[Portrait] Mathieu Feryn, doctor and temporary teaching and research associate in info-com

What is your research about?

I work on popular musicI study the different forms of engagement, the specialised information devices and the communicative analysis of arts organisations. By seeking to capture the criteria and principles at work in cultural practices, I study how individuals' identities are energised within these devices. I describe their social representations, looking at the relationships they make and miss within homogeneous and heterogeneous communities in the course of their daily lives.

What are your current scientific activities?

A book to be published on my thesis work by l'Harmattan on the qualitative and quantitative approach to artistic and cultural practices in different contexts, near and far from the Avignon agglomeration.

For more information, you can consult the online conference of MidiSciences (2019) or refer to the research note of the 35th issue of the journal "Questions de communication".

Why did you choose to work in academic research?

After a baccalaureate in Economic and Social Sciences in La Flèche (72), I continued my education by obtaining a Diploma in Accounting and Management in Angers (49) and the Master in culture and communication at the University of Avignon. Throughout my training, I participated in various artistic and cultural education projects as a musician, producer or cultural mediator. These projects have allowed me to develop a taste for sharing knowledge and working in the field. Working in university research allows me to understand the daily problems of individuals and to account for the modes of cooperation between them.

What advice would you give to students who want to do research?

Inspired by Edgar Morin, I note that the improbable is likely to happen. Doing research therefore means working on uncertainty. The uncertainty of accounting for the complexity of the social, economic and environmental issues that surround us. Doing research is about alerting each other to the mistakes we should avoid. Quoting Antonio Machado, I advise students to take a road where "everything passes and everything remains where our business is to pass; to pass by making paths; paths on the sea".

Which object or image from your research best illustrates you?

What do children make of jazz music, and vice versa, what does jazz music do for children?