Digital Creativity and Cultural Citizenship in Circus Arts

As part of the CREAT Chair, NAD-UQAC School has partnered with the École de cirque de Verdun to train circus artists in digital creativity. Together, we aim to support artists in appropriating these technologies so they become tools for expression, innovation, and well-being.

Because the CREAT Chair seeks to build a repository of exemplary practices in digital creativity, it is essential to document and evaluate this training initiative. In a society where digital technologies increasingly shape how we learn, create, and participate in collective life, digital citizenship has become a central issue. It involves not only the ability to use technologies competently, but also to understand, interpret, and question digital content, assess its credibility, create with intention, and navigate these environments ethically and responsibly.

Developing true digital citizenship therefore means fostering an informed and creative appropriation of technology.

This research project is grounded in this perspective. It aims to understand how digital tools and practices can enrich the expression of cultural citizenship within the circus arts, through the training offered at the École de cirque de Verdun. In other words, we seek to understand how this introduction to digital technologies has supported students in their artistic development, their relationship to the world, and their participation in culture. Has it enabled them to feel better equipped, more legitimate, and more engaged in their role as cultural citizens?

This project will help deepen our understanding of the connections between digital citizenship and cultural citizenship, and identify concrete pathways for digital creativity to fully contribute to the flourishing of individuals and communities.