of course! Just like politics. But in practice, art’s environment is conformist. Conformist and bourgeois. It is a question that it occurred to me to put to some students recently: “What is the specific character of art for you?” they all agreed on the fact that the purpose of art was to call into question what was established.” But, at the same time, they claimed that a work of art should also offer something... Give some answers... Which is contradictory. We believe art must ask questions but refrain from finding solutions: churches and schools have enough of them. Art must allow us to question

Do you sometimes feel confined in your search, your technical procedures or your theatrical experiments?Yes. [Laughs] Yes, it’s easy to repeat yourself. All artists face this question at some point. But I think there are two levels that must be clearly distinguished. In a way, a work of art is shaped by a certain constant. That is what makes the work exist as such. It is this constant that gives it articulation, structure: a kind of face. And, for Superamas, what shapes our work is its political stance: we are a collective. We exist as a group. Our works are the fruit of a collective gestation and demand their plural nature. However, there is another point that enables us to move, to renew ourselves: it is the fact that we strive to regularly change our methods of searching, experimenting, production and creation.

What have been the key moments in the conti-nuity of the collective ?We might say that we are entering our fourth period. Our first period was creations: Building 1 and 2, then Body Builders, performances in which dance and the body were the principal vectors. The second period, that was the trilogy of the Big: these shows were based on looping and repeating, and questioning theatre and culture in general. Finally, with Empire, Youdream and THEATRE, we created a trilogy that called into question performance methods and politics. Three shows with a lot of people on stage and longer research times.

what we believe. That is the basis of our work. We didn’t really find ourselves too much in what we were doing in the theatre and that has not changed greatly since we began working. There are more interesting things in the performance or contemporary dance environments, but for us, in spite of everything, these are elitist envi-ronments and the performances, in the end, are for a very small number of the initiated. What interests us is to produce living art for all. And, as people tend to think that art is produced to pro-vide answers and that, often, they do not under-stand these answers, we are facing a problem... Or a challenge! [he laughs]

Why do you include playful elements in your creations?We used to say, “Don’t leave the monopoly on fun to Walt Disney,” and that means two things. The first is political: if resisting society of spectacle described by Guy Debord - whose full power we see today - means doing performances that no one sees (pleasure being banished from performance as this would be to take the easy option), then we are leaving it entirely to Disney to amuse the masses (or Bouygues and others who occupy available brain time). And the second is political: pleasure is a good thing and we must be able to reflect, question, be moved, etc. with pleasure. The equation: work = suffering = serious = quality seems to us an equation of domination (like the opposite in fact: leisure = pleasure = lightness = foolishness).

Is there a reference to Kant1 in your “Look at how it exists, not at how ugly it is!”Yes, an ugly thing can be fascinating to look at, or even become beautiful depending on the point of view adopted. We often work to bring objects or elements of trivial reality onto the stage. We learn to look a lot. We question certainties: according to what criteria does good taste categorise such and such a thing as ugly? That is what interests us.

01 // Critique of judgement

02 // theyesmen.org

03 // etoy.com

04 // At the risk of oversimplifying, you might sum up the concept like this: an artist who wants to call into question an aspect of society imitates this social or political fact in his or her artistic work in order to provoke questioning in the spectator. Cultural Activism Today: The Art of Over-identification - directed by the research group Bavo - Episode Publishers 2007

05 // Qu’est-ce que l’acte de création ? (What is the act of creation?) - Gille Deleuze - conference given in the framework of the Fermis Foundation Tuesdays - 17/05/1987


Where do you place your research in relation to the collectives of activists such as the Yes Man2, etoy.CORPORATION3 or in relation to the concept of over-identification4 developed by the research group Bavo?We are fairly close in approach, but we place the majority of our creations within the classical and conventional framework of the theatre. We recontextualize fairly similar artistic strategies to theirs in a performance space that does not contain them and that, a priori, excludes them. And, in doing this, we hope to be able to criticize the theatre and the stance that these strategies imply. We are also very close to the concept of over-identification in our way of working. But it is a matter of recontextualizing things. We invent nothing. Nothing never comes from nothing, everything only transforms. As artists, we work simply to contextualize reality in order to question it.

Theatre has the reputation of only attracting people who are more or less in agreement with the message produced there. Do you think that it is still, as an institution, a place for the dissemination of political discourse? Bear in mind that it is not our intention to have a political discourse. Quite the opposite. Rather, we act with a certain political conscience: in other words, in fact, our intention is still to be able to address people in a way that is questioning. But it is not a matter of debating. Art is not a question of communication (according to Deleuze5).

You have no political discourse?In the work Empire Arts and Politics, characters speak in the name of Superamas, of our work and our research, thus exposing the principles that underpin our artistic approach. And we make fun of these so-called principles. We make fun of the artist’s stance as above all, it is a stance. In Empire, at present, we even make fun of the fact that we aim to be able to be political. Like in this interview, in fact. Of course, we are political. But, as you highlight in your question, it is a long time since the theatre really drew people in. We are entirely in agreement: theatre has long been a dead art (according to Serge Daney this time), but that enrages us. For theatre remains, in spite of everything, a highly privileged place, if it were less pretentious, old fashioned, boring, etc. it would still bring people together.

/ ART MUST ASK QUESTIONS BUT REFRAIN FROMFINDING SOLUTIONS: CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS HAVE ENOUGH OF THEM. /

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Big III © SuperamasTHÉÂTRE © Superamas

Youdream © Superamas

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The only arts that, in our view are still somewhat alive is the cinema (or today’s TV series) and media/technological arts (though still in their infancy). What is also interesting with these so-called digital arts is that there are production processes that involve specific skills and collaborations. We can hardly do away with cooperation, with team work. And in that regard, what interests us is the way in which the group is going to make art. Not discourse, not propaganda.

In one interview you stated6 that “Technology serves a purpose and it is useful for a play.” Can you expand upon that?Technology is not worthwhile when it is not necessary, if it doesn’t serve a purpose. It must be considered, thought out by the type of art using it. But, on the contrary, there are no works that do not reflect on the media. So technology, technologies interest us as they radically transform our way of understanding the world, of being with each other... We work with what is known as new technologies because we are working with reality. As material to be observed, played with... Digital technology, new tools, change reality and that is what interests us. We also feel it is equally important to question this paradigm of new technology as it is inextricable from capitalist society. So, if you want to make a social critique today, you must include a critique of technology.

Could you describe the technologies used in your last work “THEATRE “, which called into question, among other things, the production of digital images “that determine and manipulate our view of reality”7? The primary objective was to create an interactive environment of repetitions and captions to enable dramatic interplay between real performers and 3D avatars: the actors had to be able to control the creative chain from start to finish. It is the digital mechanism that is placed at the service of

You worked with manège.mons and TechnocITé on this project, could you describe the context of this partnership?Our collaboration with manège.mons and TechnocITé began with our earlier play. We met Pascal Keiser8 and hit it off immediately. We had specific needs for the production of a film and TechnocITé put us in touch with I-Movix9. We used their slow motion camera for some shots. So for THEATRE, the collaboration began fairly naturally. We had been in residence at the Gare Numérique in Jeumont10 for a fortnight and, at the same time, some students from TechnocITé were working in workshops on 3D modelling. Two 3D modelling workshops were run at TechnocITé with ten to twelve students each time. The first dealt with modelling the actors of the play, from photos (bodies and faces), and the other with virtual scenery. These workshops with the 3D modellers proved very fruitful. For us, on the one hand, who were discovering 3D along with its constraints and strong points, and for the students, on the other, who were able to work on the actual project, with the vagaries associated with creation: changes of ideas during the project, discovery of new problems to be solved, learning to adapt, learning to communicate, etc.

What media are you working with in your new project and what technologies are you using? For this new project, we want to use technology to shape the relationship with time and more particularly performance time. We are thinking of using fairly simple sound looping and light/sound/robotics synchronization technologies, and very probably a 3D printer. The premiere of this new show, which will be probably be called Superamax, is scheduled for Autumn 2014.

thanks to Ariane Loze

06 // Meeting with Superamas at Stéréolux - 28/11/2012 - vimeo.com/55612897

07 // Presentation of “THEATRE “ - Perspectives 2013 festival press kit.

/ THESE WORKSHOPS WITH THE 3DMODELLERS PROVED VERY FRUITFUL. FOR US, ON THE ONE HAND, WHO WEREDISCOVERING 3D ALONG WITH ITS CONSTRAINTS AND STRONG POINTS, AND FOR THE STUDENTS, ON THE OTHER,WHO WERE ABLE TO WORK ON THE ACTUAL PROJECT, WITH THE VAGARIES ASSOCIATED WITH CREATION. /


the work and dramatic creativity to bring about the writing of the show. The second objective was to create a technical mechanism that would make it possible in real time to work on video projections, lights, the sound environments of the scenes and elements of 3D scenery, special effects and the view points of virtual cameras. The idea was to produce a real staging and a real perspective (in the literal and figurative sense) of the two spaces in order to make their boundary as porous as possible during the performance. This digital mechanism enabled us to control both worlds (projected/virtual and physical) of the show in real time with the necessary flexibility required by a live show. The most difficult thing to put into practice was, without doubt, the animation of the 3D avatars. After working for months with the actors on the design of the motion capture system adapted for our way of working, we had too little time to really optimize and develop it. So we had to reduce the number of animations and as a result the presence of the avatars. We then gave priority to the work with the scenery and camera movements: that is to say the point of view. We worked on the stage with our virtual scenery on a large screen using a video game engine. We established with the actors dramaturgical rules and conventions related to the use of camera movements in the 3D scenery. Experimentation with the 3D images in real time and the performance enabled us to discover a veritable theatrical tool. Indeed, we developed a system that amplifies the actors’ movements by prolonging them through the motion of 3D scenery, thus connecting the two worlds.

