Digital technology, a tool for mediation and cultural democracy

Webinar on Monday, October 9, 2023 from 10am to 1pm.

Restitution of the “Digital Workshops” project by Cultures du Cœur and Benoît Labourdette Production, offered as part of the Été culturel program with the support of the French Ministry of Culture.For the past 2 years, Cultures du Cœur, in (…)

The creation of the film “Tell me LED”: conversation with Axel Meunier

Interview with Benoît Labourdette by Axel Meunier on the film’s creative process "Tell me LED’.Axel Meunier interviewed me about the inspiration for my film being created “Tell me LED”. This 40-minute interview, titled “Conversation#39 - (…)

Do not make a big deal out of the act of creation.

This act, it is essential to my life, and it is my job. So, living it, in the everyday, in the work of production, and in the work of making it public. I am not too young for this as I have long believed. I can be sure of myself, of my gesture, (…)

Tutorials for doing video activities with your children

Podcast by Benoît Labourdette (1’37s, 2020).

Very simple tutorial (1 minute 30) to conduct two creative audiovisual activities with your children.During the confinement period in March-April 2020, the city of Lilas, as part of the project “The Digital Factory”, whose implementation I am (…)

I have no sponsor, no order for my creations.

As a result, I don’t feel legitimate, for example in relation to L., who has “official” commissions from theaters. In fact, what I put into practice is a total freedom of creation, I am the one who seeks the meaning of my creation. And it is (…)

My workshop, it is in movement, it is my working space, it should not be frozen.

It is extremely important. I photograph all the works there, I keep track of what happened there, but I don’t leave things there, I leave that space empty, fallow, free. I don’t have anything to prove, nor to show to someone who would pass by. I (…)

Lightnings Journal : “Get naked” (interview with Benoît Labourdette)

Interview with Benoît Labourdette about self-portrait, in “Lightnings”, the Digital Magazine of Écla (avril 2016).Link to the article on the website of the lightnings Journal : http://eclairs.aquitaine.fr/se-mett... “Get naked” (interview (…)

Artistic creation in a digital environment

Commentary on the report commissioned by DRAC Bretagne (August 2023).

A study on the subject of digital and artistic creation reveals, through its unquestioned biases, the unconscious desire not to move the lines of the cultural hierarchical system, a comfort zone for professionals, which cuts off cultural players (…)

Making space, cleaning, tidying, emptying... these are the actions that produce the favorable context in which works of art can be born, in which creation can emerge in a fully natural way.

As a result, the moments when I create can seem very short, and it destabilizes me that it is so fast, I have the impression that I am doing anything. But in fact not at all, I do what the space that I have patiently built, the conditions that I (…)

J., this morning, tells me that it is new for her, that there is creation everywhere in my home.

It’s true, my life is that, it’s creation, and I will never deviate from that again. Always creating, producing, sharing, at all times. It encourages me to know myself better, to know that my life is this, creation, every day, like a breath.

If things come, in a natural way, if creation “flows” from me, with speed, I must not hold it back, I must let it flow, I must trust, I must not judge anything, I must simply feel the rightness of it all, and I must welcome, with joy, this gift that is given to me.

And if it doesn’t come anymore, I don’t force anything. I let it rest. But when it comes, I must not block anything.

Just because I do something quickly doesn’t mean it’s worthless.

On the contrary. Cf. Picasso. Cf. calligraphy. So don’t be ashamed at all to have made an album in half an hour on the train.

No longer put any limits on my creation.

Take sound into account when writing scripts

’A scenario that gives, on reading, the sensation of the soundtrack of the film, will have a rare, extremely convincing evocative power. Physiological thinking of the scenarioA film is, physiologically, an object that addresses only two of our (…)

Smallest lie

A creative workshop session in a high school class in the Paris suburbs. I bring a lot of material. I transform the space so that the class becomes an animation studio: camera, lighting, video projector, graphic material, felt pens, scissors, (…)

I have always followed my path, next to the social space of “official” artists.

