Dans les médias d’information, il est de plus en plus régulièrement question, recherches scientifiques à l’appui, du danger que poserait la connexion pour tous ceux et celles qui passent trop de temps branché.e.s à des appareils numériques. Une charge normative est ainsi apposée sur la connexion et le temps. Ce mémoire explore la conception de la connexion par les personnes qui la vivent et l’interrogent au quotidien. L’objectif est aussi de comprendre comment celle-ci pourrait orienter leurs expériences du temps ou comment elle pourrait être tributaire des temporalités induites par la société. La méthodologie de cette recherche exploratoire a pris la forme d’entrevues semi-dirigées menées à Montréal auprès de quatre personnes « connectées » et réfléchissant la connexion au quotidien. Nous nous rencontrions une fois par semaine pendant un mois et les participant.e.s remplissaient régulièrement un journal de bord qu’iels me présentaient ensuite, pour amorcer nos rendez-vous. À la lumière de l’analyse des transcriptions d’entrevues, je suggère que les participant.e.s ont en commun différentes approches de la dé-connexion. Cette dernière peut se conceptualiser en termes d’infrastructures, d’artefacts et de symboles. Aussi, différentes temporalités parcourent, modulent et son modulées par la dé-connexion vécue comme un moyen de s’intégrer socialement et de viser un idéal de connexion (temporellement) équilibré. / Based on various scientific studies, news media discourse address more and more regularly the danger posed by connection to all of those who spend too much time using digital devices. A normative load is therefore placed on connection and time. This research project aims to: a) explore what connection means to people whose daily lives involve being connected and questioning their connection; and b) to understand how their approach to connection may orient their experiences of time while at the same time being affected by the temporalities around which today’s societies are organized. The methodological approach that guides this exploratory research features semi-structured interviews conducted in Montreal with four “connected” people who questioned the place of connection in their daily lives. We met once a week for a month and the participants regularly filled out a logbook which they then presented to me at the beginning of each of our conversations. Based on the analysis of interview transcripts, I suggest that the participants share different approaches to dis-connection. The latter can be conceptualized in terms of infrastructure, artifacts and symbols. Also different temporalities modulate and are modulated by this dis-connection as people experience it as a means to fit in, and to aim for an ideal (time) balanced practice.

The design project examines collaboratively what transformative climate-communication can look like, and whether conversations can be a possible form of activism. Stemming from a concern that extreme forms of activism and their depiction in media have the potential to highly polarize civil society, the project explores the navigation and negotiation of spaces of communication and interaction in empathetic and connective ways. In the project I look at conversations as an additional or alternative way to disruptive protest forms of activism, within the non-violent liberal civil-disobedience movement and explore how to design for empathy and agency in the context of facilitating and curating spaces, tools and methods. The project recognizes the importance of conversations in the context of shaping opinions, changing perspectives and influencing behavior, and thus their relevance in the context of mitigating and communicating the climate emergency. During the project different conversation tools and methods have been designed, tested and developed in the framework of several gatherings.