Radio Station EXP

On A Roll

2012-01-27T12:27:00.000+01:00

Remix

2012-01-26T18:02:00.003+01:00

Wizz

2012-01-26T17:17:00.000+01:00

Re: Occupy La Defense 11/04/2011

2011-11-08T19:57:00.000+01:00

Occupy La Defense 11/04/2011

2011-11-06T14:13:00.000+01:00

Sunset on La Defense square, a gathering of a few hundred people down the steps of the Arch has a firm intention to spend the night. Some wait in line behind a megaphone to voice their concerns, others hand out cardboards and paintbrushes, most of them just hang out. Words spread quickly in a crowd made of people in their 20/30's armed with their cellphones, cameras, self-confidence and any recording devices possible. This "manifestation" is "authorized" until 9pm. Drop a tent and stay inside so they cannot get you out. Speakers alternate, cut here and there by crown cheers, banners and cardboard signs are being deployed as night settles in. Police lines are slowly forming on every corners of the square but that does not seem to bother anyone. They share food, laughters and ideas. In front of them, well protected in their ninja turtle outfit, the CRS and the police work together to circumvent the threat.

Time goes by peacefully until the fateful hour, shortly after 9pm a small group of CRS works its way through the heart of the sitting and start tearing a few tents apart under a rain of flashes, boohoo's and a timid megaphoned voice trying to explain they cannot be doing what they are actually doing right in front of their eyes. After the deed is done and a handful of tents ripped off they vanish back behind the now huge line of police that got closer to the group. An hour passed the fateful hour, law enforcement has had enough, shielded ninja turtle start coming in waves, marching on the camp ground kicking the protestor out of people sitting in front of them. Some are dragged out and arrested, others just pulled out, one of them does not get up. A fire truck picks him up eventually. Sitters tighten their ranks to protect the last few tents.

Dare to change. If the system beats you up, protest! Keep informed, switch off your tv. People, Rise up! Consuming does not make you happier. Greed is dead. That's all "protestors" have to say but it's only met with blunt silence and violence. A cop pushing back people hanging around the surrounded camp tells a journalist she cannot get into the temporary press zone. By 11pm, police lines tighten around the few sitters left, there isn't a single tent standing. Most of the passers by and traditional media are long gone, only remains the ones that were actually ready to spend the night here. But a few minutes later all the cops are standing a good twenty five meters back, a clear offer to disband before it's too late kind of passive aggressive behavior. By the end of this back and forth, a handful of people are left, without tents or anything else, they spend the night in the cold, calling for help on social medias networks.

A young girl on the Arch steps tries to explain to her friend that people here don't have it bad enough, that it's why there are so few and the police has it so easy. What comes out of this night in La Defense is the obvious reason why there isn't a bigger occupy/indignados/99% movement in France. There was as many law enforcement as there were people. Not even a thousand showed up and a mere twenty tents were put out, yet the response was completely disproportionate. This exhibits a strong will not to let anything even begin to happen. The disappointing element is that there were too few people that night, anyway not enough to stir things one way or another. So it got treated like a disturbance, and not anything close to a rise up movement. As to try and kick start something that would resemble what we see in many great capitals, the french 99% keep going.

Montreal Streets HDR

2011-10-16T18:41:00.000+02:00

Quebec & Les Escoumins HDR

2011-10-16T15:43:00.000+02:00

Occupy Wall Street, 09/19/2011

2011-10-10T18:04:00.001+02:00

The Illuminated Crowd

2011-10-10T13:46:00.000+02:00

Streets Of Montreal, II

2011-09-14T06:13:00.000+02:00

Streets Of Montreal

2011-09-05T08:32:00.000+02:00

Kentucky Fried Donald's

2011-08-24T10:12:00.000+02:00

100% Diversion

2011-08-21T11:27:00.000+02:00

Totem

2011-08-14T01:37:00.000+02:00

Be Like Honey

2011-08-04T17:51:00.000+02:00

André Citroën Park

2011-07-17T23:36:00.000+02:00

Bastille Day Over Grenelle Bridge

2011-07-16T00:28:00.000+02:00

Slightly Better

2011-07-08T19:24:00.001+02:00

Little By Little

2011-07-06T01:13:00.002+02:00

Sacré Fantome

2011-07-06T00:11:00.000+02:00

Hay You!

