Science & Technology – Art & Business

The aim of TRANSDIGITAL is to set up a dynamic network between research centres, hi-tech enterprises and partners in the art field who take digital technology as their common ground.

The TRANSDIGITAL network is seeking to bring together the partners involved on a long-term structural footing to devise and implement three types of actions: seminars, workshops, and joint artistically-driven research projects that travel from metropolis to metropolis (Lille-Tourcoing, Mons/Maubeuge, Ghent) whilst involving players from across the entire Interreg Northern France-Wallonia-Flanders region.

Digital technology is firmly embedded in the three major conurbations of the Northern France, Wallonia and Flanders regions. These regions are home to a host of research centres and dozens of innovative hi-tech businesses. In a number of specific sectors, the ‘digital swerve’ has been pulled off to great success, but in spite of the strong presence of this digital spearhead, both in the world of research, the world of industry, and the sector of the arts, we are made to find there is still a long way to go in terms of networking and collaborative efforts within the regions in general, and especially between the three regions concerned.

Between research institutions and businesses, between the world of research and the world of art, between art and business, all too often contacts are confined to one specific project, limited in time, with collaborative efforts strongly depending on individual contacts. Which means there is little in the way of structural synergies between the three sectors (art, science and business). The efforts brought to set up collaborations are diffuse and too often are brought to fruition only with considerable difficulty. On the other hand, some projects are seen to take a largely local approach.

There is a positive will to work together within the framework of Euregion, but by the same token the fact that there is such a thing as a language barrier, that ‘real’ borders are still in place and the fact that cultural differences continue to exist in businesses, research institutes, and arts centres alike cannot go ignored. Each in their own way, these elements combine to complicate the exchange of know-how and experience and to encumber joint projects from being set up. This leaves a number of national, regional and cultural borders to be overcome and joint angles and themes to be discovered. The good news is that everybody is of the same mind in agreeing that bringing together transdisciplinary and cross-sector competences is one of the key ways to dynamise creativity and innovation in any given region.