Céline Semaan is a modern ambassador of cultures, fostering communication across industry, policy, academia and the broader citizen population. Her work in sustainability has made her a recognized expert; her non-profit education initiative Study Hall, incubated at MIT Media Lab, collaborates with the United Nations and holds an annual summit at the UN headquarters in New York. As a writer, her work has been published in New York Magazine The Cut, Elle USA, and Vogue. She lives and works in New York, leading research on Regenerative Aesthetics within her company Slow Factory.

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ON starting her mornings with a prayer and mediation

I am interested in dream interpretations, and look into the messages I may have received, then I set intentions and do breathing work. All this may sound like it takes hours but I manage to do it in 30 minutes before my daughters come in wanting to tell me their dreams. Then we do breakfast, for me, that’s water (with my Seed Daily Synbiotic) followed by coffee then food much later. The morning goes by so fast between school lunches, getting dressed, answering emergency emails and sometimes calls with the Middle East or Europe.

on moving to montreal from beirut and her fascination with identity in the digital age

When the war in Beirut and Israel broke out in 2006, I was interested in doing my masters in Cyber Arts and diving deeper into identity in the Digital Age. It was like a big slap in my face, and that summer I exhibited my last video art installation: footage recorded on VHS of CNN showcasing the Crisis in the Middle-East on mute with the voice over of my mother’s voice recorded on my Nokia phone telling me not to watch the news and that all was okay.

I was hired as a community lead for Montreal at Creative Commons, exploring the digital space between net art and digital literacy, organizing Symposiums around open licensing: decriminalizing sharing content online.

Being uprooted, and treated as the “other”, speaking multiple languages, code switching, being my parents’s translators and everyone else’s interpreter or ambassador has given me the global perspective of a universal diplomat—one that negotiated between east and west in order to address equality, justice and peace.

““I walk away from motivation and tend to follow my spirit without analyzing much of it. Being conscious and in-tune with inner-self or god within, I feel guided and follow that exclusively.””

— on motivation versus spirit

on founding Study Hall

Study Hall is an open conference tackling sustainability, technology and culture while fostering conversations, lectures and workshops addressing both industry and people interested in these topics. I started it while I was still at MIT Media Lab as a Director’s Fellow, which I am no longer, and evolved it from a tiny sold out event at Ace Hotel to a Summit in partnership with the United Nations. Working with the private sector: brands and solution providers as well as policy makers, UN officials, the media and governmental and non-governmental institutions accelerates the negotiations of solutions that need to be implemented immediately in order to meet the Sustainable Development Goals in time, since according to the UN we have under 10 years to significantly re-design the whole way our production and consumption systems works.

on working in sustainability and the contradictions that go with it

Very little of my life is sustainable. I’ve had to work several jobs - as a designer, consultant, and teacher, in order to survive with kids in New York and for 5 years had to reinvest whatever I had back in Slow Factory. Breaking my back, getting surgery (twice), having to drive to places because of the back rehabilitation etc. - that in itself was not sustainable at all.

Slowing down was how I found my breath and how I was able to cope with sustainability on a personal level. On a professional level, my work sits at the intersection of fashion and politics, and postcolonial theory. I look into ways I can bridge the gap between values/ideals and my everyday actions. I repair, reuse, never purchase fast fashion for myself or my partner, but for my kids it’s a whole other challenge. We resell baby gear, or buy second-hand whenever possible (coats and roller skates or bikes) but kids clothes are harder to come across in a sustainable way. Whatever I can’t do in my personal life, I try to offset in my work by working with waste management, recycling innovations and so on.

Living a sustainable life would require living off the grid while eating the food you grow and supporting only local businesses that equally live off the grid etc. and everything outside of that is on the spectrum between sustainable and destructive.

““One of my first observations upon returning to post-war Beirut at age 13 was how beauty and self-care took on another role, one that brought dignity to women and men whose trauma was a taboo explored only through art, dance and everyday extravaganza. Wearing a veil, a cross, a mini skirt, or tight pants, everything was provocative in that climate and everything was intentional and charged with meaning.””

— on how fashion creates meaning and meaning creates culture.

on her outlook of life

I think one’s life is art as well as miracle. I keep this awareness within me of the intensity and lightness of life. I read, I dream, I meditate and allow myself to expand into air and light just with meditation and breath-work.

on where she likes to shop

The only place I actually go shopping and spend money at is my best friend’s store in Montreal called Les Étoffes, she bought sustainable fashion before it was even a hashtag. I occasionally shop online for specific items I want to collect (that’s how I like to look at fashion). I like to buy directly from designers whose work I know, and like to support/invest in. I love Phoebe Philo, Rabih Kayrouz, Ashish, Mara Hoffman, Christophe Lemaire, Kerby Jean-Raymond and Peter Do.

on her beauty routine

I’m super low-key, I use water and rose water, natural soaps and natural oils (I like Rodin’s Luxury Face Oil and Noto Botanics Rooted Body + Hair Oil) and that is it. I bought a jade roller and loved it, until I lost it. I use natural salts to scrub, or in the summer I go to the beach and roll around in sand and in the water in lieu of a spa. I also use Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Essence, Grown Alchemist Hydra-Repair Day Cream, Amina’s Rosehip Seed Face Oil and African Botanics Fleurs D'Afrique Intensive Recovery Face Oil.

on the publications she reads

I read Atmos, The Cut, Teen Vogue, New York Times, Scientific American, Fast Company, I also like to read the opposite movement to better understand the resistance. I read tons of comments and analyze levels of understanding, paradigms and culture and how to sway opinions and educate others in a way that can spread further than our own bubble.