08 // Director of the CCDS (Centre for Contemporary Digital Scripts) and TechnocITé.

09 // i-movix.com

10 // garenumerique-jeu-mont.fr

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TO BE WHERE THE PIXELS ARECONVERSATION WITH ERIC JORIS

/TO BE WHERETHE PIXELS ARE

Unlike theatrical screens, the ‘stage-image’ is the transposition of the stage itself into images. Without an identifiable screen1, the proposition becomes an immersion in 3D imagery, associated with interactive technologies that enable the adaptation of the visual by either real-time or deferred-time modification. In the stage-image, the mediatised visual becomes a space that is habitable, sensory, interactive and modifiable at will2.

Led by artist Eric Joris, the Belgian collective CREW3 explore very specific immersions which seek to elaborate, define and theorise a new artistic medium. Unlike other research in the same area, CREW’s immersive, artefactual sensorial experiments have always favoured the diffusion of video images filmed and not virtually assembled from all sides. This introduces the public to worlds close to their reality, which can therefore be more easily merged, substituted or superimposed upon it. The mixture of video recordings, live versus pre-recorded, creates obscure zones, the loss of reference points - which can be minimal - but which generate unfamiliar mental and physical sensations.

If philosophers create concepts, then artists work with percepts, defined as: “an amalgam of perceptions and sensations which exist for those who experience them4” and which create a lasting impression on our way of perceiving and viewing the world. What interests Eric Joris is not so much what we do with technology, as the effect technology has on us: “We try to create technological conditions in which we can be fully immersed, which detach us from a certain reality with which we are familiar. We then observe the effects that this produces, which is the primary content of our productions. It is not merely a case of intellectual reactions, they can be very physical and very strong: during our first productions a lot of people felt unwell and one in ten literally fainted during the performance. We had to adjust the settings and find ways of transforming the research into reproducible experiments in order to be able to (re)introduce it to the public.” Over a period of fifteen years the collective has produced around thirty projects, from installations to theatrical productions.

What difficulties have to be faced when presenting work as specific and innovatory as CREW’s?Eric Joris: A large part of our work is research and experimentation - I even prefer to refer to it as trials - not only in terms of the projects’ con-ception, but also in terms of the productions that we give and which the public must experience for themselves. Even if we have been talking for a long time now about cross-disciplinary work, intermedia, digital art, interactive installations...it still remains difficult, the audience has very little involvement. Some people turn up with the pre-defined role of spectator (or perhaps spect-actor); others come with expectations or want immediacy in the production, they want to understand without explanation; or, when they see the cameras, imagine a kind of cinema or the-atre in which a story will unfold... Sometimes this causes misunderstandings and disappointment.When we started, this artistic medium didn’t exist as such, even today it’s taking its first steps, it’s starting to take shape. It is neither cinema nor theatre or performance, nor is it visual or interactive art, or what is frequently called virtual or increased reality... although it borrows, here

01 // Via immersive interfaces: virtual reality headsets, audio headphones, multi-directional cameras.

02 // Clarisse Bardiot, “Arts de la scène et technologies numériques: les digital performances” - Collection ‘Les Basiques, Leonardo/Olats, 2013. Collection managed by Annick Bureaud 03 // crewonline.org

04 // “L’Abécédaire” (The Alphabet Primer) by Gilles Deleuze - produced by Pierre-André Boutang - 1988


CREW, U © Eric Joris/CREWCREW was often supported by TechnocITé, especially during VIA.PRO encounters

Crossroad n. 2, CECN 2012 © Eric Joris/CREW

/ ITW: ERIC JORISARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CREWINTERVIEW BY JACQUES URBANSKA

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CREW, Terra Nova, 2012 © Eric Joris/CREW

CREW, U © Eric Joris/CREWCREW, Headswap, Mons, 2009 © Stéphane Lintermans

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and there, from all these media... It introduces another way for the public to perceive themselves, to dialogue with the object. And sometimes the dialogue can fail to start. That is a risk that we have learned to assimilate into the creation of our projects. As is the case with failure, which we don’t fear: setbacks are part of the process.

You told me in the early years that some peo-ple didn’t understand the point of the exercise: asking them to go to the first floor of the building where they were, then to the second floor, then have them come back, invite them to walk in the street etc, to then come back into the theatre...they simply hadn’t realised that they had only walked within a circle that was five metres in diameter, and had never left the building where they were.Yes [laughter], today the project (and the tech-nologies that it uses) has started to be better known by the general public, but ten years ago it seemed quite magical: we could easily create a kind of virtual reality in which the public very naturally believed because they simply weren’t expecting it at all. It was a first, exciting stage in our work, even if we very quickly realised that, over and above the subterfuge and the techno-logical prowess, it wasn’t very interesting in itself. We therefore completely changed direction: we worked on slow movement, on simple gestures/actions and on the awareness that what we see isn’t real (or is situated in another reality). For example the person sees his legs, but is aware that it is only an image that he is seeing. At the same time, he is fully aware that his physical legs are in the same place, making the same movements. What interests us today is what are called transi-tional zones, the point where the two realities col-lide, where there is overlap. It’s very interesting to see what happens in the brain at that moment.

The technological and theatrical drama context that you set up doesn’t create the production... nor the medium, since it still awaits the public experience, their nervous systems, brains and personal ways of perceiving and reacting?What it does create is the context in which the medium can be birthed. And of course, the audience have to do their part, which is to experience: it’s more than a simple interaction. If they expect things to happen to them just like that, nothing will, because they won’t feel anything. They have to dialogue with the medium, test it, be open to their own sensations. What’s more, in our productions, we have abandoned the concepts of spectator/spect-actor in favour of the role of ‘engager’, which has the advantage of being less familiar, but invit-ing active participation.

If we take the example of U, we wanted to explore the mental processes of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s. Most people consider technology as a means of progression. We wanted to explore it as a means of regression, we wanted the ‘engagers’ to be able to feel this. To be able to ‘real-feel’ this disease rather than merely explain it. A human being isn’t in direct contact with reality, since our brain functions with models of mental stimulation that are interpreted via our senses. If there is a slight modification in one of the parameters within this process, it can be very interesting. The realisation that our recollection of facts has been altered, that we are perhaps no longer in possession of all our faculties, is a sensation that is difficult to express in words. We therefore wanted to create a context that would enable the public to have this experience and to become aware, through subterfuge, of a slightly modified reality.

In an interview5 held with Franck Bauchard6, it is clear that the concepts of textual theatrical scripts and narration are key. Why did you want to reintroduce this theatrical genre into your research?We have always wanted to explore the theatrical possibilities of our productions: to look at how to tell a story via this medium, since im-mersion is experienced in the first person. To introduce a narrator or narrative systems such as those imported from other media - from the theatre or cinema for example – therefore makes no sense to me. We must reinvent, rethink the text. To be there, where the pixels are, is not in order to (re)present something: we immerse ourselves in the subject, we become one with it. Our challenge isn’t only technologi-cal, if specific theatrical or cinematographic scripts exist, there must also exist a specific script for this new medium, and that is what we are experimenting with.

You took the risk of developing your own technologies, both hardware and software. How does your material compare with commercial products such as Oculus Rift7 and in what ways is your research similar or different? Firstly, when we started out, the existing technology was not only scarce but out of our price-range. We had goals and we simply sought to achieve them with the means at our disposal. We were fortunate to very quickly start working with science labs who accompanied our project in exchange for information. That is still how we work today: it’s a win-win situation. They help us create the framework, we exper-iment with it, we are not there to provide answers, but rather to ask the questions.

Concerning Oculus Rift, it is of course an interesting product. With a modest budget more can be provided for more people. It offers good visual impact for games, but for filmic images such as we use that are less uniform, more complex, the pixels are slightly too large and we can’t distinguish the details. It works well for close-ups, for wide shots, but not for regular ones, it is a lot less efficient than the system we are developing. It has a good attachment system which is simple to install, there’s a small ventilation problem which means that perspiration very quickly becomes an issue. For the moment it’s a project that is only just underway, and I can imagine that if it continues to develop then these problems will be corrected and it will become an interesting option. Having said that, when you use high-street products sooner or later you are always limited by something. That is why we have always preferred to develop everything ourselves, even if, of course, that places demands on the budget.

Could you imagine one day using the crowdfunding system for your projects?Since the next stage of our work involves networking, and therefore multiplying hardware, we will have to develop systems that are lighter, more compact, less complex and less expensive. This could of course be a good way of reaching more people in other contexts. What has been happening over the last few years with crowdfunding is very interesting. It is not only the development of headsets that has caught our attention, the cameras, for example, represent another

essential aspect and there is currently a wealth of new ideas coming onto the market via this channel. It also enables us to connect with the business world, which is a very positive thing.

You have been exploring immersion for fifteen years now, has it become an obsession for you? Do you feel the need to work on something else?Yes and no, because when you work in emerging fields such as this one, the possibilities are enor-mous, you can head in any number of directions and it can take you a very long way from your in-itial research. And we are very enthusiastic about it, so the material we accumulate and the projects we undertake are many and various. Unfortu-nately we can’t tackle everything and for me it’s always important to show an end result. But we collaborate with a lot of artists in many domains and not only at a cultural or artistic level.

For example, we are currently in a consortium that comprises a range of artists who are working on postproduction procedures for cinema. Postproduction for a film requires a considerable amount of time, sometimes years, and as it is often a decentralised process, the producer or director can easily lose track. We had the idea of developing technologies so that these production stages could be kept on set, so that it could (almost) be done in real time so that everyone can directly have their say while the film is being shot.

