Yasmine Abbas is a French DPLG architect, holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS 2001) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Doctor of Design (DDes 2006) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

In 1995, while pursuing an internship at the UNESCO, United Nations, Education, Science and Culture Organization, she realizes the importance of education and technology for a culture of peace. Since, the notions of cultural encounters and mobilities have driven her designs and critical inquiries. She aims to advance the social and cultural by integrating technology with design. At MIT, her interactions with the Design Inquiry and Intelligent Kinetic System groups lead her to research the figure of “supermodernity”, the neo-nomad. At Harvard she focused on how neo-nomads, digitally geared people on the move, reclaim a sense of belonging to places in the age of multiple mobilities and digital technologies. In 2005 she founds neo-nomad, a digital platform dedicated to design and mobility in the digital world.

At Wentworth Institute of technology, she taught the spring 2007 seminar: Digital + Mobilities which led to the investigation of the freedom trail through codes: DiMo project.

She is currently working as a senior consultant at ReD!

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Architecte DPLG française (Paris, 1997), Yasmine ABBAS est titulaire d’un Master of Science in Architecture Studies du Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SMArchS 2001) et d’un Doctorat, Doctor of Design d’Harvard University Graduate School of Design (DDes 2006).
En 1995, alors qu’elle effectue un stage d’études à l’UNESCO, elle conçoit l’importance de l’éducation et des nouvelles technologies pour une culture de paix. Depuis, les principes de rencontres culturelles et de mobilité ont guidé ses questionnements et ses recherches. Au MIT, ses interactions avec les groupes du Design Inquiry et Intelligent Kinetic Systems la conduisent à étudier le nomade des sociétés « surmodernes ». À l’Université d’Harvard, elle recherche les manières dont ces néo-nomades, populations mobiles équipées numériquement, recréent un sentiment d’appartenance aux lieux et espaces. En 2005 elle crée son blog de recherche, neo-nomad.

A scanner to track who is editing wikipedia. Read the Wired blog/article - See Who’s Editing Wikipedia: Diebold, Wikipedia, a Campain.

 
Via adsoftheworld

Osuna’s box trays are used to hold plants in customers’ cars. We saw them as a consumer touch point and provided a brief (albeit entertaining) message to encourage recycling.

While looking for information on data transport via skin, I came across this post: Microsoft patents the body electric… Maybe some application for Touch·Sensitive?? … Imagine exchanging data via a simple handshake?!

Thank you to Riem, I came across this article by Anthony D’Andrea in the Mobilities Journal: Neo-nomadism: A Theory of Post-Identitarian Mobility in the Global Age.

Simultaneous thinking or not, it is good and flattering to see that I have fostered a field of inquiry on its own, and that the neo-nomad wording/thinking spreads, though I mainly speak about psycho-socio-cultural aspects and spaces. I look forward to read this article.

As I wrote in a reply to Bill Thompson after discovering his BBC article, In Search of the Neo-nomad, I have been working on the neo-nomad since the time I was enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1999. The title of my MIT thesis (MIT, 2001) is Embodiment: Mental and Physical Geographies of the Neo-nomad. Since, I wrote many articles about neo-nomads, some for Ubicomp conferences… I also graduated from Harvard with a Doctor of Design, which title is: Neo-nomads: Designing Environments for Living in the Age of Physical, Digital and Mental Mobilities (Harvard, 2006). I opened my research blog much later in 2005… Thanks to Jerôme Chevillat and Roger of Kaywa, my words have spread to the point of peaking to 722 visits a day for the month of June 2007!

My book, Neo-nomads, is coming soon… patience!
Anyway readers, for your information, here is a list of relevant publications, interviews and talks I gave around the world on neo-nomads:

Forthcoming publication “Environnements néo-nomades, système écologique ?” in Synergies Pays Riverains de la Baltique n° 4 (2007)

Wrote with Vaucelle, C. and Abbas, Y. 2007. Touch: sensitive apparel. In CHI ‘07 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (San Jose, CA, USA, April 28 - May 03, 2007). CHI ‘07. ACM Press, New York, NY, 2723-2728.

Video-conference discussion: City in Flux: Eco-Mobility? with Dr. Ben Croxford, Lecturer MSc Environmental Design and Engineering; intended to students enrolled in the Master of Science Adaptive Architecture and Computation program, Digital Space and Society module taught by Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, The Bartlett, London, UK, January 22, 2007 . Event hosted by Critical Digital at Harvard GSD

Presented my up to date research on neo-nomads to students enrolled in Digital, a class taught by Michael MacPhail at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, USA, November 1, 2006

Interviewed by Rudy de Waele for m-trends.org, Women in Mobile # 16, September 23, 2006

Wrote TAXICITY-TOXICITY in JCDecaux, Mobilités: la Clé des Villes (St-Amand-Montrond, Clerc: 2006) p. 98-99 and Interviewed William J. Mitchell on the Paris Bus Line project in collaboration with the RATP; both contributing to a prospective reflection on cities initiated by the Chronos Group, Observatory of Chronomobility . JCDecaux presented the book of trends at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, June 2006

