There is something strange about this lunch. Adults have fun, but we barely see the children. Juts before desert, they ask for the permission to leave and disappear. What’s really awkward is we don’t hear them. No big laughs, no […]

Paris, november 2015. Everyone has been sat down into the meeting room for hours, during several consecutive days. Discussions have been rather polite and quiet, other have been more animated, even harsh. The various opinions have been expressed, shared and […]

Valencia, March 2016 Almost ten years, the pool was full of boats and onlookers, and the images of the regattas were transmitted worldwide. Today, under the sun, the marina accommodates only a few walkers and occasional sailers. Yet buildings are […]

This is the first thing you do after arriving at the AirBnB studio: a walk in the neighborhood. What a beautiful place. Trees and flowers everywhere. Blue sky. Colorful houses, nice frontyards. You take pictures that you know will look […]

Paris, February 2016 The ministry is still a great fortress extending over a block, even if its new entrance made of glass symbolized its openness to all citizens. After passing the security checks worthy of an airport, we arrived at […]

Paris, september 2010. A few words on a sheet of paper enclosed in a transparent plastic pocket containing a key, the whole thing firmly attached to a piece of string. That’s it! Everyone would receives this surprising assemblage as a […]

“Nobody walks in LA”, we all know that. Before going there, I used to think it was a matter of distance. That the point was actually nobody walks 10 miles to go to work. No one considers a two-hours tour […]

San Francisco, December 2010 There are words and signs that once were exceptional and that have become commonplace. Weather announcements then consisted in temperatures and a sun or rain forecast, while green spots, yellow, orange or red now dot the […]

Denver, november 2015. The role of measurements is key in a wide range of situations. In the scientific practice, a tool as simple as a scale is regularly used to weigh a known substance in the course of an experiment. […]

It’s hard to make people do things you think are important, especially when you can’t force them physically. All over the years we witnessed so many different ways: from the exposition of simple facts to extreme politeness, from detailed legal […]

Paris, November 2015 The state of emergency implies a deployment of police and military forces throughout the country. Well, almost … because within the higher education and research institutions, they are hardly present. It shall not be taken as an […]

Athens, November 2015. The night was warm, as in Paris a week earlier, and orange lights illuminated the Acropolis overlooking the city. Near Syntagma Square and the Parliament where the changing of the guard attracts tourists, lies an avenue with […]

Clamart, june 2015. Nothing seems to be easier than to go swimming. You just have to jump into the water. Whether you are a good swimmer or not, whether you are dressed or not, it is that simple! Yet, the […]

Paris, November 2014. Thousands of books handily accessible. It was one of the strong arguments of the ebooks readers retailers. Ease of transport, abundance. When I saw your bag for the first time and I realized that it contained books, […]

Quebec, August 2015. An historic site with its splendid terrace, its cannons and its view over the majestic river can only attract hordes of tourists and their associated ecosystem of shops and street vendors. Not far away, a little remote, […]

When and where do we work? What used to be a very simple question is now a great matter a concern. Not only because a lot of workers have a mobile computer with which they can check their e-mails at […]

La Rochelle, august 2015. It’s summer time. The sun has been shining for several weeks, and a thin layer of dust covers the different professional nameplates of this notarial office. Cleaning these golden signs is part of the housekeeper’s work. […]

Milan, june 2015. The room is beautiful, yet empty but already illuminated, all dressed in red, and the stage seems so close. But to look at the balcony of the stall is not given to everyone when the show begins. […]

Paris, june 2015.

Paris, May 2015. The “coffee machine” is now a globalized device: work spaces and public spaces abound with these machines that produce “coffee”, “tea” and “cocoa” from unidentified substances and hot tap water. This is a real black box: no […]

A lot of things are needed for what we consider a decent living in our occidental rich countries. Tap water, stable electricity supply, roads, sidewalks (except maybe in L.A. ), a telecommunication network, public transportation… The list is quite long, […]

Paris, may 2015. Buying an helmet is a matter of security, since riding a motorcycle entails to wear this kind of head protector. Yet, as you enter a motorbike shop, other criteria rapidly challenge the secure one. Comfort and aesthetics […]

Madère, September 2014. The island was beautiful, the subtropical backgarden of a once European colonizer, where fruits were taking advantage of the volcanic land and plants the always plentiful water from the mountains. In the middle of the capital town, […]

The project had raised the most striking debates. Some people, the wealthiest, were completely opposed to it. They had found many circuitous routes to explain how bad this idea was, never telling directly why they actually didn’t want public housing […]

Paris, April 2015. Openness is on the rise. With the Internet, government data are made available to the public, academic papers are made available juste as they are published, computer code software is easily searchable and editable. Based on old […]

Paris, March 2015. Contemporary electronic spaces made us experience an economy of attention: if anyone can post notes, images, videos, comments in different public spaces, they then compete with the tens of millions of their siblings. The space they occupy […]

Our risk society is also a society of collective doubt and questioning. Experts talks no longer carry the old authority and those who are eligible to wobble certainties are becoming more numerous. Microwaves, shale gas, large urban projects, GMOs, vaccination […]

Paris, july 2011. The fluidity of the world rests on multiple connectors and numerous chambers. Among these flux regulators, doors are both a simple and sophisticated technology. Whatever its equipment and the world it opens to are, a door is […]

Western Massachussets, October 2013. The mailbox looked like any other one, with its cylindrical body and its flag to signal mail. As we were approaching, a sticker became visible: its colors had certainly faded, but its text was still readable: […]

Leiden, February 2015. With the rise of the internet, writing practices were dramatically transformed. Not only, text processing softwares allow one to interact very differently with words, by using a keyboard, but also with sentences and paragraphs that can be […]