As a prelude to the KIKK Festival, the international festival of creative and digital industries, AWEX (Wallonia Export & Investment Agency), KIKK and wake! by Digital Wallonia organized a road trip of digital creativity in three Walloon cities. We followed the road to Mons, where technology is at the service of culture and museums.
As a prelude to the KIKK Festival, the wake! tour took place in Mons, Namur and Liège, enabling foreign delegations to discover Wallonia's “Creative Tech Valley”.
These three cities feature in the European ranking for cultural dynamism and creative economy according to the monitoring of cultural and creative cities.
In Liège, participants discovered the main Walloon players active in music tech, while those in Namur discovered the Walloon players in digital communication.
In Mons, European Capital of Culture 2015, we followed the participants as they gathered at the Click for demonstrations and round-table discussions, notably on museums in the digital age. Speakers explained how collaboration between university research, museums and cultural operators is driving innovation in the creation of immersive, museum-centric digital experiences.
A number of Walloon companies are making a name for themselves in the creation of unforgettable digital environments, emphasizing the importance of narrative and interactivity. They were represented at the event to talk about their creations and demonstrate their know-how.
A few examples of Wallonia's achievements
Dirty Monitor: This Carolo company needs no introduction. Specializing in the creation of audiovisual content, and in particular 3D video mapping, Dirty Monitor has already produced, on several occasions, the video show for the world's tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Dirty Monitor will also be in Osaka to create the scenography for the Belgian pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025.
Hovertone: This company from Montpellier specializes in interactive installations in museums. “Before, it was written in museums 'Don't touch'. Now, with immersion, we want to say 'Go ahead, touch everything'”, sums up Nicolas D'Alessandro, CEO of Hovertone. After the theory of the round tables, it was time for practice. Nicolas presented two of his creations at MuMons, the University of Mons museum. The first is called Deep Sketch. It allows visitors to draw a shape and then discover a series of works related to that shape. It also enables MuMons to exhibit thousands of works without having to enlarge the space. “The artificial intelligence solution was developed by the University of Mons. On this project, we contributed our expertise in visitor experience”, explains Nicolas D'Alessandro. Hovertone's second project at MuMons involves the appearance of two nuns' ghosts in the ancient crypt. With great humor, they tell the story of the former monastery that now houses the museum.
Tiny Big Story: This company was founded 12 years ago by Xavier Wielemans, who set up as a freelancer after working for several years for a company specializing in the creation of interactive multimedia experiences. “I wanted to refocus on museum experiences,” explains Xavier Wielemans, who combines narrative and technology in his immersive digital experiences. He demonstrated one of his creations at the Mundaneum in Mons. With its archives, the Mundaneum takes you back to the origins of the World Wide Web.