This is my path, I have never stopped creating, even if I have been invested as an artist in the social space more rarely than others. That is not what is important. What is important is that I create, that I “accomplish my mission”, that what I (…)

Autumn Festival in Normandy Hybridations # 2 - New creative ways (web conference)

Roundtable / lectures on the issues of creation in the digital age.Rouen, 2 December 2014. I participated in the roundtable / lectures as an artist and cultural player. It is obvious, digital upset the issues of artistic creation, whether from (…)

To create is to do what others dare not do.

Chromosome words

Series of 70 inked photographs.

Words that are life. Describe. Are. Self. Words that end up being planted like seeds. The ink that spins and flows, and the gaze that dares not. Words that slip. Gush out. Unreadable as life. They are much more than themselves.

I absolutely have to create.

It is my life, and it is what gives me balance. This question of how to be in balance: for me, it is in creation, in the invention and discovery of forms.

What makes a creative project good is the listening that takes place between people, the special relationship that is established in the group, the trust, the benevolence, the belief in the other. I know how to do that.

L., on the other hand, is in much more trouble, using the legitimacy of her manager to squeeze people like lemons, using everyone’s ego.

Love this time that creation takes. It is an essential time, for life.

No matter how old you are, you can be very productive, or not.

I am quite productive. Richard Texier is much more productive. He produces a lot, that’s what he does. It’s a real “training”, it’s like doing sports, except that it’s doing creation.

The fact that one goes quickly to create something, and that afterwards it remains... the fact that all the elaboration around, before and after, was much longer than the moment of creation itself... it is completely normal.

My life is the work of creation, it is my axis.

Around this axis, many things happen, there is work to earn a living, there are love relationships, there are friendships. But my axis is creation. It is what is stable, what I always continue to build.

Filming in connection

Participative exhibition.

Participative exhibition at the City Hall of the 11th district of Paris, to complete the project “Filming in connexion”. As part of the vast territory project “Connection” proposed by MPAA.On Saturday, September 25, 2021, as part of the (…)

Inside time

Film by Benoît Labourdette (3’34 s, 2016).

Reading of the last paragraphs of “’Remembrance of Things Past” by Marcel Proust. Links between literature, painting and movement.

The singularity, a collaborative transmedia artistic project

“The singularity” is a collaborative transmedia project, launched in 2016 by Benoît Labourdette. Around a thematic spine, over a long period of time (several years), film creations, theatrical forms, exhibitions, creative workshops in various (…)

Work in progress

Collective film (4’39s, 2019).

Where an observer enters the heart of the collaborative creation system.

Everyone is talented, I realize that all the time when I get people to do things.

What makes the difference between being talented and doing creative work is the fact of going to the end of things, producing, sharing.

Flinty

I often like the more spontaneous things much more than the prepared ones.

For example, the album “Sheller en solitaire”, where he is alone at the piano singing, is much better than the same songs recorded in studio, with all the orchestrations, which must have required infinitely more production time.

The fact that I create a lot of things, it’s not a problem at all, it doesn’t take away the quality of each thing.

I realize this by listening to Max Richter: he does what he feels, he does it a lot, and it’s very good. It’s an abundant work, in which you can circulate, it’s great. He assumes his power of work.

I’m the one who authorizes myself to create and distribute, I don’t ask anyone, I take the risk.

Tutorials for making sequence-shot films

Podcast by Benoît Labourdette (17’30s, 2020).

Complete pedagogical method for making three types of films in sequence shot: collective film, animated film, memory at the window.During the confinement period in March-April 2020, EPT Est Ensemble and the Seine Saint Denis Department, in (…)

Creation is more and more at the center of my life, it’s great, it’s the life I’ve always wanted to have, to keep cultivating.

Call for air Arras

Benoît Labourdette’s movies in a travelling projection program in Arras (France).In the context of the manifestation of contemporary art “Call for air” in Arras, I proposed a travelling screening of a selection of my films. Projections on (…)

It is not because people, even those close to me, do not understand the creation that I make, that it does not make sense to continue it in my direction.

