From September 21, 2023, to spring 2024, it is possible to visit the collective exhibition “L’espace des plateformes” located at the Crossroads of Arts and Sciences of the University of Montreal, in the Marius-Barbeau C-2081 exhibition room.

In these crossroads that are digital platforms plays out our relationship with audiovisual today. Transactions take place, opinions aggregate, and “communities of meaning” and “conversational practices of the image” (André Gunthert) form and deform, fragmented into a collective becoming and within a polyphonic framework.

It is precisely this tension between appropriation and sharing that is explored here through the concept of espace des plateformes. Here, it is possible to explore the works of various artists and YouTubers, to discover them and to interact with them.

The space of platforms encourages visitors to explore the creative practices of artists as well as specific uses, relevant to the intimate sphere, of contemporary digital platforms. The emphasis is placed on the political dimension embedded in the concept of space. This allows us to reflect on power dynamics, on the inequalities that are still present in the circulation and access to the digital world, but also on the harmful effects of our frenzied consumption on the planet, as well as the irresponsible race toward equipment with limited lifespan.

These installations, coming from various disciplinary horizons, postures, and cultural areas, all address the place that platformed tools have taken in our daily lives. We will find perspectives enlightening us on traditional media and their digital transformation, on counter-models that try to oppose the control of a few economic giants, and also on the ways in which fans accommodate these logic and, more broadly, on our relationship to creation and online sharing.