At the Margins of the Creative Industries

Abstract

This article analyzes the conditions of possibility for artistic creation within the context of the cultural and creative industries (CCI) by examining the relationships between idea, matter, and technique. Starting from the gap between classical philosophical conceptions of creation and contemporary artistic practices, the study highlights the limits of the Platonic definition of the artwork as the materialization of an idea. Through an examination of Marcel Duchamp’s ready-made À bruit secret, the article shows that creation may arise not from a preexisting intention, but from a reconfiguration of matter, akin to the form of bricolage described by Lévi-Strauss. This work, grounded in secrecy and indeterminacy, illustrates the fetishization and frustration that structure certain artistic experiences.Between emancipatory visions and approaches emphasizing its autonomy and normative power, technique appears as a factor of cultural standardization and a source of weakened human agency. In response to this trend, the article argues for the necessity of localized dispositifs and co-creation approaches capable of escaping the universalist and easily recoverable logics of dominant technologies. François Bonnet’s sound installation Ombilic is then examined as a “desiring machine” producing perceptual frustration linked to the evanescence of sound. It differs, however, from Duchamp’s work by implementing a process of re-materializing the idea it suggests. Both works nevertheless share the capacity to resist established aesthetic and technological frameworks, opening spaces where indeterminacy, lack, and disturbance become engines of experience and thought. They thus demonstrate that artistic creation can maintain its relevance while positioning itself at the margins of the production and rationalization systems characteristic of CCIs.