Again another cool article in PingMag: Masaru Tatsuki’s Decotora Photo Op showing the decotora, the Japanese truck decorated with lights. The photographer, a photo-ethnographer in fact, stayed 10 years with truckers before producing his book.

Majestic! Elegant! Pretentious!? Make way for the King of the Road. From the “Decotora” photo book. © Masaru Tatsuki | My home is my castle: A portable parlour with all the comforts of home on the highway. Cosy! From the “Decotora” photo book. © Masaru Tatsuki

Tatsuki says in the article:

“About two or three years into the project, I realised that the trucks rather than the drivers were being overly emphasised in the photographs. Because if you don’t define your subject, the subject defines itself. So I started going to meetings where large numbers of truckers would gather. They were all very outgoing, and I gradually felt welcomed into their community. Then, I started to discover things I respected about them - and things I didn’t like. For the first time, I felt I really knew the truckers. I realised that they possess a sense of masculinity that is dying out in Japan. I could also understand their feeling of wanting to decorate the tools they use for work.

People are surprised that I spent ten years on this project, but it simply takes time to really understand something. And I wanted to really understand the things I wanted to express. That is why it took so long.”

This is also something that I do: immerse with the subject. Don’t know if I can call myself a “psychosociologue” (Currently reading Georges Perec, Les choses, 1965 where the author speaks about people conducting open-ended and structured interviews…)

Anyway, decorating a standard vehicle is a matter of appropriation, and we see this phenomenon throughout the world, in India for example… Taking a cab in the Middle East is also particularly interesting… As if you were to travel in a living room.

“What if immigration could be liberated from government control?” Check the P2P immigration network via Citizen Exchange Program (image from weblog). Found via Rhizome on border crossing.

The Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference 2008 (EPIC2008) will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark 16 - 19 October.

Submission deadlines will be:

April 18 for extended Paper abstracts
May 19 for Workshop proposals
August 1 for Artifact submissions

The call for papers and initial program plan will be announced shortly. The organizers: Melissa Cefkin (Co-Chair, IBM Research) and Martha Cotton (Co-Chair, Herbst LaZar Bell, Inc.)

The art center summit 2008, in Pasadena CA.

“The second Summit has an ambitious program. The Art Center Summit: Systems, Cities & Sustainable Mobility will look at the big picture: the broad systems thinking and systems integration needed to create a better future for society. How can design encourage large groups to rethink how they move from Point A to Point B? How does one design attractive, efficient and financially viable solutions for new communities? How can new systems be designed for existing environments? How should the design process integrate with cross-disciplinary systems and teams”

Weare™ is a 2007 scarf, a co-created fashion… by Moving Brands.

Screenshot from the website

“Last Christmas we set up a screen made of fairy lights in the Moving Brands window.”

“We then invited people to send messages and drawings, via a simple web-interface, to be shown in sequence in the window. The window was captured by webcam and broadcast live to the internet.”

“We stored everything sent to the window in a gallery, and the full sequence has been used to create this scarf.”

PS: I have entered 3 drawings and ordered leggings :)

La SNCF maintenant propose de calculer l’indice environnement, càd les emissions de CO2 , selon que l’on voyage en train, par avion, ou en voiture. 80 Kg. de CO2 émis si l’on voyage en TGV (Aller-retour Paris-Strasbourg) contre 115 Kg par avion… (Payer plus cher pour un voyage plus long (car il faut se rendre à l’aéroport si l’on y est pas en transit), voyager moins confortablement, et polluer plus! You get the message :)

Governments have always been suspicious of nomads. Read a little about the carnet anthropométrique, a document specially designed for the “gens du voyage.” Someone does not have an identity if not attached to a geography. Human Being-AOC… Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée? Remember my friends Jerôme and Eléonore’s finding: Interdit Aux Nomades.

Read this article in Le Monde: La Halde veut une réforme du carnet de circulation imposé aux gens du voyage.