2011-07-05T23:54:00.000+02:00

Going Coastal

2011-07-05T23:38:00.000+02:00

Lots Of Vivid Emotions

2011-07-05T01:44:00.000+02:00

Totem Ideas

2011-06-30T01:03:00.000+02:00

Issy Park Quicky

2011-06-25T02:26:00.002+02:00

Street Hug

2011-06-25T02:01:00.000+02:00

Monumenta, Grand Palais, Paris

2011-06-25T00:29:00.000+02:00

Assembling Nuit Africaine, Stade De France

2011-06-12T13:44:00.000+02:00

Legitimate Concern

2011-06-02T23:23:00.002+02:00

Le Market

2011-06-02T23:13:00.000+02:00

m0o Trail

2011-05-29T09:23:00.000+02:00

Mary Pops In

2011-05-28T00:37:00.000+02:00

Sleepless Nights

2011-05-21T16:03:00.000+02:00

Dessine-Moi Un Oeil Sur Le Monde

2011-05-01T23:02:00.000+02:00

What Time It Is

2011-05-01T00:09:00.000+02:00

Two Inches Of Free Fall

2011-04-18T21:50:00.000+02:00

Big Birdy Said Nothing But Thought About It Nonetheless

2011-04-17T09:09:00.000+02:00

Bears'R'us

2011-04-16T00:34:00.000+02:00

Burn Motherf@ck€r, Burn

2011-04-04T20:06:00.000+02:00

The Transit Conundrum

2011-04-04T19:56:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow's cars will be intelligent, way smarter than today's average Toyota. From shape memory alloys to flexible electronics, from embedded network capabilities to robotics and even nanotechnology, there seem to be nothing this future machine will not be able to accomplish on the road. Your windshield becomes a head's up display that you might not have to use for actual navigation information as it should drive itself. Smart communication with the urban environment is a key aspect in improving traffic fluidity and safety. This car would look like a drop of water on oil skin, round and smooth for perfect aerodynamics. But redefining the concept of individual transportation means to see beyond basic hypothesis that characterize the machine. Cars are the most obvious symbol of the industrial revolution that set the world on the unfortunate course it's on today. Maybe the issue is not to try and improve a concept that has already clearly shown its limits. Like any technological leap forward, it must become better integrated, greener and more human. It must take finite resources into account. However appealing on paper, the electric is as an aberration as biofuels are. There is no will to produce enough electricity without burning fossil energy. Contrary to popular belief, only reinforced by media caring for their revenues, sustainable and clean energy is possible. It would mean reducing and improving our overall energy consumption, mostly by eliminating waste, not actually limiting access.

International companies, which have invested all their resources into the extraction and refinery of oil, have the greatest incentive not to see this technology turn its back on petrol. Myth like the water engine or other alternatives actually already exist but until the last drop of oil is extracted from the ground, there is not a chance in heaven (or in hell) that we see anything accomplished in that area. Let's not care for the carbon pollution or even dazzling evidence such as the fact there are 15 liters of petrol in just one car tire. Gas guzzlers, as they're called, machines born out of a era with a questionable definition of the individual : defining the self through the amount and the kind of consumer goods owned. This ownership society proclaimed by Bush when he was reelected is just another obvious attempt to blindly pursue this concept of society based on confused values. For the sake of a handful of people's wealth and incredible faith in money intrinsic value we often loose sight of what matters most, those things in life that aren't things.