For the time being, only a few big-budget productions have access to this kind of technology (and even there it could be taken much further). It has to become more widespread so that more modest projects can also benefit and experiment with it. For example, we are wanting to be able to rework our motion captures in real time. The first test results are quite simply outstanding.

05 // Patch magazine #12 – 2011 – CCDS2, Centre for Contemporary Digital Scripts

06 // Then director of La Chartreuse - C.I.R.C.A - C.N.E.S, today director of La Panacée, Centre de culture contemporaine - Montpellier

07 // Low-cost immersive headset, available on the high street, very much in demand for video games

/ WHEN WE STARTED, THIS AR-TISTIC MEDIUM DIDN’T EXIST AS SUCH, EVEN TODAY IT’S TAKING ITS FIRST STEPS, IT’S STARTING TO TAKE SHAPE. /

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You have been several times to Mons in the context of your projects. What do you recall of these different collaborations in Mons?We have a privileged relationship with Pascal Keiser8 and he accompanied us - whether at CCDS9 or TechnocITé10 - in our preparation, demonstration and production. I especially remember the Professional Encounters at the VIA Festival, which was an exceptionally good presentation forum. We all work on our own, we are very busy and don’t take the time to go see what is happening elsewhere. Space-time venues where professionals can meet, make contact, discuss and exchange are indispensable. In Belgium we have other partnership structures such as Buda in Courtrai or the Kaai in Brussels, but in Mons there is this technological specificity that is often lacking elsewhere. I could quote some other examples: the O_Rex project, one of our very complicated productions, would quite simply not have happened without the help of CCDS; workshops and residential training courses including CROSSROAD11, a time for reflection that we don’t often take, without the pressure to produce an end result; the participation in the European project Transdigital12 (proposed by TechnocITé), which aimed to bring together the worlds of research, science, business and the arts. There were also magical moments during presentations, such as Headswap by satellite, with one engager in Mons and the other in Barcelona... As we wait for their latest production, CREW continue to work on and present their project C.A.P.E (Cave Automatic Personal Environment), which invites the audience to stroll through virtual environments whose immersive content is enriched year by year.

/ I ESPECIALLY REMEMBER THE PROFESSIONAL ENCOUNTERS AT THE VIA FESTIVAL, WHICH WASAN EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD PRESENTATION FORUM. /

/ THE ONLY TROUBLEWITH SOUNDSIS MUSIC /

08 // Director of CCDS and TechnocITé

09 // cecn.eu

10 // technocite.be

11 // Preliminary research for the out-working of the main theme for Mons 2015: “Where technology meets culture”. Propos-al made by CCDS.

12 // transdigital.org -see also the series of ar-ticles published about CREW in the ‘Cook-book#1’ - Transdigital

City Sonic, the international sound art festival, was jointly founded in 2003 by Transcultures and the City of Mons.1 Pioneers of innovative talent, these two institutions have been headed by Philippe Franck and are part of Mons’ cultural fabric resulting from collaborations that are not only local, but also cross-border, European and even transatlantic. While the festival’s most recent editions were co-produced by Transcultures’ privileged partner manège.mons, a special mention must be given to the ever-increasing number of collaborations with players such as the University of Mons (numediart, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, etc.), the Mundaneum, Arts2, TechnocITé, etc., and lately with a group of regional actors operating under the name “Coupole Numérique,” created on the occasion of Mons 2015, the European capital of culture. Maintained and proclaimed by Philippe Franck with his Transcultures intermedia project, this constant networking effort is what gives City Sonic such a singular identity.

The conception of “sound art” by Philippe Franck is “multi-faceted and unfixed.” In fact, he prefers to talk of sound arts in the plural rather than one hypothetical “sound art.” Referring to digital art in the singular is all the more vexing for him as it infers that there is only one way in and one way out of these fields. When he talks about sound, he explains that it is worked “as if it were the primary material (without precluding interactions with other mediums) and by going beyond music, which is naturally one of the main fields of sound, but not the only one.” It is on the basis of this exploratory, open field that he founded – and continues to develop – the City Sonic festival.

When questioned about the difference between sound arts and music, Philippe Franck reminds us that having a good historical knowledge of these disciplines is essential in order to grasp the subtleties that distinguish them, without necessarily opposing them: “Certain major advances in 20th century music have made it possible to explore sound as just that, and not merely as a musical construction. This is one of the great contributions by the likes of Schaeffer, Scelsi, Cage, Ferrari, La Monte Young, Kupper, Xenakis, Stockhausen and other sound adventurers, often frowned upon by their contemporaries initially, before being consecrated, albeit much later for some of them.

The spatial dimension is essential. The spatialization of musical works is now commonplace, in particular via electro-acoustics. Sound is much more well-traveled and textural than it used to be, which also holds true for certain types of electronic music, referred to as more experimental. Sound is also all about materials, and this necessarily challenges concepts such as grammar, syntax, grading, and other set musical codes which, as a result, have to open up and reinvent themselves.

1 // Transcultures, interdisciplinary center for sound and electronic cultures that was created in 1996 in Brussels.

2 // TechnocITé has co-produced six editions of City Sonic. Other partners include Belgian organizations (Iselp, Galeries, Flagey, Centres culturels de Huy et de la Région Centre, etc.) and international structures (Les Folies de Maubeuge, the Ososphère in Strasbourg, the Arts Center in Enghien-les-Bains, Rhizome Productions in Québec, etc.).

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/CITY SONICINTERNATIONAL SOUNDART FESTIVAL

/ ITW: PHILIPPE FRANCKARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CITY SONIC


/ IN BELGIUM WE HAVE OTHER PARTNERSHIP STRUCTURES BUT IN MONS THERE IS THIS TECHNOLOGICAL SPECIFICITY THAT IS OFTEN LACKING ELSEWHERE. /

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CITY SONIC, INTERNATIONAL SOUNDART FESTIVAL


The very concept of sound art is relatively recent, dating back to the eighties. Defining oneself as a sound artist is not always all that easy, even now. Generally speaking, I tend to avoid labels as they are too simplistic, but you have to be able to make distinctions; a sound artist is not necessarily a musician, and vice versa. I, for one, like to use expressions that conjure up powerful images: sound sculptor, sound painter, or even sound poet.”

There is one unavoidable address in the Francophone blogosphere to further discover the sound arts phenomenon: that of Gilles Mallatray and his DESARTSONNANTS blog.3 Gilles is a true sound enthusiast and a regular guest at City Sonic. In 2013, the site dedicated to the City Sonic festival4 also became a portal, featuring a plethora of sources and information streams on other types of audio creations from around the world. Although there are still relatively few seminal works on sound arts, two books worthy of note are Sound Art5 by musician Alan Licht, and Ocean of sound6 by David Toop. There are also a number of monographs of remarkable artists such as Christina Kubisch, Robin Minard, Hans Peter Kuhn, Rolf Julius, published in German... In France, there is a collection of works directed by Yvan Etienne from the “Presses du réel”7 with first-hand translations and essays; books on artists such as Dominique Petitgand,8 Pascal Broccholici,9 Pierre Belouin and his Optical Sound label/ review, Jerome Poret or the online publications of the Locus Sonus sound art laboratory. Lastly, there are written works by Cage, Schaeffer, Ferrari, and also William Burroughs (Electronic revolution) or Henri Chopin (Sound Poetry) to stimulate those with curious, inquiring ears. Philippe Franck also contributes to this expanding corpus with articles for various journals, essays and soon a book on the City Sonic experience.

City Sonic, 10 years of sound adventures in the heart of the cityIn the 10 years that have seen the development of a localized, urban event, the Transcultures team has never ceased to adapt, learn and advance, despite many a setback, with an ongoing desire to assert its difference and singularity, but without ever distancing itself from the interests of the visitor-listener.

The event’s longevity along with the recognition it has now gained have unfortunately not ironed out all the difficulties: “It is still difficult, perhaps even more so than in the early days, to gather the resources needed to put on a quality show,” con-fesses Philippe Franck. He goes on: “In the midst of today’s trend for mega-shows, City Sonic sets out to promote its different voice within a more intimate context rather than trying to please all and especially to do so with a certain grace that sets us apart from events with interchangeable programs. This has never been easy to achieve, and even if things are getting better, there are still very few sound art festivals, few places where young artists can experiment, to say nothing of financing, venues, and research time… That is why it is important for us to support this type of creation by providing a dedicated urban space and a platform for production, broadcasting and reflection.»

3 // desartsonnants.over-blog.com

4 // citysonic.be

5 // Rizzoli 2007

6 // Serpent’s Tail, 2001

7 // lespressesdureel.com – performing arts & sound arts

8 // Dominique Petitgand, Notes, Voices, Interviews

9 // For whom Philippe Franck coordinated Surfaces de propagation in 2007.

/ CERTAIN MAJOR ADVANCES IN TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSIC HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE TO EXPLORE SOUND AS JUST THAT, AND NOT MERELY AS A MUSICAL CONSTRUCTION. IN THE MIDST OF TODAY’S TREND FOR MEGA-SHOWS, CITY SONIC SETS OUT TO PROMOTE ITS DIFFERENT VOICE WITHIN A MORE INTIMATE CONTEXT RATHER THAN TRYING TO PLEASE ALL. /

Denys Vinzant – D’Ores et d’espace © Denys Vinzant

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Daniel Palacios, Waves © Daniel Palacios

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City Sonic: “Made in Mons”While the festival is now recognized as a Mons event slated at the beginning of the cultural season, more and more projects engendered by this festival are coming into their own and traveling elsewhere in Belgium and abroad. This is the case with Sonic Kids, workshops intended to introduce young audiences to sound activities. The workshop are run by artists from different backgrounds who have managed to establish themselves all year round both in Belgium and the North of France.

