The House of Culture and Digital Innovation will occupy the Maison Gaudard on the forecourt of the cathedral in Lausanne. This new structure, which intends to devote itself to the digital transition while remaining open to the public, unveiled its outlines on Friday.
A laboratory dedicated to culture and digital participation will open its doors there. Its function will be “to be both a digital mediation incubator, a platform for networking resources in the digital sector, a digital education tool and an observatory of digital cultures”, indicates the City of Lausanne in its request for a work credit.
The House will also have a “resource center for the cultural scene” with the moving into its walls of the Vaud Cultural Office, which notably rents technical equipment at affordable prices. It will also provide permanent offices for six Lausanne festivals, namely the Festival de la Cité, Label Suisse, the Lausanne Garden Parties, the Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival (LUFF), the Fête du Slip and the Fête de la Musique.
The public will be able to continue to visit the Maison Gaudard, since the new structure will have a “multipurpose broadcast room” offering, among other things, exhibitions, installations and conferences. They will also be welcome at the “cultural café” which, in addition to drinks, will offer the possibility of consulting specialized works.
Digitization needed
“This is a deliberately hybrid project,” Lausanne’s trustee, Grégoire Junod, told the press and project stakeholders on Friday. A way, in particular, to strengthen the position of Lausanne on the cultural level.
It is nevertheless appropriate to take an interest in it because, according to figures quoted by the socialist, the cultural economy and the creative economy generate 5 to 7% of jobs in Switzerland. “Digital culture is in a way the missing link in the cultural economy,” he said.
“The digitization of culture has increased with the pandemic,” noted Michael Kinzer, head of the City’s Culture Department. “While digital art has been around for a long time, its potential for culture and science is enormous.”
In addition, the canton has excellence in terms of cultural digitization at the level of the University of Lausanne and EPFL, as well as in the creative industry, such as Creal, a start-up active in augmented reality, continued Michael Kinzer. “The House of Culture and Digital Innovation is intended as a platform where these actors can meet,” he said.
Ambitious and vague
More concretely, as indicated in the request for a book credit, the laboratory devoted to culture and digital participation could offer “a digital exhibition space” aimed at young audiences and highlighting the city’s heritage collections. . It could also offer tutorials for setting up digital projects, support for the use of digital tools or participatory research residencies.
The creation of the digital laboratory is the subject of a collaboration with the Fabulerie in Marseille, a “digital factory and third cultural place aimed at opening up knowledge to as many people as possible”. The University of Lausanne will be a regular partner of the new Lausanne structure.
“This is a new place whose future we do not know. We are willing to be flexible so that this project can evolve”, declared Michael Kinzer. The terminology remains to be defined and the name of “House of culture and digital innovation” could well change, he specified.
The new occupants of the Maison Gaudard are expected in the spring of 2023. By then, the Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Arts (mudac) which is currently located there, must complete its move to the Arts district Platform 10 , while interior renovation work worth 890,000 francs must be carried out. The credit must still be validated by the Municipal Council, which has just received the file.
Isabelle Bertolini with Keystone-ATS