If I am in contact with my inner movements, listening to what is going on deep inside me, that is what I hold on to. I realize this with I., who did not understand well the poems that I wrote and that I sometimes sent her, and who now receives (…)

Movie announcement of “Lil’art” 2019

A film by Benoît Labourdette (0’30s, 2019).

Lil’art is the annual event for the development and the meeting of the artists of the city of Lilas. Film announcement of the 2019 edition.In 2019, I led the making of a collective video creation by a group of artists, which was presented in (…)

TMNLab: “Digital technology is not a subject that deserves a position for or against...” - Benoît Labourdette

Podcast of the meeting with Benoît Labourdette at the TMNLab café on March 9, 2023 (1h08’).

At the invitation of Anne Le Gall, exchange with Benoît Labourdette on innovative and agile working methods for the cultural sector, thanks to digital tools, for a change of posture and openness to the interests of audiences, young people in (…)

Documentary Film meetings 2015 : “Tell me LED” ongoing creation

Public presentation of the film’s creative process “Tell me LED” (Benoît Labourdette, 2015, 65 minutes), Wednesday, October 14, 2015 at 16h. The Méliès Cinema (12 Place Jean Jaurès - 93100 Montreuil - France). Free entry.The Documentary Film (…)

Creation is the essence of my life, it is what infuses every moment of my life.

OFF Film Festival : meeting about voice-over and collective film production

As part of the OFF Film Festival of autobiographical film in Olonne-sur-mer, on November 20, 2016, I suggested a thought and animated a moment of exchange on the theme of the voice-over. Then I proposed making a “mental collective film” to the (…)

Creation and Virtual Reality

Critical thinking and creative methods.

Building a critical thinking of the stakes of Virtual Reality (360°) films, through practical application and creativity.This article was originally published in 2020 in « Les cahiers de Louis Lumière n°13 ».Virtual Reality has been (…)

Creation is free.

She does it when she decides, at night, during the day, anywhere! And she does as she wants, she does not respect any rule, that is her main quality, openness.

Test your scenarios with your mobile phone

A very simple use of the mobile phone can speed up the scriptwriting work.In many fields prototypes are made, which can also be called drafts, diagrams, wireframes, mockups... The prototype makes it possible to partially simulate the (…)

X. said the other day that he thought I was doing a lot with very little.

It’s true, it’s my way, it’s my vision, it’s my uniqueness, and it’s what I can.

I realize in my work that since 2013, namely since the separation from C., I am infinitely more creative than before.

It’s night and day, without measure. Because I am in my life, and I have full right to it.

Theory of modern art

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’05s, 2019).

The functions and necessities of art, which is not a luxury, but life and our very nature. Quotes from Paul Klee.

We create in our own way.

We do what is easy for us to do.

Cultural summer 2022 with Cultures du coeur: “Changing horizons”.

Tour of film-making workshops in the social field.

During “l’été culturel 2022” (French Ministry of Culture), Cultures du cœur offered nine social structures around France the opportunity to take part in cut-paper animation workshops, designed and run by Benoît Labourdette, on the theme of (…)

It’s creation that helps to support the sufferings of love, it’s creation that allows to sublimate things, it’s creation that gives sense to his life, in fact.

Love is a lure. The meeting is real. The sharing of the present is real. But love does not exist.

Piano

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’20s, 2015).

A frustrated desire since childhood, who finally seems to open.

Movie Marathon Evry 2013 - Films made

List of films made at the Movie Marathon Evry 2013 (France) Hush (Louisa Gaillard) The dream of Lyndi (Boulay Leander) 3’14 Fear (MOHAMMAD Usman) 3’34 Super condom (Faleme Dimitri) - 1’22 (without generic) M.D.R (Pavlovsky Cassandra) 3’11 (…)

And, really, no longer forbid me any medium, any form of art.

The singularity

Collaborative transmedia project (2016).