Another City Sonic-certified event is the Sonic Garden Party, with performances held in private gardens that open their gates for the occasion and where hospitality is matched by excellent programming. There are also more recent events, such as the Partages d’écoute, where a guest artist, critic or music lover comments on a specific playlist, the Showcases émergences (with the manège.mons) where a stage is offered to young talent, or the Sonic Lab,10 with small innovative musical forms that combine the exploration aspect with forms of audio-digital writing.

Lastly, there is now a City Sonic label, with productions that are regularly exported, travelling both elsewhere in Belgium and further afield. The dissemination of works is essential for their director/creator: “It gives artistic projects an extended life and greater visibility, and sometimes leads to other opportunities. I would like to further develop the City Sonic label because they are more and more sucessful, and in very disparate circuits. We are making the most of a certain vogue for public arena events, and an interest in sound by a growing number of institutions that don’t always know exactly how to approach it.” As a result of this networking effort, City Sonic productions that originated in Mons can now be found elsewhere in Belgium, in France, at various European festivals and even as far afield as Tunisia or Canada. In addition to «Park in progress,”11 City Sonic also represents a visibility platform for two other manège.mons European projects: Espace(s) Son(s) Hainaut(s), a platform for innovative music12, and Nomade, which focuses on mobility and raising awareness of new digital practices on either side of the Belgian border.

On another equally important level, Philippe Franck has, in recent years, also been the curator of sound events such as the Dédale Biennale des Arts contemporains en milieu urbain (Biennial of Contemporary Arts in the urban environment) at Huy in 2012, Les Folies in Maubeuge in 2013, or Resonances, les Arts Sonores in Walloon Brabant in 2014, to name only the most prominent.

Sound creation in Mons 2015, European capital of cultureAlthough it is still too early to unveil the Mons 2015 program, City Sonic intends to become a hub for European audio arts, with a series of creations in collaboration with overseas sound centers, festivals and laboratories. This 13th edition of the festival is a good opportunity to redefine itself by building on its specificities: “A path through the city center combining artistic creations by established audiophiles with new young Belgian and European talent. The path will depart from the Carré des Arts, with, in particular, a monumental installation created by students of the Academy of Arts before going on to the district recently dubbed “Le kilomètre culturel.” This district is home to the new Arsonic building, dedicated to innovative music and which will be a high point of the festival, featuring electro-contemporary collaborations with the Musiques Nouvelles ensemble,” explains Philippe Franck.

We also know that City Sonic will occupy the Web network with two virtual “IT Subway” lines set up by Mons 2015, including orders for sound and poetic pieces, and a Mobile Sonic prize awarded for connected audio forms.13 Finally, given that one of City Sonic’s main vocations is building the awareness of young audiences and publishing, the Sonic Kids workshops offered by Transcultures promise to be an exciting time and the works will be displayed. Philippe Franck sums up these coming projects: “We will no doubt also be associated with the D’ici et d’ailleurs event organized at the Maison Folie and featuring Montreal and Quebec. We enjoy ongoing interaction with these two cities through Rhizome Productions, a structure that establishes a link between literature and other contemporary disciplines, including sound creation. The event will likely be an opportunity to publish, via our Transonic sound label, a series of sound objects that tie in with these constellations and singular meetings.”


10 // Launched in 2012 with Art Zoyd, pioneer group and musical creation studio

11 // Nomadic project initiated by les Pépinières européennes pour jeunes artistes (European incubators for young artists), co-organized by Trans-cultures. Its purpose is to promote creations and interdisciplinary collaborations by young cultural profes-sionals at their place of residence.

12 // Inter-regional project that brings together manège.mons, Le Phénix concert hall in Valenciennes, France, and Art Zoy

13 // Project associated with the Mobile Awards - Art(s) & Network(s) that Transcultures initiated in 2013 at the Quinzaine numérique (digital fortnight) event.

6 June 2012. The news has just hit the Internet: “The Internet story looks back on the past. The idea of the “web” in fact dates back to 1934...” This information emerged during the World Science Festival in New York, which attributed the paternity of the idea of the Internet to Paul Otlet, the Belgian biographer and founder of Mundaneum. And this before a panel of renowned experts including American Vint Cerf, the inventor of the TCP/IP protocol and considered one of the fathers of the Internet... That was enough to create a buzz and place Belgium at the genesis of the Story of Information and Communication technologies!

Called “Internet on paper” since its opening in Mons in 1998, Mundaneum has seen recovered visibility on a national and international scale over recent years. What view does the evolution of technologies and the Internet invite us to ask about his part of Belgian heritage?This recognition is first of all media based: Le Monde ran the headline: ”Le Mundaneum, Google on paper” (2009), the New York Times: “The web time forgot” (2008), Germany’s Der Spiegel: “Knowledge Network, decades before Google” among other media — British, Dutch Indonesian, Turkish, Danish, etc. — whose columns one day told the story of Mundaneum. But well before this media era, it is interesting to note that recognition was initially scientific: it was an Australian researcher named Boyd Rayward who was the first to rediscover the Mundaneum and Paul Otlet during the 1960s. Rayward became the ambassador for the Mundaneum in the English-speaking scientific world, thus paving the way for the training of an international scientific community which grew up over time around this exceptional piece of heritage and the subjects addressed by the Mundaneum (information sciences from international law to visualization, architecture, history and today even “digital studies”). In June 2013, Unesco recognised the Universal Bibliographical Repertory as documentary heritage to be preserved as a matter of urgency as part of its “Memory of the World Registry”. As the celebrated Belgian designer, François Schuiten, who supported the Mundaneum from the beginning of its Mons adventure believes, technology is reality augmented by Mundaneum. The advent of the

/ ITW: JEAN-PAUL DEPLUSPRESIDENT OF MUNDANEUM

INTERVIEW BY DELPHINE JENART

/THE MUNDANEUM IN MONS:

digital world invites us today to take a new look at this premonitory work and its founders Otlet and La Fontaine: true visionaries!

/ TECHNOLOGY IS REALITY AUGMENTED BY MUNDANEUM /

The Mundaneum has its origins in Brussels. Installed in Mons during the 1990s, that is a century after its creation, the Mundaneum established itself within a few years in the Mons ecosystem as a place for debate on dig-ital culture. What were the milestones of this transformation?The origins of the Mundaneum lie in Brussels at the end of the 19th century. Its history since its creation would be too long to retell here, the important thing is that today we have the opportunity to enjoy this exceptional piece of heritage in Mons! Our strength is that on the one hand, we have the Digital Innovation Valley, made up of big names such as Google, Microsoft, etc. and a fabric of innovative enterprises in the ICT field. And on the other hand, for a little over 20 years, Mons has been home to the Mundaneum, which in the eyes of the “Internet Archaeology” world is a “proto-search engine”, the foundation bricks of the digital world. It is precisely from this perspective that we are incorporating the Mundaneum in the 2014 project “Where technology meets culture”, applying this leitmotif as follows: “Where Technology meets History”.

The collaboration with Google is a determining factor in this positioning. Initially, this partnership was based on a common desire to focus the spotlight on forgotten pioneers, Otlet and La Fontaine. Google helped us to place Mundaneum on the Internet History timeline and thereby position the institution on the international scene. Conversely, the Mundaneum helped Google to anchor locally, which, from the perspective of 2015 and recent investments by Google in its Saint-Ghislain data centre, is a major prospect for the company. Besides Google, the Mundaneum opened up to a series of collaborations with local stakeholders from the digital world: universities, continuous training organisations such as TechnocITé, associations promoting digital technology in schools, clusters of companies active in this domain, etc. Each of the Mundaneum’s activities, be they exhibitions (“Shangaï[email protected]” in 2010,

A “RENAISSANCE 2.0”!

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THE MUNDANEUM IN MONS : A “RENAISSANCE 2.0” !

THE MUNDANEUM IN MONS : A“RENAISSANCE 2.0” !

The Mundaneum museum in Mons, © Pulsme

The Mundaneum employees at work, Brussels, 1910© Mundaneum

The Universal Bibliographic Directory, recognized by Unesco Memory of the World Register since 2013 © Mundaneum

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“Renaissance 2.0” in 2012), conference-debates, workshops or educational events, integrates this digital component that will turn the institution’s project into a project connected with the realities of our knowledge society. It is worth noting the birth several months ago in Mons of a “digital community”: a number of passionate volunteers who used their creativity to propose new methods of meeting and discussing the question (the “Pixel festival” formerly “RDV of the Pixel”, Digital Cafés, the “Pecha Kucha”). This was news that the Mundaneum wanted to contribute to by being a meeting place for all these initiatives, a crossroads of encounters.

/ GOOGLE HELPED US TO PLACE MUNDANEUM ON THE INTERNET HISTORY TIMELINE. /

History therefore forms an integral part of the Mundaneum’s cultural project. Through its archives, as well as through its founders and the role they played in Belgium during the first half of the 19th Century. To what extent does Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine’s mes-sage still proclaim modernity?The Mundaneum rightly owes its originality to the meeting of these two men. Otlet spent his whole life in pursuit of the utopian project of the universality of knowledge; La Fontaine made his mark on history through his commitment to peace (he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913). Beyond the vision of the information society that they held from 1895 onwards, their commitment lies in a veritable societal project that fully integrated the values of internationalism, humanism and pacifism. This is what makes their message timeless: the fight for access to information for all, the struggle against all forms of obscurantism, emancipation of the people through the sharing and the acquisition of knowledge... Knowledge in the service of peace! Universal issues that are raised at each point in time: the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg, the Encyclopaedia of the Enlightenment, the advent of the first media during the industrial era and today, the digital revolution... Otlet and La Fontaine’s work now invites us to take a new look at the



massive upheavals caused by these paradigm shifts. As a witness to an époque - Belgium and 19th century society - the Mundaneum becomes a sextant, compass or even a decoder, we would say today, of the great challenges of our knowledge society. It is the most beautiful inheritance that these two men could have left us.