Gave a Lecture to students enrolled in the Master of Science Adaptive Architecture and Computation program, Digital Space and Society module taught by Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, The Bartlett, London, UK, November 14, 2005

Presented and debated with Nigel Thrift and Ranjit Makkuni at Ci’Num, the Digital Civilizations Forum: Conquests and Conflicts, forum “dedicated to the future of the digital revolution and designed to evaluate its social, cultural, and economic impacts”, Bordeaux, France, October 8, 2005

Interviewed by Pierre Tillinac for Sud-Ouest, the second daily French regional newspaper with a circulation of over 300.000 readers; interview entitled “Quand Les Mobilités Changent Nos Vies” = When Mobilities Change Our Lives, published October 3, 2005

Wrote “Parasites?” (Paper presented at the “Metapolis and Urban Life” workshop, UbiComp2005 Conference, Tokyo, Japan, September 10-11, 2005) and was selected to participate in the interactive 2 day workshop

Presented “Neo-nomads and the Making of Boundaries in the Age of Mobility” (Paper presented at the Mobile Geography, Presidential Choice Session, SASE2005 conference, Budapest, Hungary, July 1, 2005) . BTW, this is when and where I have met John Urry who is the mind behind the Mobilities Journal, where the article spotted above was published!

Wrote “Neo-nomads and the Nature of the Spaces of Flows” (Paper presented at the “UbiComp in the Urban Frontier” workshop, UbiComp2004 conference, Nottingham, UK, September 7, 2004) and was selected to participate in the one day workshop

Wrote “Expression of the Edge” (Paper accepted for publication, and presented at the ACSA Odysseys conference, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA, February 22, 2002). A post MIT Thesis reflection on neo-nomads…

Just finished a study on social networking with findings corroborating some mentionned by the BBC article: Social networks ‘lure music fans’… Sociality and the practice of everyday spaces have changed to an on-demand, tailored consumption of people objects and things. And this happens 24/7! As the world being “flat”… many companies outsource to Asia because Asia is actually awake when the West sleeps! Couldn’t we think of Asia outsourcing to the States because of the same reason? We don’t need to be THERE for things to happen. That is a neo-nomadic way of life!

I am now moving on reading/writing about Applied Business Research and find a compelling way to convey the exciting and (business) value of pattern recognition… And still working with Cati on Touch·Sensitive!

I figured that it might be very difficult for you reader to make sense of all the bits and pieces of information, from art to technology. But think about the blog as a convergence of disciplines… As I often say and write, and thank you to Deleuze and Guattari for their inspiring thinking, what gives matter to things is not only the parts, but also the assemblages, what is in-between…

Part of the neo-nomad inquiry, a interest in cyborgs (very feminine (unfortunately stereotypically evil women) “machine-man”… Remember F. Lang’s Metropolis!) and astronauts… Space fashion is changing, going back to Star Trek’s roots, very close to the body_almost embodied! Check the video with Dr. Dava Newman presenting the space suit of the near future, and discussing the human performance in space! And read the MIT News article: One giant leap for space fashion: MIT team designs sleek, skintight spacesuit…

1. I am French, born in Strasbourg
2. I lived 1/3 of my life in France… 2/3 abroad!
3. People say that I have an accent when I speak French
4. Beside French, je parle Frenglish
5. I am in love with D’Artagnan… et Aramis!
6. I live my life with PANACHE (DASH)!
7. I owe my nickname, Yaz, to a dear friend of mine. That dates way back to 1996. It is today the name of a birth control pill!!! But let’s take the good side of the matter…: I am proud to ubiquitously inspire many women in this world :)
8. My mission is to change the way people think about property, to annihilate borders, and compel people to embrace differences…

Thank you Cati ;)

Great evening: ART ZOYD & METROPOLIS BY FRITZ LANG. It is the third time I watch Metropolis. It is the first time I watch it accompanied with music. Download Art Zoyd’s .pdf on Metropolis. Art Zoyd is fantastic!

Fritz Lang’s black/white masterpiece Metropolis projected onto the wall of the last historical industry building at the Harbour of Copenhagen to music of the ground-breaking avant-rock band, Art Zoyd.

Experience the Metropolis Biennale opening with the ultimate cult film that provided endless discussions and became implemented on the world political arena. Fritz Lang’s black/white Metropolis film will be shown in city parameters on the outer wall of a massive storage tower in Copenhagen harbour – a building that is going to be demolished in due course.

“Metropolis will have no equal”, said the master of movies, Luis Bunuel, after the premiere in 1927. The ground-breaking French avant-rock band Art Zoyd accompanies the film with their minimalist installations and compositions created specific for this film.

Fritz Lang’s masterpiece experienced on a massive screen accompanied by live music is a unique cocktail you won’t forget. (Metropolis website biennale)