In 2016, I designed a participatory transmedia project on the subject of the relationship between human beings and artificial intelligences. This project was embodied in a website (https://www.la-singularite.com/), but didn’t get any further (…)

The fact that C. is a fan of my films can only confirm me in the idea that I must continue to invest in the field of creation.

Short bio & filmo

Benoît Labourdette is a filmmaker, educator, researcher and consultant in cultural innovation and digital strategies. He is also a multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur.He works in six fields, around the issues of creativity, democracy, (…)

Poitou-Charentes Region : “Pocket Films Training” for teachers

Red Pixel image pole of the Poitou Charentes region, proposed as part of “Lycéens in cinemas”, that one of the features of the program be replaced by a program of short films shot with mobile phone from the festival Takavoir, and students benefit (…)

Duende

Workshop “Tools, games and workshops for image education” - Images en bibliothèques

A story of the session “How to run a video production workshop differently”, led by Benoît Labourdette.

Images en bibliothèques has launched a new course, designed by Florian Lecron, for professionals in the library, film, education and culture sectors. I contributed to the design of the course, and led the final session: light, flexible mediation (…)

To Jean Dubuffet

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’19s, 2018).

“I am absolutely convinced that anyone, without any special knowledge or skills, without having to look at I don’t know what so-called native dispositions, can devote themselves to art with every chance of success.” Jean Dubuffet

Notes on moving picture

Essay

A selection, a collection of notes by Benoît Labourdette on the creation of moving images and on creation in general, gleaned over the course of his work since 1992. As many pearls to think the artistic work and the so singular work of the moving (…)

There is always room for new creations, for innovation.

Etats Généraux du Film Documentaire : “The mutations of cinema”

Anthropologies of cinematographic devices, by Jean-Louis Comolli, Benoît Labourdette and Vincent Sorrel.The Etats Généraux du Film Documentaire offer as part of their 27th one-day seminar, 20 August 2015: “The mutations of cinema”. (…)

A conversation with Benoît Labourdette

Interview with Benoît Labourdette by Roger Odin for Bianco e nero magazine (2010).

The film theorist Roger Odin (1939-2023) saw in the arrival of video in cell phones “for the first time in the history of cinema, the establishment of cinematic language as ordinary language”. He interviewed me about this in 2010.As early as (…)

My voice is fully part of my creative process.

It is not a question of rejecting it, because it is a strong point, but of really working on it, as a subject.

The symbolic third, a tool to connect

Psychoanalytical tool to promote the construction of the link.

The symbolic third is a concept that may seem very abstract, but for me it is very effective in creating a constructive link, especially between adults and youth. Here is a short synthesis of it, as I understand it. In psychoanalysis, to be is (…)

Creation is quite linked to diffusion.

The fact that I put things on my website, it invites me to create in such and such a way. But it is also because I wanted to create in such and such a way that I put films on my website. There is an exchange between the two.

The fact that I work quickly, that things are placed very quickly in space and time, is not a sign that something is wrong in terms of the “quality” of my work. It’s that I’m bringing together a lot of things, deep things, that have been there for a long time.

“Creation - Interview#1 with Benoît Labourdette” by Carole Contant

Videoconference interview (1h13’, 2023).

Benoît Labourdette explains in a practical and conceptual way his methods for creation and the pedagogical framework, based on a commentary on an example given by Carole Contant. Links with François Roustang’s approachThis interview is the (…)

Bibliothèque Carré d’Art (Nîmes): Meeting a poet / a filmmaker. Cédric Le Penven and Benoît Labourdette

Reading-projection and participative cinematographic creation.

A poet and a filmmaker for a crossing around the figure of the window, or rather the discovery of oneself through its projection on the world. Reading, projection, collective creation Lecture-screeningWe embedded the readings and the film (…)

Tell me LED

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2016, 1h06’).

Film made of permanent layering of images and sounds, as in writing a chorus of self-creation through artistic expression.Choral work as part of a creative residency at the Maison Populaire de Montreuil in 2015.

Variation

Breath of life

“On the beach of my imagination” : video installation in the hospital

Immersive device: permanent video installation at the Jacques Monod Hospital in Flers (Normandy - 2022).