/ THE MUNDANEUM BECOMES A SEXTANT, COMPASS OR EVEN A DECODER OF THE GREAT CHALLENGES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY. /

Throughout its activities, the Mundaneum proved increasingly to be the creator of the “clustering of networks”. Would you define the Mundaneum as a “hub” whose purpose it is to connect different partners and expertise at national and international level.The very idea of the “network” is engrained in the DNA of the Mundaneum. How could Otlet and La Fontaine have been able to conceive of and create a universal bibliographic repertory without activating an international network of cooperation on an international scale? Furthermore, our archives offer very interesting views of this global network, built at the outset from the International Bibliographic Institute created by the two men in 1895, whose 120th anniversary we will be celebrating in 2015.

With this heritage, “the network of knowledge before the Internet”, it is today crucial that the Mundaneum can be found at the centre of the web. The network concept defines our professions: it is our responsibility to identify expertise, stimulate collaborations, connect people from different backgrounds. Everything in order to produce an original mediation project using the resources we have. It is noteworthy that, just as the founders of Mundaneum designed it in their time, the Mundaneum and its archives are today at the centre of an international scientific, historic (the European pioneers of the Internet in the case of Otlet, the Nobel Peace Prize in the case of La Fontaine) or even patrimonial network, with the addition in June 2013 of the Universal Bibliographic Repertory to the Unesco Memory of the World Registry. On the strength of our collaboration with Google, we are also opening up the Mundaneum to the business world. Along the lines of the English-speaking model, the intersection between the cultural world and the private world tends to grow in the framework of a public-private partnership. The Mundaneum wishes to fully integrate this framework into its own ecosystem.

/ THE VERY IDEA OF THE “NETWORK” IS ENGRAINED IN THE DNA OF THEMUNDANEUM. /

What are the medium and long term prospects for the Mundaneum in the context of Mons 2015?“Internet, a Belgian story? The Mundaneum becomes the centre of web culture” is the title run by Trends tendances magazine and sums up our ambition for the Mundaneum. The French philosopher, Michel Serres, speaks, in relation to the advent of information technologies, of a “cultural and cognitive revolution.” This goes to the very heart of what we are: our language, our “being in the world.” Historical legitimacy makes the Mundaneum a unique place in French-speaking Belgium from which to propose a critical reflection on the digital revolution that we are witnessing and are part of. It is the advent of an emerging culture that affects all generations: the Mundaneum today has meaning in this new field of human culture, the digital culture, by positioning itself at the start of a new vision of the world.

And this is why, now more than ever, the Mundaneum is turning towards the younger generation, born in the “all digital” era! Identifying and understanding the impact of these technologies on society, demystifying their use, helping to understand that they can be the vectors of social ties, raising people’s awareness of the construction of knowledge and identities in the time of the Web 2.0, promoting the knowledge society by shedding light on the pooling of knowledge... Today it is our responsibility to capitalize on the originality of Otlet and La Fontaine’s project and position the Mundaneum as a space in French-speaking Belgium where our connected society is constantly debated.

From spring 2015 onwards, the Mundaneum will once again open its doors with an entirely new infrastructure brought into line with current standards by our supervisory authority, the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. This completely upgraded infrastructure will enable a team of fifteen members of staff to give people optimum attention. Be they researchers from all over the world (Russia, Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka, Canada, etc.) coming to consult our archives or groups of visitors wishing to find out about “Google on paper” and temporary exhibitions. As regards the museum, the reopening of the Mundaneum will take place under the theme of Big Data and Information Design: a connected exhibition that will invite visitors to an immersive experience in the information universe. In terms of archiving: the team is making progress on the digital path in order to provide exhaustive access to our on-line collections. Various systems already make this possible at present: the new platform put on line by the Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles and the Google Cultural Institute, of which Mundaneum was Belgium’s first partner. Considerable efforts will also be made in terms of conservation thanks to the new infrastructure. I have full confidence in the team in place to remain attentive and keep the Mundaneum project in this fascinating dialogue between history and potential. Thus is born the meaning of the Mundaneum in 2013.

The president of the Mundaneum, Jean-Paul Deplus, has worked with several ministers including the current prime minister, Elio Di Rupo. Several times deputy mayor of the city of Mons, of which he is still municipal councillor, President of the Manège.Mons arts centre and a member of Fondation 2014, he is convinced that access to culture is essential for a fairer world.

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Les Abattoirs, renewed exhibition venue, will host large exhibitions during Mons 2015 © R. Noviello

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Mons 2015 has been able to draw on a particularly fertile technological and creative terrain that has also participated in defining the identity and potential of the European Capital of Culture project. The Digital Innovation Valley1 brings together major companies (Google, Microsoft, among others) and start-ups. The private sector is collaborating there with the research sector (Institut Numediart/University of Mons), not forgetting cultural or educational initiatives that have integrated the digital dimension in a personalized way (the founding experience of the Centre for Contemporary and Digital Scripts/CCDS, TechnocITé, Transcultures, etc.). Today, now that the Coupole Numérique initiated in preparation for the European Capital of Culture is bringing together a number of these operators, we have revisited this technology-economy-creativity networking that will significantly expand horizons beyond 2015 with Yves Vasseur.

/ MONS 2015 COULD BE SEEN AS A SORT OF LABORATORY OF WHAT A 21ST CENTURY CULTURAL CENTRE SHOULD BE. /

What, for you, is the validity of projects such as Café Europa2 and Métro Europa,3 combining technological, urban and participative dimensions in the planning of Mons 2015 and beyond?Yves Vasseur: What interests me about these initiatives and uniquely in the case of Café Europa is that we are really talking about transverse projects. If I have to choose between a number of projects, it is those that cover different fields of involvement that I will try to give priority support. Café Europa calls up this dimension of public gathering, as well as music, images, words or technology. Europe is also present, as is the local anchoring of the district in which the café is located. These crossovers are essential for tomorrow’s society. Mons 2015 could be seen as a sort of laboratory of what a 21st century cultural centre should be. I think that today we are still in a post-Malraux model inherited from the second half of the 20th century. Thanks to the Mons 2015 project, we have the opportunity of testing other types of public, other approaches and inventing other formulas... Why, for example, are libraries closed during school holidays? The Internet has no opening hours and we must throw ourselves into these new modes of partnership, while avoiding excess. From this perspective, Café Europa may be an emblematic laboratory.

/2015 AND BEYOND: VISION AND ECONOMYOF DIGITAL CREATIVITY 1 // Platform established

by TechnocITé, which brings together a number of large and small companies working in ICT around an incubation process that also aims to facilitate their presence in Mons and Wallonia.

2 // The concept of Café Europa proposes to revisit the notion of Café in the time of digital technology by developing a series of artistic projects creating a strong social link with various layers of the population. In particular, these projects are linked to the ubiquitous (advanced video presence/conference systems), interactive web platforms, proposals integrating videogame technologies in urban territory.

3 // The Mons 2015 inaugural exhibition is based on connectivity, in particular, different urban routes over which different artistic interactions (video, video games, sound) are offered visitors via their connection tools (tablets and smartphones in particular).

The media specialist Dominique Wolton4 puts us on our guard against the “dictatorship of interactivity” and the fascination for all things technological which, while providing formidable tools, does not necessarily allow us to convey information if we do not support it... Do you think that the link with digital technology should be activated for all Mons 2015 projects?In any case, we must open up more to these possibilities. For my part, I hope that this technological link is applied everywhere it can convey meaning, but there is nothing worse than forcing it. To give you one example among many others, recently, I was offered a project in which a mathematician-philosopher can use a special program to reveal Van Gogh’s painting process. So, in the Van Gogh exhibition in Mons, we could offer a “Google art” workshop and illustrated conferences on the painting action that would reveal other facets of the creative act. That would not be possible without the technological development applied. But, of course, above all, we must not give in to the “dictatorship of all things technological”.

How do you view the role of knowledge management in the future and the economy-culture-technology network?We are very lucky in our region that the Digital Innovation Valley gives pride of place to creative industries (Fishing Cactus, I-Movix and many other businesses with recognized talents). With a dozen Walloon businesses, we have just completed a week of economic mission in Marseilles that went very well. Surrounding myself with a very young team forms part of my desire to work on this aspect of training from which the region will be able to benefit after Mons 2015. This has also spawned other views, other professions and other skills in the university and colleges. The students are given new keys, enabling them to go further in preparing their future projects.

4 // Director of research at the CNRS in communication sciences, in particular, author of Internet et après ? Une théorie critique des nouveaux médias. ((Internet and afterwards? A critical theory of new media) (Flammarion, 1999) and Informer n’est pas communiquer (Informing is not communicating) (CNRS Editions, 2009).

In this spirit, Mons 2015 is also developing links with public institutions and private partners (in particular via the Mons 2015 businesses club)... We can clearly see a desire on the part of the business world, that exceeds creative industries alone, to be supported in order not to miss a unique opportunity (for example, a construction or cement manufacturing company supplies equipment necessary for an exhibition). On their part, I sense overall this desire to support us in order also to produce other forms of exchanges and longer term partnerships.

Most European Capitals of Culture have been affected by political, economic and cultural realities, but also by a form of utopia. Mons 2015 seems more like a pragmatic project, although at the same time looking towards the future...We have a duty to use public funds correctly and in that respect we are fairly proud of having remained realistic! In fact, the cost of the years of preparation will be offset by Mons 2015 subsidies and I can say today that we have succeeded in this challenge in spite of the crisis. In concrete terms, that means that 100% of public funds allocated for Mons 2015 will actually be used for projects. This principle of reality is my responsibility. I am even happy to be audited by our authorities in this regard as I attach the utmost importance to remaining within the framework. But to answer your comment more directly, the utopia is that after 2015, we should feel different, more positive. Too often in Wallonia, there is perhaps a regrettable “beautiful losers” state of mind. Mons 2015 can also give a constructive jolt and contribute to changing this mindset especially so that more people become “happy winners”.

