Recently, there has been lots of discussions about names and their presence on the Web. Anonyms, pseudonyms, patronyms. A real Nymwar has been declared. Could companies such as Facebook or Google impose the use of a real name? Is there, […]

How can we investigate an organism? How can we look inside a material object? According to situations and technical innovations, several technologies of vision are at one’s disposal to conduct such inquiries. The use of corporal sensations and of abilities […]

Some sociologists showed a great interest in the ways day-to-day work is accomplished, notably insisting on its collective nature. But not as a result of their analysis (they were sociologists, they already knew everything is collective), but as one of […]

Prices are quite strange things. In the mind of some people, they are supposed to crystallize the result of an encounter: the one of supply and demand (strange things too, but this is another story). The fact that prices are […]

Among public lettering, epigraphical inscriptions are particular. They are generally used to qualify settings in an explicit or metaphorical way. Inscriptions in the pediment of numerous monuments may be a kind of a store sign: “National Parliament”. But they are […]

“Please, do not disturb, thank you in advance”. This was her first drawing. A few hours after entering her new bedroom for the first time. I had figured out that this kind of poster would arrive after screams and tears, […]

One of the key features of our times seems to be a certain kind of reflexivity. Not our capacity to mentally examine our own actions ex-post (we have been able to do that for a long time), but the ability […]

To go always faster, always farther. Similar injunctions are regularly heard, and one knows the principle of competition that grounds them: even when taking part of the leaders, one has to fight against oneself to excel. Here stands the quality […]

Issy-Les-Moulineaux, july 2011. Thanks to email, one is free from numerous constraints that stand in the snail mail system. From now on, exchanges are faster and more fluid. No need to wait several days before receiving an email : the […]

Toulouse, april 2011. In everyday life, nothing seems easier than pushing a button to turn on the light, start a computer, or run a washing machine program. It is so simple, as is a double-click, that one acts naturally without […]

Boston, june 2011. Among the various domains of scientific knowledge, anthropology is surely one that matters. It raises fundamental questions: who are human beings ? What are the structural features of human nature beyond cultural diversity? What are the main exchange […]

La Rochelle, july 2011. As one looks for a flat, one usually pays attention to specific details. Its price, its location in the neighborhood, its surface and the arrangement of different rooms. Once the choice is made, simultaneously starts the […]

What is music? Where does it lies? What kind of commodity can it be? How can we « buy » music, « steal » it? When you’re dealing with inscriptions and their materials, these are particularly intricate, though fascinating, questions. […]

Back in the days, to buy fishes or sea fruits, one could estimate its waiting time in a glimpse. Looking at the number of people in front of the stall was sufficient. Once in the line, one had to be […]

Before that one, there were lots of documents. Drafts, notes, outlines rewritten again and again, annual forms, conference proceedings, academic papers, versions, slides. Tons of e-mails. A few weeks before that day, the dissertation itself had been printed and sent […]

When it comes to wine, supermarkets organize fairs with hundreds of references at an unbeatable price every fall. One can prefer small specialized wineshops, which provide tailored advice to customers demand for a product which value depends nowadays more and […]

Streets are not only sites to display public lettering. They are also a milieu particularly favorable to their incredible development. Inscriptions of any kind are displayed, they swarm in certain places, some cover each other, others sometimes lose their greatness, […]

The guy wrote hundreds of songs. He has been playing a huge role in american underground music since the eighties. A true legend. But we were barely twenty fans that night to see him perform. It was quite embarrassing. Before […]

Libraries have been constituting crucial repositories of information since centuries. After being locations reserved to particular powerful elites (clergy or royal courts) that restricted the circulation of certain books or even censured the content of others, libraries have been progressively […]

We were having a pretty passionate discussion, though I can’t remember the matter. We were walking at a good pace: we were supposed to meet with another guy in a restaurant a few blocks away and we were a bit […]

Roanne, august 2011. Two years ago, we decided that the renovation of this old house would be extended by the building of a swimming pool. When we started this part of the work, we were so tired that the exciting […]

Paris, october 2011. Debates are explosive about the role of Internet, peer-to-peer exchanges and the invention of mp3, in the decrease of music sellouts. But they can be very abstract, with lots of statistics and economic demonstrations. There’s nothing such […]

Clamart, june 2011. A large amount of critical discourses about new technologies denounces their negative impact on what is presented as our real social life. E-mails, blogs, and now Facebook or Twitter, are all evil tools that endanger our relationships. […]

Sainte-Marie de Ré, august 2011. As many other objects, trash cans have been able to speak for a long while. Some are simply labelled “trash”, while other are conceived to “recycle”. Various categories may coexist: some read “aluminum cans”, while […]

Paris, october 2011. In the so called Web 2.0, some writing practices have been given paramount importance. Indeed, it is one of the main points that differenciate the ‘2’ from the ‘1’: people do not only read anymore, they write […]

Paris, august 2011. I entered this shop and began to look at several articles displayed on merchandisers. I carefully chose a suitable time slot : there was no crowd. So, it was possible to take time to glean and to […]

St-Martin de Ré, august 2011. One entity, one name. It is the means we commonly use to designate the world we live in. No human being with no nickname or surname, no city or streets without plaques, no goods without […]

Capbreton, august 2011. A few years ago, you have finally understood that getting old means living with more and more dead people. A gang of ghosts, continuously growing. But you also understood that such an inescapable truth was not a […]

Paris, february 2010. Who is the author of a movie? Who did produce a clothing accessory? Who did participate to the writing of a software program? Who did contribute to a scientific article? One considers important, indeed a requisite, to […]

Saint-Viance, april 2010. « Pupils shelter ». Why does this sounds weird? Partly because we all call it a bus shelter, of course. But also because it’s quite rare to find such a precision in a public space. Usually, the « pupils » category […]

Dieppe, august 2006. The time always comes when we shall leave. Ordinary social time resumes its course and vacation spots disappear in the rear window. Only memories remain and some snapshots to fix them. The buoy and the boat are […]

Canton de Vaud, Suisse, july 2006. A small road in the mountain rises above the vineyards and the Aigle Castle. After one last village to cross, there is no car in sight, or even a cyclist foolish enough to go […]

San Francisco, december 2010. Imagined California is populated by film and television industries with buxom lifeguards and their muscular partners, which will protect you from everything. But this sign is not on the Malibu or Santa Barbara beaches, it is […]