Accounts of the issues at work in an art for health project. Every morning, the big wall of the waiting room of the hospital in Flers lights up by itself. Video images of nature, calm and serene, are projected there all day long. It is a space of (…)

DIA LOG: immersive creation shared with the children of a district of Choisy-le-Roi, “The Navigators”

Immersive video installation at Mac Val Museum (Vitry-sur-Seine) and in the Navigators district (Choisy-le-Roi) on September 21 and 22, 2019. Participative artistic action with the children that accompanies the changes in the The Navigators (…)

Creation is like life, it is now, right now. It is not something that we will do tomorrow, that we prepare, it is an action, concrete. There is a thought, but it is deep, rich and alive because it is inscribed in the action.

At the beginning I don’t dare to draw, I don’t dare to make music, because I judge myself, I find that what I do is totally null compared to others who have more abilities.

Hergé drew badly, but he worked, he did things, and so there you have it, he has his style, because he had trouble. Stromae doesn’t know how to make music well, so he did his best, with his background. That’s it, don’t be a prisoner of codes. (…)

The Digital Washhouse : 8×8 Season 0 Episode 1

Video interview between Franck Ancel and Benoît Labourdette on the stakes of images and digital, as part of the prefiguration of the Digital Washhouse.

Lilas News: “When everyday devices become creative tools!”

Newspaper article.

The municipal newspaper “Lilas News” announces the digital audiovisual creation workshops, as part of the project “The Digital Factory”, proposed by Benoît Labourdette..

By my window: Film what you see through a window in your home, and tell about an important memory.

Video platform

On 1 April 2020, during the period of confinement in France, I opened the video contribution platform www.parmafenetre.fr..Following the numerous feedbacks I received, creating these films, as much as watching them, did a lot of good to those (…)

Have respect for my work.

Creation is part of my daily life, as well as reading and publishing on my website.

It’s part of my breathing, which gives life to all things, including administrative things. In fact, more than giving life, creation gives meaning, so if there is meaning, that is to say code, the code generates life.

Premiere of the film “Tell me LED” - January 8, 2016 - Montreuil

Premiere of the film “Tell me LED” (France, 2016, 65 minutes), Friday, January 8, 2016 at 20:30. Cinéma Le Méliès, 12 Place Jean Jaurès - 93100 Montreuil - France. “Mairie de Montreuil” metro station. Free admission by reservation : reservation (…)

Colloquium ENS Louis Lumière: forms, experiences and devices: audiovisual production in the face of “immersive” technologies

Dialogue on creation in virtual reality with Benoît Labourdette (filmmaker and producer, BL Prod) and Teddy Aymard (producer, Le bureau des curiosités), with a moment of practice so that the gesture nourishes the thought.International (…)

Benoît Labourdette’s workshop : make a movie all together

I’ve always thought that to speak of a “material” needed to know, that is the work itself. This conference talking about mobile and creation, so it seemed obvious to me that he must contain a time workshop, creative proposal.So I, after (…)

ESAV Toulouse : Pocket Films Workshop

Twenty-six films made in three days.Since 2006, barely a year after the appearance of cameras in mobile phones, I teach at the School of Cinema ESAV Toulouse for students in their final year of implementation, offering a “Pocket Films (…)

Work in places that are important to you.

In the film “A wild honest man”, by Maria Pinto, Jean-Jacques Pauvert says at one point that Sade knew, at one point in his life, that what he was doing was very important. I know that what I do is important, well, I know that it is something, (…)

I have an extremely singular way of making cinema, by shooting things only when I feel them, by preparing myself, etc. I feel legitimate, even if I remain in the margins. I feel legitimate, even if I remain in the margins. I know the value of preparing myself to improvise.