2015 AND BEYOND: VISION AND ECONOMYOF DIGITAL CREATIVITY

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/ ITW: YVES VASSEURCURATOR GENERAL OF THE MONS 2015 FOUNDATION

INTERVIEW BY PHILIPPE FRANCK

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Your preferred method of management both as regards the Manège.mons arts centre and Mons 2015 seems to be that of “orchestrator”, concerned first with good project management and administration and someone who places his trust in artistic managers. That’s quite right. No cultural project can be run without healthy management understood by all, so this administrative basis has prevailed in the implementation of major projects.Next, I tried to surround myself with quality people in their respective domains. My work is to provide a framework in order to structure the dreams of a project that makes sense and that respects technical and budgetary commitments.

On the other hand, as commissioner of Mons 2015, I accept the fact that it is likely that not everything will be achieved as we might wish at the time of the opening on 24 January 2015 or finished by January 2016. We didn’t take on a mammoth task. Arsonic, 106, the Manège, the Pôle Muséal, etc. These are tools that, very fortunately, we can make fruitful after 2016.In parallel with the urban metamorphosis, we are expecting a metamorphosis of minds that brings together social diversity and relations with culture in a different way. This is the energy that Mons 2015 needs!

www.mons2015.eu

What are the new infrastructures that are to be part of the sustainable Mons 2015 effect?We might cite Arsonic, a project run by Jean-Paul Dessy for new music and sound arts; the Théâtre du Manège; the 106, which is not only an office for Fondation 2015 but also a living environment, a buffer between journalists and guests; the Pôle Muséal with the BAM upgrading; the Mons Memorial Museum at the Machine à Eau; the Artothèque, which will enable the Mons (drawing) collections to be seen; the Centre d’interprétation de littérature hennuyère (Centre for the Interpretation of Hennuyère Literature), etc. We will also reopen the Beffroi, where an innovative interactive visit will be offered. And we can add the opening of the Neolithic mines in Spienne, which will finally be able to be visited. A place of major innovation in the Mons region inasmuch as it is one of mankind’s oldest. A place where, six thousand years ago, man used tools made from flint.

Major paracultural infrastructure will be inaugurated in 2015: the new station designed by Santiago Calatrava5, a place of significant architecture that will open up Mons to unique transmobility in Europe with car parks, bus and train lines and alongside it, the conference centre built by Daniel Libeskind6 and the Mons association of engineer architects, H2A, which will have a major role in business tourism by creating “urban efflorescence” to use the words of the developers. There was a need for a conference hall between Lille and Liège, and Mons’ mobility possibilities (no or less congestion than other cities) have also played in favour of this project.

5 // Spanish architect, artist and engineer who designed the Valencia Opera House, the Liège high speed railway station and soon the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York.

6 // American architect of Polish origin in particular of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Grand Canal Performing Arts Centre in Dublin and the Museum ofMilitary History in Dresden.

/ IN PARALLEL WITH THE URBAN METAMORPHOSIS, WE ARE EXPECTING A METAMORPHOSIS OF MINDS THAT BRINGS TOGETHER SOCIAL DIVERSITYAND RELATIONS WITH CULTUREIN A DIFFERENT WAY. /



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Congress Centre in Mons, designed by Daniel Libeskind © Daniel Libeskind

Theatre Le Manège in Mons © Marie-Noelle Dailly

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Congress Centre in Mons, designed by Daniel Libeskind © Daniel Libeskind



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Since the emergence of our I.T. society, many leaders of the political, academic or cultural worlds have sought to address the digital fracture, whose lesions today are both social and generational. Faced with this social, educational and generational challenge, the powers that be have heavily invested without managing, however, to resolve the user deficit or the new cognitive paradigms due to the prodigious technological development of the last three decades. Nor have they resolved the phenomenon of marginalization for those who have missed the digital train.

Investment on a massive scale in further education is a partial response to the need for re-socialisation through learning and the mastery of new knowledge and skills with, in many cases, the goal of professional reinsertion or sometimes the acquisition of certain basic skills in the use of digital tools. For several years now TechnocITé has been offering a wide range of training modules adapted to market requirements. This was necessary to meet industry’s growing need for qualified workers, in particular in the Mons region where digital Companies have experienced rapid growth over recent years, accelerating a return to work in large numbers.

via a system of mobile screens, to admire the actual panoramic view but will also provide historical information and a view across the city as it was two hundred years ago.” But will this City investment have a lasting effect beyond Mons 2015? “Digital Cities is financed by the public authorities, principally by the Walloon Region and to a lesser extent by the City. Part of the long-term finance will be produced by advertising income, especially local advertising since the slots are primarily available for Mons traders. The project should last beyond 2015 and be of benefit to all Mons’ citizens for at least seven years” David Picard assured us.

Art re-enchants the cityIf free internet access and a series of services can help to reach a new public and create new zones of conviviality across the city, it is necessary, however, to work in depth on the recreation of social bonds, profoundly affected by our frenetic lifestyles. In this respect Mons 2015 offers the chance to rediscover cohesion, the pleasure of sharing the city and the satisfaction of being an integral part of a federative event. Certain projects such as Café Europa or Métro IT should truly captivate the public since they appeal to the collective subconscious, with strong social and historical links.

“Café Europa reflects a historical and social reality of the Mons region, which in the past had a large number of cafés. These cafés were at the heart of neighbourhood activity, they facilitated various requirements, of course to have a drink, but also to meet, and occasionally to take part in activities and learn. “Café Europa has the ambition of recreating this particular atmosphere and strengthening the weakened social bond amongst citizens. The project has a determinedly broad European, perspective since the cafés will be connected to partner locations in other European Capitals of Culture, or other cities in partnership. The idea is therefore going to reach people well beyond the confines of Mons”

explained David Picard. But what is the City’s involvement in these projects? “Café Europa, just like Métro IT in fact, are pilot projects from the Mons 2015 Foundation which overlap in a number of ways different City-led activities. We are undertaking a major consultation exercise to avoid direct duplication and arrive at a coherent package for visitors. As such, we have developed a holiday-planner application for mobiles which will enable visitors to note places of interest in the City but also to draw up a personalised program of events and to reserve tickets on line, whilst giving them the opportunity to comment or to share on social networks. The City will provide the Digital Cities infrastructure by ensuring free connectivity.”

The social bonds that can be cemented by an event like Mons 2015 must be able to take root in a specific area and be established in an urban reality that the inhabitants can enjoy. To use artistic imagination in order to encourage an emotional bond with the city is part of the strategy being implemented for Mons 2015. This imaginary city, being superimposed on the real one, like a kind of enhanced reality, is at the heart of the Métro IT project which renews the enchantment of the urban space by a strong artistic presence and the vision of an original world that artists can create, supported by digital technology.

“The original idea was inspired by cities that have an underground network like Paris, Brussels or London. The Mons 2015 Foundation wanted to create a journey across town based on imaginary metro lines indicated by strong urban signalisation. Multimedia ‘totems’ will be placed at different points across the city, just like stations where, at each stop, people will be able to explore a digital presentation or simply find out information.” A project that will therefore allow people to see the city through a different lens and which, thanks to interactivity, should encourage the participation of both inhabitants and visitors.

/DIGITALDEVELOPMENT,THE NEW CRUCIBLEFOR SOCIAL BONDS

But if the main reason for tackling this challenge is really education and digital competence, there needs to be a more global approach to the issue than simply offering training programs and assisting job seekers. Investment in infrastructure by public authorities must also play a full role and especially, in support of major events like Mons 2015, culture must be able to provide the link between man and the technology at his disposal, thereby reinforcing social bonds.

David Picard, director of the digital cell group for the City of Mons, believes in the cross benefits of investment in technologies, both for the region and for its inhabitants. “The digital fracture is perceptible in our region since a section of the population does not have access to technology. We want to provide this as soon as possible for our fellow citizens, whilst supporting initiatives to allow the city to exert an influence well beyond its current perimeter. The city benefits economically from the development of digital industries on its territory and this is why it intends to continue investing and providing support for young entrepreneurs.”

The development of durable digital infrastructures An event of the importance of Mons 2015 can accelerate this process by releasing energy and financial support in order to make a technological leap forward in terms of infrastructures and connectivity, with long-term goals in mind. For this reason the City of Mons set up a digital cell group tasked with orchestrating the harmonious and durable development of technological progress. By investing massively in a huge program that aims to offer free broadband connectivity across the city, via a certain number of Wi-Fi hotspots placed at strategic points, the City aims to encourage the use but also the development of innovatory services.

“The City is strongly committed to the Digital Cities1 project which aims to provide free Wi-Fi access across the city by 2015 and beyond” David Picard explained. “This will cover a concentration of around thirty emblematic sites, mainly within the city limits, such as the ‘Grand Place’ or the ‘Place Marché aux Herbes’, but also some sites within Greater Mons such as the Spiennes mines or Van Gogh’s house at Cuesmes. Digital Cities also includes the development of applications available to its citizens, such as holiday planners or an enhanced reality application, Les Fenêtres du temps. Placed at the top of the bell-tower on the Grand Place, this will enable people,

01 // The Digital Cities program aims to offer free Wi-Fi access and e-services in a certain number of Walloon towns. To date, six towns (Mons, Liège, Bastogne, Namur, Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve and Tournai) are taking part in the program, supported by the Walloon Region.