Eight hundred million cars on the planet not only responsible for most of the ozone pollution, but carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are also causing a lot of respiratory problems. Beyond toxicity facts, it's one million and two hundred thousand people that die every year in car accidents, one every fifteen minutes. A third of that comes from drunk driving, another fourth from cell phone usage. One can easely witness how being behind the wheel changes people for the worst. It is estimated that we swear an average of thirty two thousand times while driving in our lifetime. So much anger derived from what is supposed to make your life easier and more comfortable. These fatalities are predicted to increase by sixty five percent in the next twenty years as more developing countries enter the advertised delusion of toxic consumption process.

Apathetically gazing at the long line of cars truly making the daily commute the best way to start an honest day of work, we rationalize the double sided attributes of this machine supposed to set us free while we spend an hour to get across a city district. Like any other item of post modern society, it is not an item, it is an expression of who you are, where you've been, what you love. There has to be one of them that says exactly how you feel. One individual in each car, of course. God forbid anyone would think about sharing their precious vehicle.

GTA Politics

2011-04-02T17:45:00.000+02:00

The Nomadic Gizmo Formulation

2011-03-28T21:37:00.002+02:00

The future coolest cell phone you'll ever see will be a neat piece of live nanotechnology that will improve and branch out into your daily life with such a radical spread it might even surprise you. Water proof, foldable, aware of its environment, transformable, self-cleaning, it will take the shape you need when you need it. It will be able to analyze the food you're about to eat as well as simply wrap around your wrist. Stretchable, merely indestructible, it will even grow buttons for you to push. Don't be worried, it will not have to be green, it just has to be that way.

But that's just for the tech side, what you really want is that gizmo to free you from all these little things you have to carry with you all the time. Which ever device will make it in the race to jackpot innovation will contain most of your personal data. I mean we have our cell phones in our pockets anyway so why not use it as a subway pass, a train ticket or a credit card ? Why not use it for anything we need as a check-in in this increasingly digital society ? It should also contain our social security numbers, medical records, just about anything that identifies us. Fear not, there will be facebook too.

Ah well, that sounds great. I guess that's the last cell phone you'll ever buy. But for now, we still upgrade the product every year or so. Overwhelmed by hip factor waves such as an app for that, we rush to get the latest versions and discard the previous ones. It wasn't built to last anyway, the battery is shit and it now feels so slow it's unbearable. Don't say it isn't, you know it is. This common sense nonsense proudly incites you to overlook the trail of lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, plastics and flame retardant it leaves both on the body and the environment. On top of which sits huge energy costs, and therefore more oil burnt. Their value for the market decreases quickly, just like the stock of rare metals they're made of. More than two hundred million cell phones are simply thrown away every year, containing one or several of these known human carcinogens or neurotoxins proven to impair attention span, learning and memory.

Oh Come on, someone in this room yells cons-privacy, please... I beg of you. Of course some of them find their way through recycling, or refurbishing to Third World countries. A neat way to export pollution and still make a buck. Let them have some of these problems too.

Cell phones, and wireless technology in general are everywhere you look, in all our pockets, at home, in bars and restaurants, everywhere. You just need to take any kind of public transportation to be surrounded with an army of people gazing in the palm of their hands. Who can still imagine what the world felt like when the first question you asked was how are you? instead of where are you? I will not argue that this particularly efficient communication device is useful both in extreme and casual situations. But when I see a dozen people in a subway train each confined in their tiny screen bubble, I can't help but wonder how the item that was supposed to be connecting people made them further apart. Length and messages details is reduced into micro bits tailored for the commercial saturated and attention impaired mind of 2010's, we have such a marvelous apparatus of technology that peaks with the sharing of kitten videos.

Meow...

This Just In...

