About

Behind ICONEMIA.

François Giard, PhD, is a professor, researcher, artist, and filmmaker working at the intersection of animation, visual culture, generative AI, and the ecology of images.

François Giard is an artist and associate professor at the École de design of Université Laval, where he serves as director of the Master's program in design with thesis (MDM) and as founder and director of the Bachelor's and Certificate programs in Art and Science of Animation (BASA/CASA). His research investigates the ecology of images, generative AI, mediated empathy, animation, and visual literacy, leading to the development of the concept of ICONEMIA.

He is a researcher at the CERVO Research Centre (neuroscience) and at OBVIA (the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of Artificial Intelligence). He has received grants from SSHRC, FQRSC, CAC, CALQ, and CMF, as well as numerous awards and distinctions at film and short film festivals.

With a background in electrical engineering and art history, he began his career at Softimage and VFX Montréal, experiences that continue to inform his thinking about digital imaging technologies, 3D animation, computational tools, and the cultural consequences of image-making systems. After some fifteen years in the industry, he completed a doctorate on the role of the image in human experience — a reflection born from the screening of his immersive film for the Musée des Bâtisseurs d'Alma, where he identified what he calls the Ciotat syndrome.

He also developed an intergenerational memory-sharing platform based on semantic analysis (CRIM, INNOBEC, CMF), for which he holds a patent.