Mediation

Indeed, everything indicates that the “expressivist” tendency which leads people to display more and more elements of their personals identities on the web is not about to come to an end. It is thus necessary to understand the social, cultural, and psychological motivations of this phenomenon, since the exhibition of the self does not signify a renouncement of the control of one’s image. On the contrary, it bears witness to a desire, which could almost be called strategic, to influence others by showing and hiding certain traits of one’s identity. This paradox is at the heart of the debates surrounding privacy on the Web 2.0.”

Identity as Relational Strategy by Dominique Cardon, Revue Hermès n°53, Traceability and Networks, 2009.

When, with other researchers, we began to study digital cultures, we first celebrated the disappearance of borders and a certain form of freedom or serendipity. At that time the question of digital identity took a much different form. Today this notion is more concerned with the problems of managing identities over vast digital platforms. The management of user profiles is an example, as seen in the movement which insists on the need to avoid anonymity or pseudo-anonymity in order to impose a certain similarity or resemblance between so-called classic identity and digital identity. Thus, while the first studies of digital identity tended to emphasize the polyphonic and free aspect of identity, current debates concentrate on the dilemma of formatting and the traceability of identities, questions which weren’t so pressing a decade or so ago.”

Identity in the Age of Digital Humanties, Milad Doueihi, interview with Jean Paul Fourmentraux, 7 July 2014 (p.34), in Digital Identities. Expression and Traceability, Les essentiels d’Hermès, CNRS édition.

The “Social Networks and Digital Identity” project comprises two separate parts:

  • The exhibition “Unlike featuring fourteen international artists and curated by Thomas Cheneseau :
  • Events and workshops on the topics of digital identity, the economy of social networks, selfies and booktubing, conducted principally by Laure Boyer and Patrick Treguer.

Ongoing and past workshops and events

  • Loudun, lycée Guy Chauvet (CAV) first, second, and third -year classes, social networks and digital identity, 54 students, 9 October 2015
  • Parthenay, lycée général Ernest Pérochon, four second-year classes, English class, selfie workshop, 104 students, October 2015
  • Poitiers, “Do not track” at the Planétarium of Poitiers in the context of the 5th citizens’ forum: Preparing citizens for the extension of digital culture. Maxime Quintard, Upian interactive production company and Hervé Jolly, professor at the European School of Visual Arts (EESI), Saturday 28 November, 26 participants.
  • Poitiers, social networks and writing workshop. Creation of a joint art project with the Or Normes collective (Poitiers). Project organized as part of the project “Social Networks and Digital Identity” initiated by the Lieu multiple with the support of the DRAC Poitou-Charentes, Friday 27 November, 8 participants.
  • Montmorillon, agricultural professional lycée, one third-year and one class of apprentices (CAF Bepa), selfie workshop, digital identity culture workshop, French and ESC classes, 22 + 21 students, 7 and 14 December 2015
  • Poitiers-Chasseneuil, LP2I innovative lycée, two first and second-year art classes, 42 students, 12 January 2016
  • Poitiers, University of Human Sciences,  masters program of Science of information and communication, on the mediation project, partnerships and the Lieu Multiple, 8 students, 15 January 2016

Upcoming workshops:

  • Venours, Rurart, center for contemporary art
  • La Rochelle, Municipal library, booktube workshops
  • Poitiers, Municipal library, booktube workshops
  • Poitiers, lycée de Kyoto
  • Monitoring digital identity and selfies among youth by Laure Boyer
  • Presentation (4hrs) by Patrick Tréguer
    . History of the web from its birth in 1993 (Tim Berners-Lee) and the stakes of the World Life Web
    . Tracking and cookies, a question of tracks and traceability
    . Tools for knowing who and what is tracking us
    . Digital identity: self-exteriorization and self-simulation
    .Selfies: a polemical but nonetheless creative subject
    . History of the selfie (from Van Eyck to Eminem, by way of the photo booth)
    . Booktubing and booktubers: online video at the service of books and reading
    . Works on Selfies made by students will be exhibited at the Canopé in Poitiers concurrently with the “Unlike” exhibition from 2 to 26 February 2016

Laure Boyer holds a PhD in contemporary art history and a masters degree in library, information, and communication science. She is a lycée librarian and mediator for literacy outreach. She works with youth on the fields of digital education and digital identity. In charge of mediation for the Unlike project, education and information for the media, Social Networks and Digital Identity – the Lieu multiple – Drac Poitou-Charentes, 2015-2016. Communications and community manager pour le Consortium (Poitiers) for the exhibition La carte du tendre by Alexandra Pouzet, September-December 2015 at the international level. Project manager for development educational kits for the Canopé network, department of research and development on the usage of digital education.

 

  • Capture

This Tumblr is a curation of 700 items on digital identity and Selfies in the practices of the teenagers.
unlikeselfie.tumblr.com/
laureboyerphoto.blogspot.fr/
Column in the online review
L’Oeil de la photographie

 

Patrick Tréguer Director of the Lieu Multiple, digital creation center of the Espace Mendès-France, since February 2000. Organizer of events and arts programming at this site. With the team at the Lieu Multiple, he regularly organizes concerts and performances in the Poitiers Planetarium, artist residencies within the center for scientific culture, and numerous creative sound workshops, as well a project for handicapped publics: “handicaps and digital creation”. He is also a composer and musician within the Lobe (an improvisational orchestra conducted by Claire Bergerault).

patricktreguerblog.wordpress.com/
patricktreguer.tumblr.com/
Lieu multiple

Ressources