Paris, may 2009. Street nameplates, shop signs, billboards do not only punctuate public places, they are especially favorable sites where names are displayed. A proper name of a great historical figure here, a common noun that is part of the […]

I had received the invitation for a long time, I had not paid any particular attention to the address of the hotel. In the past, I used to buy a map of the city. I used to come back quickly […]

It’s always the same with machines: they’re badly thought of. Especially among historians and sociologists. As if humanities meant defense of humanoids. And above all, as if a clear line could be drawn to separate humans and machines. On one […]

Urban settings are made of so familiar components that we do not pay any attention to them: crosswalks, traffic lines, bike lanes, parking lots, bus lanes… only become salient when we miss them and we consider that their presence should […]

She has been literate for only 8 years, she enjoys reading at the point of sometimes refrain from entering a bookseller ‘not to interfere with her schoolwork’, she devours books the same way she eats Nutella or potato chips, she […]

You love this country. Its lands, its cities, its forests. And above all, its skies. You came here a lot, but for the first time you have the opportunity to drive a car. Doing the driver: a good way to […]

Through the ages, car has been object of numerous innovations. Of course, the engine power, noise and consumption as well as the optimal forms of the coachwork have been the focus of reflexions for a long time. Then more recently, […]

One day, as I went back home after grocery shopping, I walked by a store that was apparently being remodeled. What was being hidden by the semi-painted glass that obscured my view as much as it drew my attention and […]

This is not a surprise even he has been often criticized about it: the scriptopolian is obsessed with written objects. He always watch out for them, trying to understand their modes of presence. In order to tell tirelessly what writing […]

During a single day, we may very frequently move from one place to another, we may cross spaces fitted out in very different manners, we may be next to different entities. Yet, one generally does not attach importance to the […]

Since he announced he was on the move to Yale, his colleagues have been telling him how lucky he was, he would see what he was going to see: a place to know for real at last, with its campus […]

In domestic spaces, as well as in public settings, explicit instructions for use directly attached to objects are rare. They are usally written on a separate document, possibly on the package protecting objects before their use. We surely all have […]

It was a sunny morning and I was leaning on the window of my hotel room. I observed the awakening of the city that gradually became animated. Cars began to form a beautiful multicolored queue, stores gradually opened their doors, […]

(with some clear Foucauldian understatement) I’ve been investigating for a little while now about this type of street furniture, which to my minds looks typically Parisian (in the sense that I’ve never seen it elsewhere). Strangely enough, though, Parisians – […]

In the 1960s, an American sociologist, a Reverend, inspired by Erving Goffman’s work, decided to conduct an ethnography of the urinals in a small town. Then, homosexual relationships were prohibited by Law. It was therefore in those public places that […]

Amongst the objects that display writing, we often insisted on the crucial role of doors. There are of course a lot more. Windshields, for exemple, are not only transparent surfaces that protect the car driver and the other passengers from […]

The floor is covered with pieces of bark, giving this part of the park a unique appearance. Here there is no grass: just a carpet made of plant fragments and some large pines. Nearby, there is an outdoor concert which […]

This is again the time of comings and goings. One more time, the end of holidays goes hand in hand with its usual crowded railway stations and traffic jams. The management of vehicles flows raises particular issues for tolls on […]

As soon as we are talking about work, we usually associate writing practices to hierarchy, and more generally to prescriptions and their circulation. As if there were two distinct worlds: that of official, regulatory, formal texts and that of gestures, […]

One purchase, one small piece of paper. In this world, each deal is not simply the exchange of goods for an amount of money : it also ends with the printing of a sale receipt. Their destiny is multiple. Some are […]

When I leave home to go to the corner or across the world, I always leave a note. On a post-it or on a large sheet. Next to nothing, just in case something happens to me. Not to leave without […]

We have often written about it here, street signs are fascinating objects for whom is interested in the scriptural shaping of the world. Essential supports of the demand for mobility that characterizes our urban settings, they take a part in […]

We have known each other for such a long time. We have gone through a large part of the 1980s, sharing several experiences when we were young. Then, we went on separate ways during the 1990s, before getting back in […]

You came to visit the new museum of contemporary art, the architect designed a building that looks like a stack of cubes in equilibrium. It’s beautiful. You enter, you take a ticket and begin the visit. Down to the first […]

This is not the first time we do this, here. There is nothing like the observation of children practices to understand what writing does to the world. It is a very good exercise to avoid any temptation of functionalism. Not […]

I tried different possibilities, I tested several options, but nothing worked. I turned the problem upside down, but I couldn’t find a solution. Even the elementary things seemed to be insuperable. Ideas became more and more confused, intermingled, they piled […]

We will never see his medical file — we assume it is as thick as a court record — with its multicolored sheets, the accounts of the dozen of blood tests that made a mess of his arms every day, the printed […]

Friday Guest: Julie Fen-Chong Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both. (Robert Frost) What surprised and charmed me most in Arthur’s kingdom is not only welsh language and the consequent local names “Betws-y-coed” […]

Who are we? Lots of researchers and poets have been working on the deconstruction and the enrichment of our mundane definition of idendity. They have notably shown that whether we are in-dividuals, it is essentially when we face police, law, […]

Learning how to eat is pre-eminentely a question of skills: to handle correctly various kitchenware, to lay on a first-rate meal, to sort out the sheep from the goats, and to adopt specific postures that fit with the manipulation of […]

At the entrance to the playground, a large green sign recalls the rules to be observed in this relaxing place for families. It is forbidden to adults without children, dogs, tobacco, beverages and food are prohibited. So are radio and […]

A name, one thing. One category, one entity. One barcode, one product. Mineral, plant or animal, each element is subject to classification principles and naming systems. One can easily circulate from words to things and vice versa thanks to a […]

It all started with a few notes written on loose sheets. Maybe a notebook. There were, before and after that, conversations. Comments, advices, face to face or on the phone. Choices were made, a strategy was planned. And then she […]