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 […]

Berkeley, december 2010. Browse narrow paths on campus and see some traces of the sixties social movements: Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, sent the National Guard against pacifist students dreaming of another world. Realize that this balance of power […]

Hong-Kong, july 2010. For the traveler, taking the escalator is not always a means of transportation, it can also be some sightseeing experience: there is a real monument in Hong Kong, the Central to Mid-Level escalator , the world’s longest […]

Pondichéry, february 2008. Near a maternity service, two large posters are permanently placed. The first is subtitled in capital letters « Girl Child Is Precious » and the Anglophone reader concludes that it aims to fight against infanticide and abandonment […]

Lisbonne, june 2009. At the foot of the monument, flowers, a wreath and especially hundreds of plates are placed in some disorder, marble slabs engraved with golden letters, photos clamped. For an ordinary traveler like me, that’s for sure: it […]

Paris, june 2011. As Scriptopolis goes on vacation, let’s look at some prototype objects of summer: bathing suits, straw hats or, in this picture, umbrellas. Even when produced by prestigious brands, they are rarely provided with inscriptions unless when used […]

Who are we? Where do we come from? Where shall we go? It’s been centuries that these questions are addressed by most philosophical theories. Whether they claim to be or are labelled as evolutionist, existentialist, humanist, ethic, analytical… the very […]

Paris, may 2010. Michèle Grosjean, who left us last saturday, was a very special colleague for a lot of people, especially in the field of French workplace studies. A key member of the ‘Langage et Travail’ network, she was not […]

Boston, may 2011. Nowdays, the @ symbol is taken for granted. Most people with an internet connection use this button on the keyboard without thinking of it. And without knowing its improbable historical trajectory. Despite its controversial origin, it seems […]

Boston, may 2011. Because they sort out entities, signposts are both a matter of discipline and of justice. From this standpoint, the history of traffic lights and their invention is fascinating. At first, these lights were meant to replace policemen […]

Lancaster, december 2010. “Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines”. As these lyrics point it out, time is the key issue of most […]

Entering this elevator, you’ll find a poster that refers to a register you have to fill and sign if you happen to work in this academic building on a sunday. All the refering dance is a classical one. So is […]

Issy-les-Moulineaux, april 2011. Everybody wants to know the truth. Who is lying ? The unsuspected politician or the unknown housemaid? The international star or the so-called non-person? Lawyers and police departments are directly involved in the making of this kind […]

Issy-les-Moulineaux, june 2010. Let’s come back to windshields. We saw recently that they provide a great exhibition space: a useful showcase where books can be exposed or message displayed without getting spoiled by rain or wind. But they also offer […]

Lancaster, december 2010. From the very beginning of our experience as a pedestrian, we are told to be careful. Crossing a street is never obvious. It is rather a risky business. As kids, we do not pay attention to this […]

Paris, june 2009. We have been trying to show it since the beginning of Scriptopolis: public lettering is extremely diverse. One can find very different kinds of signs and marks in cities. Yet, their very coexistence is not always peaceful. […]

On highway, 2010. Scriptopolis has given many insights into the wonderful innovations and the extraordinary multiplicity of a simple door. It is a means to interlink and distinguish two spaces : inside and outside, here and there, free circulation and […]

We have often insisted on the traces that writing can produce. Its ability to dislocate situations, to transport them from one place to another, from one moment to another. In our times of all-powerful forms, these written traces are crucial. […]

Paris, june 2010. We are regularly told that writing is pregnant with our intimacy, that it is marked by our personality, that it is the ultimate trace of our acts. However, such a particular vehicle is not naturally seen. Reading […]

Clamart, march 2011. We live in a world of archives. We spend a lot of time producing or classifying documents which are only made to testify about our lives. What we bought, what we earned, what we did. These records […]

Paris, march 2011. Footnotes are part of the diverse elements that progressively took place during the long rise of the printing press and the graphic space reorganization of books. Today notes are fully part of our reading and writing practices: […]

Paris, march 2011. Springtime is a delight for scriptopolian people. As the nature awakes day after day, he looks away from writing for once. He pays attention to the small vegetable marks that announce the great transformation, to the light, […]

Toulouse, august 2009. For some, it is very often, indeed every day. For others, it is rather on saturdays. All of them walk down the street and, above all, they quiver with the idea to go shopping. Buying the last […]