2011-03-05T14:51:00.000+01:00

Wall Instructions

2011-03-01T23:34:00.000+01:00

Just For A Moment

2011-02-17T21:19:00.000+01:00

Get Busy

2011-02-15T01:52:00.000+01:00

Stick To it

2011-02-09T19:21:00.002+01:00

"Loves You" (in Four Letters)

2011-01-31T23:03:00.000+01:00

Jail House Mock

2011-01-31T22:53:00.000+01:00

Uppa Mont Lachat

2011-01-31T22:49:00.000+01:00

A Few Degrees Less

2011-01-23T03:21:00.000+01:00

Cleared up

2011-01-23T03:19:00.000+01:00

Felicity

2011-01-22T17:25:00.003+01:00

I'll Be Back

2011-01-22T17:25:00.000+01:00

But Of Course

2011-01-21T22:08:00.000+01:00

Inner Peace

2011-01-18T22:28:00.000+01:00

The World Is Ours

2011-01-16T22:30:00.003+01:00

Vendome Crystals

2011-01-16T22:28:00.001+01:00

It Was Cold Outside

2011-01-16T22:26:00.002+01:00

Invitation

2011-01-15T13:22:00.002+01:00

Two Out Of Six

2011-01-15T13:21:00.000+01:00

Are We There Yet ?

2011-01-15T13:17:00.000+01:00

Quickly Now

2011-01-15T10:09:00.002+01:00

Going Home

2011-01-14T14:09:00.000+01:00

It's Complicated

2011-01-12T22:27:00.000+01:00

Unlock, De-stock And The Non-Smoking Barrel

2011-01-10T06:06:00.000+01:00

First, She Would Freak Out

2011-01-04T14:48:00.001+01:00

Two Thousand Miles

2010-12-27T14:03:00.000+01:00

Le Vrai De Vrai Noël

2010-12-22T18:55:00.000+01:00

Brussels Rooftops

2010-12-20T18:58:00.002+01:00

Brussels Diagonal

2010-12-20T17:53:00.000+01:00

Hypno Toad Show

2010-12-20T17:49:00.004+01:00

By The River

2010-12-09T21:48:00.000+01:00

Rosebud

2010-12-03T17:15:00.000+01:00

Mergitur

2010-12-03T16:18:00.001+01:00

Malakoff Roof Tops II

2010-11-27T03:48:00.002+01:00

Fútbol

2010-11-26T02:41:00.000+01:00

Streets Of Boulogne

2010-11-26T02:38:00.000+01:00

Streets Of Malakoff

2010-11-26T02:34:00.000+01:00

Danton Crossing

2010-11-21T02:56:00.000+01:00

Rear View Mirror

2010-11-21T02:50:00.000+01:00

Projecting II

2010-11-20T12:30:00.000+01:00

Holy Brume

2010-11-19T02:16:00.000+01:00

Du Bon Secours

2010-11-19T02:10:00.000+01:00

Don't You Dare...

2010-11-17T01:12:00.000+01:00

Malakoff Roof Tops

2010-11-17T00:46:00.001+01:00

KB Apocalypse

2010-11-15T00:04:00.001+01:00

Bottom Of The 9th

2010-11-14T23:56:00.002+01:00

Golden Pavilion, Kyoto

2010-11-14T14:40:00.000+01:00

Nijo Castle Garden, Kyoto

2010-11-14T14:36:00.000+01:00

Projecting

2010-11-14T13:42:00.000+01:00

Voltaire's Fault

2010-11-14T00:00:00.001+01:00

Fashion Sociology

2010-11-12T23:49:00.002+01:00

On A Set

2010-11-12T23:48:00.000+01:00

Bots Of The World Unite

2010-11-12T23:46:00.000+01:00

'round Malakoff HDR

2010-11-11T14:39:00.000+01:00

It Works!

2010-11-09T23:08:00.002+01:00

Winter Pepper

2010-11-09T23:05:00.000+01:00

Re: Nijo Castle Garden HDR

2010-11-04T01:29:00.000+01:00

Notre Dame TimeLapse

2010-11-02T02:29:00.001+01:00