Roanne, february 2020. Should numbers be written with numbers or letters? Mathematics aside — where numbers reign among a multitude of symbols — it doesn’t matter as long as they are readable. So what is the point of using this software, which […]

Among market’s graphic devices, mention of the geographical origin of fresh goods has significantly transformed the act of purchasing for some consumers. With this now mandatory information, they can add a geopolitical dimension to their shopping, by not only weighing […]

Marseille, November 2020 Contemporary theories of the acts of writing include readers in the making of the written text, whether they are imagined, anticipated, co-creators or quoters. But most theories devise charitable readers, who welcome the written text with a […]

Legifrance, November 2020. The law of 7 October 2016 for a digital Republic had affirmed it: open data was becoming the ordinary modality for public acts, and in particular for court decisions. After an appropriate decree, the latter should thus […]

Paris, October 2017. Unlike the graves of our ancestors, which are decorated with flowers especially on All Saints’ Day, those of celebrities are built throughout the year as an observatory of modern religion and individual worship. Empty bottles and cigarette […]

Pressigny-les-Pins, august 2020. During its expansion, the aerosol technology quickly spread to a diverse range of products, including the propulsion of colored pigments. Primarily intended for coachbuilders and construction workers, spray paint has gradually become popular, appearing prominently on the […]

Marseille, octobre 2020 The closed curtain and the locked windows do not hide the chalk menu boasting all the dishes that could be tasted here after months of lockdown. But the world after is really not the one before: forecasting, […]

Paris, December 2019. Breakdowns and disruptions of public infrastructure result in various justifications addressed to users. They cover the walls and concentrate written responses and graffitis that entertain the passer-by who is about to climb the large steps of the […]

Ubaye Valley, August 2020. Dangers are among the social objects most worked on by writing: road signage, electrical, chemical, nuclear signs, warnings of all kinds about hostile animals, ceilings that are too low, treacherous waves or skilful pickpockets. These permanent […]

Pont, August 2020. After two or three days of relaxing walks in the Morvan natural park, we are not really surprised to come across this sign. By qualifying the place as a “sensitive natural space”, it seems to fit perfectly […]

Marseille, June 2020 The Covid-19 epidemic has produced mourning and suffering, and deep traces in our public spaces: health slogans, practical instructions, gel dispensers, masks of all kinds on faces and necks, terraces invading sidewalks and even streets. It also […]

Maguelone, June 2020. It was no longer a question of gathering under sunshades, as the Mayor had announced. The new world required the beach to be “active and sporty”. The slogan of the liberation of lockdown, including the famous “social […]

The QR code had many lives, already. First a bubble of an Internet that could not hang on to our walls or our cereal packages, it fell into disuse, then resurfaced as a crucial link in a decentralized mobility infrastructure. […]

Marseille, June 2020. At the base of the building, under a series of balconies, is a higher space covered with stones set in cement. It is unclear whether its vocation was aesthetic, undoubtedly missed, or security, as much as it […]

Marseille, june 2019. The station is punctuated by the dance of the metal monsters arriving and leaving the platforms. Regional, high-speed, freight-transporting trains, all have a special profile, move with their characteristic noise, and display distinctive colors and markings. The […]

Our guests: Morten Nissen et Kristian H. Kofod Copenhagen, march 2020. Toilet writing is not what is used to be: anonymous messages to the world – political, humorous, sexual, philosophical food for thought. Now, tags carry only names as their […]

Paris, October 2017. It begins like in a fairy tale: knock, knock, knock, “- Who’ s there?”. But, in front of this wooden door, which could be the grandmother’s in the Tales of Mother Goose, there is no need to […]

Our guest: Tomás S. Criado Munich, May 2020. Only seldom do constitutional debates take the streets. However, this bureaucratically heated disputes–regularly discussed in the secluded spaces of courts–sometimes catch media attention and stir political debate. After the implementation of stark […]

Our Guest : Émeline Brulé April 2020 in San Francisco, waiting in line to enter Rainbow Grocery, a worker-owned cooperative focusing on local, vegetarian organic food. Every journey is an opportunity to discover the new signs accompanying the pandemic. On […]

Marseille, April 2020. The street was, of course, empty, confinement required. With the sun hitting it directly, the sign built on an railway company right-of-way was all the more visible with its white background. The huge letters and the two-colour […]

Paris, April 2020. We now talk behind masks and write behind glass. To justify being closed, to give the address of the website where to place an order or to inform about adjusted schedules. There are also all those little […]

Paris, April 2020. It’s the poster superimposition that strikes me first, telling me a story in two parts. The first series, slipped into plastic sleeves, is taped inside the tobacco bar window. Well protected, was the poster supposed to last, […]

Marseille, March 2020. The avenue was almost deserted, confinement obliges. The shops on the ground floor were closed, with iron curtains on which small posters recalling the government’s decision were hung. But higher up, on the upper floors, one could […]

Paris, September 2019. It is not only in the sciences that interdisciplinarity has become a watchword in the strictest sense. I do not mean a commandment, but a set of actions linked to statements by a “social obligation” – in […]

Toulouse, november 2019. A kilometre marker, I am placed in the traffic lane so that passersby can see me clearly. As a signage component, I play a dual role: I identify the road on which I am placed as a […]

It’s an old story. Morality is about more than the separation of right and wrong, fair and unfair. It also involves the distribution of tasks and responsibilities. It’s not so much a matter of pointing out the guilty who have […]

Marseille, janvier 2020 The cheque, so useful to bring the bank account into the heart of the French population, is now abhorred by banks. Too much complex materiality, manual operations and processing for this medium compared to the seemingly immediate […]

Aix-en-Provence, January 2020 Some writings are not meant to be read, or rather they are written so that they cannot be read. The Ministry of Colonies in Paris wanted to communicate secretly with the Governor of Pondicherry, who was geographically […]

Paris, January 2020. It was very cold that morning when I decidedly crossed this small flea market in the neighborhood. My eyes were drawn to the cover of a book I had just finished a few days earlier. It was […]

Paris, december 2019. If many writings circulate from one place to another, they are also displayed to be seen or read in situations. This is all the more obvious for shop signs, labels, and signboards, which much of their action […]

Prohibition signs are more than mere conveyors of law or regulation. They give the world an extra layer of reality by giving sometimes very virtual actions an extra level of existence. You never thought of throwing stones in the pond? […]

Montpellier, December 2019. In this congested storeroom in the operating room, the surgeons are practising their new robot adorned with a thousand virtues. Around this surprising man-machine arrangement, they piled up medical equipment that they no longer knew where to […]