/ ITW: DAVID PICARDDIRECTOR OF THE DIGITAL CELL GROUP

FOR THE CITY OF MONS

INTERVIEW BY VINCENT DELVAUX

DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT, THE NEW CRUCIBLEFOR SOCIAL BONDS

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DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT, THE NEW CRUCIBLEFOR SOCIAL BONDS

During Mons 2015, other artists will also be invited to contribute to this theme of being closer-knit and sharing life, like Catalan director Roger Bernat, well-known for his participative performances, such as the re-interpretation of the famous choreography Sacre du printemps performed by anonymous actors or Domini Public, a giant platform game in which the spectator, directed by specific vocal instructions also becomes the ‘spect-actor’ in an urban fiction. Interactive in the literal sense, these theatrical performances without actors challenge the traditionally passive role of the spectator and encourage a debate on life in society and political questions, such as in Pendiente de voto, where the audience assumes the role of an MP whose decisions affect the course of history. This will again be the case in the project that the artist will develop for Mons 2015 based on connectivity and the values of sharing that it underlines.

The support of the digital economy, backdrop to a renewal in Mons. To open a new horizon thanks to innovation and economic development, in a region that has suffered for a long time from a decline in traditional industries, is of huge importance in the construction of self-esteem, and of faith in new possibilities and the conditions of social renewal. For several years the City has adopted a welcome policy towards young Companies that start up in its locality, in conjunction with the previsions of the Marshall Plan in the Walloon Region. “The Future Contract for Wallonia, drafted at the turn of the century by Elio Di Rupo and which is the ancestor of the current Marshall Plan, was conceived to rekindle hope in people, with as a central theme, the idea of collectively taking matters in hand. The Digital Innovation Valley which developed in Mons is the outworking of this vision” explained Jean-Pierre Marcelle, director general of foreign investment for the Walloon export agency (AWEX). A rather successful strategy for Mons which has seen a considerable increase in its creative and digital industries over recent years. “At a city level, everything began with the realisation that in Mons there were excellent technicians and a certain number of initiatives that deserved our support. The City wanted to invest in human capital, rather than opting for an approach strictly focussed on material considerations” observed David Picard. “The development of the digital industry in Mons was marked by several events, the most significant of which is certainly Google’s arrival at Saint-Ghislain” he added.

In operation since 2010, the IDEA’s Technological Business Acceler-ator has incubated dozens of innovative, expanding enterprises. The same can be said for the IDEA’s hall-relais (relay hall) and Incubator technology center, also established in the Initialis Science Park. No fewer than eight of the businesses incubated are active in the video games industry, in the wake of the success of Fishing Cactus. Many others are exploring the various niches inherent in creative industries.

With an eye to Mons 2015 and beyond, the IDEA has other projects in the pipeline, with the same ongoing concern for pooling energies and perpetuating the dynamics engendered by the digital economy.

The Manège de SuryIn 2014, the intercommunal will build a relay hall in the center of Mons, in the former military complex of Sury (which dates back to 1850) and in the Damoiseaux provincial building. These two heritage estates, rehabilitated into modern infrastructures These two heritage estates, rehabilitated into modern infrastructures offering some 1000 square meters of surface area, will serve to accommodate SMEs and VSEs, especially those active in the creative economy and in cultural industries. some 1000 square meters of surface area, will serve to accommodate SMEs and VSEs, especially those active in the creative economy and in cultural industries. Financed in the context of the Marshall Plan 2.Green, this unique new entrepreneurial space will be a part of what economic and cultural players already refer to as the “cultural kilometer” in the center of Mons. Partly situated on the rue de Nimy, this cultural kilometer connects the Théâtre du Manège, the Manège de Sury, the Mundaneum and the Grand Place.

Living LabThe IDEA has joined a consortium overseen by the University of Mons which sets out to develop a Living Lab, i.e. an informal, open laboratory intended to test the validity of ideas submitted by

/ CAFÉ EUROPA HAS THE AMBITION OF RECREATING THIS PARTICULAR ATMOSPHERE AND STRENGTHENING THE WEAKENED SOCIAL BOND AMONGST CITIZENS. THE PROJECT HAS A DETERMINEDLY BROAD EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE AND IS OPEN TO THE WORLD. /

An interesting corollary alongside Google’s arrival in Mons is the Californian Company’s desire to get involved in support and integration programs for local communities, with a strong social and cultural dimension, as can be seen with the example of the Mundaneum, with which Google has a long-term structural partnership that goes well beyond purely financial support. An archival storage Centre and discussion forum that debates today’s major societal issues, the Mundaneum truly symbolises this successful link between culture and technology, placed at man’s disposal.

The emergence of a digital ecosystem can only come about with close collaboration of the players concerned by economic development. Among their leaders the so-called “intercom-munal” IDEA (intermunicipal company for economic development and land use plan-ning), which has clearly understood the impor-tance of providing infrastructures and initia-tives conducive to fostering ideas. Mons 2015 is playing its role as business accelerator to the full, and has a number of new projects in the pipeline...

With the creation of the Initialis science park some twenty years ago, and through ongoing daily actions by the Maison de l’Entreprise, the IDEA intercommunal speculated very early on that ICTs would become a driver of economic reorientation and innovation in a region threatened by “brain drain.” Over the years, the efforts deployed to support start-ups were finally rewarded, with success stories of Polymedis (acquired by xperthis, Belgium’s leading developer of healthcare IT solutions), I Care (predictive maintenance), i-Movix (extreme slow motion technology) or Fishing Cactus (video games). In the meantime, the Multitel research center garnered itself a handful of international awards. And with the arrival of the Microsoft Innovation Center, followed by the Greentech Center (since renamed FuturoCité), there could no longer be any doubt as to the value of public-private partnerships.

/INFRASTRUCTURES TO BOOST CREATIVITY

PAR OLIVIER FABES

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Mons 2015, a transgenerational experience© Ekiem-Discart

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INFRASTRUCTURESTO BOOST CREATIVITY

Various analyses have shown that for every euro in-vested in the Mons 2015 project, six euros will be gen-erated for the local

economy. This upcoming event thus represents a significant opportunity for leveraging prosper-ity, one which the entrepreneurs in and around Mons fully intend to seize. In this perspective, the region’s business leaders have founded the “Club Mons 2015 Entreprises” association. This non-for-profit association is looking to gather 2015 regional businesses that will each contrib-ute a minimum €1000 (spread out over four years) to attain the symbolic sum of €2 million. This amount would effectively position the as-sociation as the Mons 2015 Foundation’s main sponsor. Chaired by Pairi Daiza Director Eric Domb, the Club seeks to maximize the event’s economic benefits for the Mons region beyond 2015 via its actions oriented towards visibility and networking.www.2015entreprises.eu

St’art, financial partner of creative industriesBased in Mons, St’art is an investment fund with resources of €16 million dedicated to creative and cultural industries. It supports the creation and development of small and medium-sized companies (including non-profit associations) through loans and equity participations. Its sphere of action covers all of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. More than 350 future entrepreneurs or enterprises in the development stage have already contacted the St’art fund since its inception four years ago. These include specialists in design, fashion, the performing arts, video games, music, visual arts, and so on.

Among the young companies that have benefited from St’art’s financial support are Kollector and Fishing Cactus, both from Mons.www.start-invest.be

potential project leaders. It is not strictly speaking a business center or an incubator, rather a physical space where technical and human resources - both public and private - can come together. The idea is also to give entrepreneurial resonance to high-potential university projects. This Living Lab should further add to the Initialis Science Park’s existing dynamics. Supported by the Creative Wallonia public program, the idea of a Living Lab for fostering ideas has aroused great interest throughout Europe. Finland is a pioneer in this field and, as former European cultural capital, the city of Marseilles has exchanged best practices with Mons.

Creative HubIn the framework of Creative Wallonia, the IDEA and the Maison de l’Entreprise (LME) have submitted their application in response to the RFP to set up creative hubs. Here too, the idea is also to encourage the emergence of a platform shared by the creative economy’s different actors and unleash energies. Furthermore, the intercommunal has joined various associative initiatives which already aim to bring together people and ideas, such as co-working spaces, Digital Cafés, les Rendez-vous du Pixel, (quarterly event organized by Mons creative agencies), etc.

Building on its legitimacyConducive to supporting, bringing together and developing the digital economy’s public and private players, this far-reaching framework has allowed Mons to acquire a legitimacy that other cities do not share. Mons 2015 will be an excellent opportunity for stepping up well established initiatives and securing talent to ultimately bring about positive benefits for employment in the region.

/MONS 2015 ENTREPRENEURS’ CLUB

At first sight, the formula developed in the Digital Innovation Valley, which combines research, creation, support, awareness-raising and digital training, may seem self-explanatory. However, upon closer inspection, this formula turns out to be more innovative than initially imagined. Proof of this is the “revelation of unsuspected potential” effect that has occurred in certain regions looking to achieve economic renewal.

The Digital Innovation Valley arose from an idea that sought to revitalize the Mons region’s economy based on a combination of culture and digital technology and, above all, on the integration of complementary players within the same ecosystem: pubic-sector instigators, academic and research-oriented actors, major commercial players, and start-ups. The originality of this approach caught the attention of various observers, including those overseas, who were themselves involved in the quest for economic renewal. The “Mons model” thus caught on, inspiring projects which now originate in the French cities of Bordeaux and Avignon. In both cases, the first-hand experience gained in Mons has allowed those involved to explore new avenues and harbor new ambitions for their initial projects.