MPAA: Films for the 10^th anniversary of the House of Amateur Artistic Practices

Five films to affirm the identity of a Parisian cultural institution, MPAA (House of Amateur Artistic Practices). House of Amateur Artistic Practices (MPAA)Places for musical, theatrical and artistic rehearsals in the broad sense of the term, (…)

“CinémA.I” in Studio 13-16 at the Centre Pompidou

Workshop on creating films in collaboration with artificial intelligence, led by Benoît Labourdette.

Film-making workshop in collaboration with artificial intelligences, for teenagers at the Centre Pompidou’s Studio 13-16. Creative proposal conceived by Benoît Labourdette, which took place during the winter vacations of 2024.Write a script, (…)

House of the image, Appointments of the image #6: “Intimacy, images, social networks. Existing and living together in the digital age”

Training day and co-construction of educational tools to work on self-image, designed in collaboration between theMaison de l’image (Noémie Rubat du Mérac, project manager) and Benoît Labourdette. April 26, 2018.Summary of the day on the (…)

Image Forum: conference “When digital creation enhances self-esteem”.

Active conference to equip social actors with digital skills to work on self-esteem with adolescents. Exchange of experiences and practices, and proposal of a lived experience.The [Image Forum-https://www.forumdesimages.fr/] organized the (…)

It is very important, and very legitimate, on my part, to create. And to devote time to it.

Risk everything.

Create, do it concretely, without waiting for I don’t know what. Life is too fragile, too precious.

Work or mastery ?

Methodology of the productive action.

How do we achieve the best possible result in the work, in the construction? In my opinion, contrary to popular belief, it is not the search for greater mastery that is the best path. Concrete elements of method.When one has to produce an (…)

France Culture french channel : Radio show “E-artist” (L’Atelier de Création)

In early 2013, Maylis Besserie, producer at France Culture radio french channel, asked me as she prepared a program about creation with smartphones.So I asked her to come for a day of training in pedagogy with mobile phone, at the Art school (…)

Luminous ritual

Collaborative film (3’04s, 2019).

Kinetic art experiments: drawings, cameras, projectors, human bodies, cameras, musical creations, and especially play and joy.

When I started to really get back into creating with intensity in 2013, it was the separation from C. that reopened the doors for me.

To create I need to be alone and free, fully.

Richard Texier at work

A film by Benoît Labourdette (9’54s, 2014).

A mystery of the act of painting, unveiled with Richard Texier.

I don’t restrict my creation because things seem easy to me.

If they look easy to me, it’s because I’m good at making them. So I’m going for it, not hesitating, at all!

Télérama: “Short film competitions all over France: containment inspires budding filmmakers”

Newspaper article.

At the beginning of April 2020, Télérama offers a summary of initiatives for calls for audiovisual creation during the period of general containment due to the Covid-19 virus. The project “Par ma fenêtre” initiated by Benoît Labourdette is one of (…)

Creating art is not a profession, it is a passion.

You can do X or Y job and create on top of that, it’s 100% legitimate. Kafka was an insurance agent, etc. I realize this with the films I make for people: some of these films are great, of immense richness for me as a spectator, and yet it is not (…)

My personal artistic creations are very intimate objects, which I share, but which I do not wish to make too much publicity.

Why not, but it’s still very intimate, so I think it’s good if it exists in an intimate way too.

The beginning

“Smartphone, potential tool of the contemporary artist”

Round table organized by “accès)s(”, June 18, 2022.

Sharing thoughts on the smartphone as a creative tool. Round table proposed and moderated by Jean-Jacques Gayaccess)s( is a partner of the EMA (ébouriffons le monde des arts) festival, which will take place from June 17 to 19 at La Forge (…)

Creation comes from emptiness.

I need to make emptiness in my life, to have real empty moments, in hollow, so that creation can be born. It comes from emptiness, always.

The wire

Film by Benoît Labourdette (8’34s, 2016).

Documentary on the painting exhibition “The wire” by Benoît Labourdette, Paris, October 2016.

Book : “Mobile phone and creation”

Collective book to which I contributed, with the article “From economy to the conversation and audiovisual creation”. Publication Date : 19 February 2014 published by Armand Colin Link to the official website of the conference that gave birth to (…)