“Saisie de nombreuses plaintes concernant les gens du voyage, la Haute Autorité de lutte contre les discriminations et pour l’égalité (Halde) a adressé, vendredi 11 janvier, au gouvernement des recommandations afin que soit rétablie une égalité de traitement à l’égard de cette population.

Bien que citoyens français, ces personnes ayant adopté un mode de vie nomade sont victimes, dans de nombreux domaines de la vie quotidienne, de discriminations qui résultent, observe la Halde, de comportements individuels comme des textes en vigueur, et notamment de la loi du 3 janvier 1969 leur conférant un statut spécifique.

Ainsi, en vertu de cette loi, pour pouvoir se déplacer sur le territoire national, les gens du voyage français doivent être munis d’un carnet de circulation, au risque sinon d’être passible de délit. Aussi, ce carnet, qui doit être visé tous les trois mois, donne-t-il lieu à des contrôles permanents.

En les soumettant à une telle obligation, ce dispositif, estime la Halde, est contraire à la déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme et à la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme (CEDH), car il enfreint le droit à la liberté de circulation des personnes et établit une discrimination dans la jouissance de ce droit.”

The image above comes from the website of the association A Part Entière. It is the carnet anthropométrique of Jean Baptiste Bouvrisse. “Image reproduite avec l’aimable authorisation of Patrick Sol.”

Neo-nomads are traceable, chipped, tagged… They have given up on an identity attached to a specific territory. Yet in France, Neo-nomads do have a passport (valid 10 years) that they need to change everytime they move (The French consulate said; an address is still written on the passport): How awkward when you move your base camp so often?!

There was an experiment in Quebec for issuing passports to citizens of nomad territories… Unfortunately, the link does not work anymore :(

For more reading find the book by Xavier Rothéa, France pays des droits des Roms ? Gitans, « Bohémiens », « gens du voyage », face aux pouvoirs public depuis le 19e siècle (Lyon: Éditions Carobella ex-natura, 2003)

The creators are Adam Mack, Brian Mason, John Lai, Paul Silberschatz and Eleanor Morgan…

“The Aquaduct is pedal powered vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. A peristaltic pump attached to the pedal crank draws water from a large tank, through a carbon filter, to a smaller clean tank. The clean tank is removable and closed for contamination-free home storage and use. A clutch engages and disengages the drive belt from the pedal crank, enabling the rider to filter the water while traveling or while stationary. The Aquaduct is the winning entry in the Innovate or Die contest put on by Google and Specialized. Please see the website: www.innovate-or-die.com for more details.”

Prof. Sangmin Bae and his team (Lim Yuree, Stacy + Sohn Seongki + Jeong Huikyung + Park Hyejin) from ID + IM Design Lab have designed clothTag, an “RFID tagging for your clothing life.” The team is the red dot award winner of 2007:

“Clothing could be a lot smarter with clothTag – a clothing tag that stores and communicates information about the clothing to which it is attached.

clothTag uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) technology for identification and interaction with other objects, such as smart mirrors in shops, as well as with washing machines, steam irons, closets and clothes hangers, as shown in the illustrations. Beyond these devices, clothTag has unlimited possibilities for application.

The information stored and communicated is helpful to the user, and includes general laundry treatment, colour, size, material, and colour codes. clothTag is also designed to give the user information even if the user doesn’t have a reader device; the circuit of the RFID tag can form four traditional laundry icons. The water washable icon (1), acid washing icon (2), ironing icon (3) and size icon (4) are available. The form of the circuit gives the outline of each icon group and the manufacturer can print out corresponding details of each icon on the tag.

clothTag also gives information about materials used in the cloth. The bottom bar indicates name of materials and percentage of each material used. A colour chip is provided in the middle of clothTag. The main colour and exact colour code of the cloth is printed on the tag, so the user can choose the exact colour he or she wants.”

An ultra mobile item in a less mobile one:

Image from Ads of the World