Bordeaux goes digitalThe image of Bordeaux and its surrounding region continues to be firmly associated with wine production. And yet, the region is home to other sectors with a range of activities that are currently thriving: research, aerospace, health care, and IT to name but a few. In Bordeaux, more than 300 businesses now work exclusively in the field of digital technology, and 500 more consider it as key to their activity, representing an increase of 14% in the span of ten years. However, a certain fragmentation of these initiatives does little to promote the region’s visibility and attractiveness. “Activities focused on digital have proliferated in recent years: embedded IT, software publishing,

/WHEN THE MONSECOSYSTEM INCITES INSPIRATION ABROAD

BY BRIGITTE DOUCET video games, e-health, call centers, etc. Creating a cluster of digital activities was vital in order to bring different players together,” explains André Delpont, European economics consultant for the “Bordeaux Euratlantique” urban development program. “A showcase site was needed to help start-up firms develop, create synergies, and promote their emergence.” Hence the idea of establishing a Digital City.

The key issue was giving it a suitable form, and reconciling otherwise disparate intentions and ambitions. At the same time, an audiovisual-oriented project (the creation of a post-production studio) had been imagined by the neighboring town of Bègles and its mayor, Noël Mamère (a prominent environmentalist). “This project offered an attractive cultural aspect by combining innovation, high technology and creativity.”

All that remained to be done was to encapsulate all these activities. The municipality of Bordeaux thus turned its attention to what had been accomplished in Mons. Pascal Keiser (TechnocITé Director and one of the key people behind the Digital Innovation Valley) immediately thought of introducing a component that the project’s initiators had overlooked: additional training intended for lay people (job seekers or artists) that would allow them to gain digital proficiency. “Drawing on his experience in Mons and his inclination for reconciling economic and cultural considerations, Pascal Keiser managed to disentangle a situation in which contradictory institutional viewpoints were at odds,” confirms Richard Coconnier, former head of the Bordeaux European capital of culture 2013 program. “He expanded on the initial vision, transforming it into a veritable joint undertaking by both the Region and the Municipality. Instead of reasoning solely in terms of economics on the one hand and culture on the other, he managed to bring us all together around the same table to consider cultural projects in the light of the economy… and vice versa. The training and educational aspect was the juncture between two initial ambitions that we had otherwise considered to be incompatible within the same project.”

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Digital City project in Bordeaux © DR

Digital City in Bordeaux © DR

FabricA in Avignon © Ilka Kramer

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Getting straight to the essentialOfficials from Bordeaux were particularly won over by the considerable degree of pragmatism with which projects and initiatives had emerged in the Digital Innovation Valley. “Mons successfully exploited its available strengths and, in this respect, offered us a source of inspiration,” points out Andre Delpont. “Mons showed us how effective it can be to focus on a few initial ideas that work, and how the creative and operational aspects can be reconciled. TechnocITé did not necessarily offer a huge space for its activities, yet still managed to accommodate a wide palette of services: digital studio, digital training for reintegration in working life, a space dedicated to setting up businesses, etc.”

The Digi ta l City wi l l bui ld on these accomplishments to become a place for training. “Schools and classic curricula are certainly available in the region, but what we still lack is training for non-experts. This is a fundamental element because it makes digital technology attractive. Pascal helped us to understand that this is not just about transforming digital whiz-kids into business executives; what we need to be able to do is to allow ordinary individuals acquire skills and fulfill their ambitions.”

long last found a permanent place, dubbed the FabricA, in which it could accommodate the work and rehearsals of the teams involved in this event. “We wanted to make it an anchoring facility that was accessible all year round for the benefit of this peripheral part of the city, characterized by a poorly integrated population, whether professionally or culturally,” explains Paul Rondin, Associate Director of the Festival d’Avignon.

In fact, the Avignon region is one of the most disadvantaged in France, with a youth unemployment rate close to 55% in some neighborhoods, and an overall figure that is hardly any better, standing at 35%. The region also laments the fact that many graduates now obtain their university degrees outside its borders. “Appointed Festival Director in the summer of 2013, Olivier Py sought to extend FabricA’s role by using it to nurture the local population’s awareness of new things. After all, what tool works better for young people than digital technology?”

Having taken shape, the basic idea now had to be rolled out. Given the similarities between Avignon and Mons (situation in terms of social and economic status, heritage, cultural projects, etc.) and the close ties established by Pascal Keiser with the Festival, local officials turned to his advice on how to “successfully negotiate this turning point in the post-industrial, neo-digital age.” “Drawing on the work accomplished in Mons has enabled us to advance much more boldly than if we had been left to our own devices. As a result, digital technology, digital awareness and the gateway offered both to young people and to other population groups came to represent concrete tools that could allow us to fully leverage our existing skills and know-how,” explains Paul Rondin.

Another point that left its mark was Mons’ ability to attract some big players in digital technology. “Mons is hardly Silicon Valley, and yet it was able to convince Microsoft or IBM to come and set up their activities there, each in its own way. No matter the specific interests of these IT heavyweights, so long as everyone benefits...” Bordeaux’s Digital City still lacks the presence of one or more big names. The site’s operators will thus have to content themselves with attracting players on a national level. That is unless they decide to leverage the city’s notoriety by revitalizing its twinning links, for example with Los Angeles.In fact, the project seeks to utilize national calls for projects through the French Tech initiative (formerly dubbed Quartiers numériques or digital neighborhoods), and thus prove that Paris is not the be-all and end-all in France.

Triple “personality”The Digital City will be “like a three-stage rocket. First stage: a location with facilities for start-ups – still trying to secure funding – that we will help to prosper. Second stage: a meeting point, to create momentum and encourage cross-fertilization between digital players operating in different segments (e-commerce, video games/serious games, augmented reality, data mining for the world of media, mobile applications, document digitalization, transmedia etc.), as well as between different enterprises, research players, creators and citizens. Third stage: an international marketing instrument – through a handful of major groups.”

Avignon, classical reinventedIn Avignon, digital technology will soon play a dual role. On the one hand, opening up the city’s disadvantaged neighborhoods. On the other, bringing its flagship Festival into the digital century by providing it with enhanced visibility and by forging additional ties with the local or universal community via such tools as Internet referencing and social networks, transmedia, digital content archiving, mobile applications for festival goers, multimedia capture (web, mobile, etc.), and so on.In 2013, the Festival d’Avignon at

And the result? Avignon’s FabricA facility will become an instrument for clustering local digital players, a cultural and creative digital innovation center, and a digital vocational school, all at once. The training and various activities available will allow young people, the unemployed, and struggling artists to become proficient with social networks, smartphones and tablets, but also “to discern the distance between the real world and the digital world, to assess and give a voice to content and image, and to appreciate culture and the performing arts beyond merely liking or disliking. This critical distancing is an important learning process for the uninformed public.”

The digital FabricA seeks to participate more fully and more ambitiously in the Quartiers numériques calls for national projects initiative in order to extend these dynamics to the entire Vaucluse department. “While the Festival will not be the coordinator of these actions given that they go beyond our capacities and our sphere of expertise, however you can be sure that it will be one of the driving

forces.”

/ MANAGING TO BRING TOGETHER LILLE’S EURATECHNOLOGIES BUSINESS PARK (FOR THE BUSINESS SIDE) AND MONS’ CCDS (CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY AND DIGITAL SCRIPTS) AND TECHNOCITÉ (FOR THE CULTURE AND TRAINING SIDE) IN THE SAME PLACE. /

/ THE DIGITAL CITY SETS OUT TO FOSTER 40 START-UPS AND TRAIN 1.000 PEOPLE EACH YEAR. /

/ DRAWING ON THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED IN MONSHAS ENABLED US TO ADVANCE MUCH MORE BOLDLY THAN IF WE HAD BEEN LEFT TO OUR OWN DEVICES. /



CHAP. 04 10 D/Y/M

forces.”

136 137

In 2014, TechnocITé is able to offer not less than thirty-five domains of expertise, with a volume of activity of over two hundred thousand training hours per year. TechnocITé now has three sites situated in Hornu, Mons and Brussels. With an annual budget of €3.5 million, twenty-five employees and around a hundred specialist trainers work every day to teach the latest digital skills.

Initially based in Mons at the ‘Carré des Arts’, since 2008 TechnocITé has been based at the heart of the DIV (Digital Innovation Valley). From 2009, with the arrival of Joyce Proot, today operations director, accompanied by Catherine Dethy and Richard Roucour, TechnocITé moved towards new innovatory curricula. The digital media department run by Joyce has been reinvigorated and the IT Convergence Academy (ITCA) has been launched. As Joyce Proot states, “The approach to the ITCA project is based on anticipating technological change, new uses associated with it and an increased collaboration amongst creative regional entities in order to offer an applied pedagogy in a real context within the framework of the training workshops.”

The aim of this project, via global development that meets professional requirements in this sector, is to provide our region with innovatory skills so that it can meet challenges head on and positively integrate a world context undergoing rapid and profound change. The idea being to boost the economic development of the region by encouraging entrepreneurialism.

/TECHNOCITÉ AFTER 2015

BY PASCAL KEISER

In 2010 TechnocITé turned its attention to the Cultural and Creative Industries via the ITCA project by initiating the first ‘gaming’ training courses in Belgium. From that landmark year onwards, new innovatory training courses across Belgium and France were programmed, and prepared the curricula for 2015 and beyond: the world of gaming, eReputation, digital archival storage, CMS, mobile marketing, digital signage, mobile development, Social TV & Connected TV, interactive photography, digital books.

“Following on from the work of these last ten years, we are promoting TechnocITé’s ecosystem and its impact on the economic development of our region by our involvement in numerous initiatives such as the launch of the Digital Innovation Valley with IDEA, the start of the LivingLab Digistorm project with UMONS and IDEA, the collaboration with the Botkamp Geek Factory (the largest gaming centre in Belgium), and many others.”

TECHNOCITÉ APRÈS 2015


TechnocITé at Park Initialis in Mons © TechnocITé

TechnocITé, Castle Degorge in Hornu © Bruno Follet

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