Summary

The objective of this presentation is to develop a framework for understanding how creative and cultural practice with digital infrastructure is constructed through discourses of personal agency. The first half of the presentation will expand on a conceptual framework developed in my doctoral thesis that combines Paul du Gay's concept of "person" with theories of mediation as developed by the likes of Roger Silverstone and Leah Lievrouw. I will demonstrate how this conceptual framework could be used for the study of cultural practices for the contention of established cultural conventions by studying biographical trajectories between individuals and software. The second half of the presentation will use the framework with a view to develop a new set of research questions for the study of how creative persons have been shaped through the cultural interpretations of Photoshop as a tool for cultural production.

Biography

Frédérik Lesage is an Assistant Professor in Information and Communication Technologies in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. After being awarded the EDS-LSE MARCEL Studentship, he completed his Doctoral Thesis at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2009 in the Department of Media and Communications on the topic of how creative organizations appropriate new media infrastructural standards as part of collective artistic practices. The final thesis was selected as part of the department’s Historic Theses Project for the LSE library. His ongoing research deals with how artists and other cultural practitioners design and use digital media with a particular focus on the links between discourses of cultural agency and digitally mediated practice. Recent publications include: ‘Telepresence and its transparent infrastructures’, Digital Creativity 22(2), 2011, ‘The artist as user and designer’, International Journal of Art and Technology (forthcoming). He recently completed a co-investigation role in a 6-month research project developed in collaboration with Proboscis, a London-based independent arts group and the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies at the University of Cambridge. Frédérik will be a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE from January 2012 to May 2012 as part of his current research titled After the End of the Desktop - The transformation of professionalism in digitally mediated creative practices.