Virtual reality, 6DoF, 10’
YEAR 2022
ART DIRECTION, PRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat
ORIGINAL MUSIC Yatoni
DISTRIBUTION Diversion Cinema
Certain historical events defy representation; they offer no analogies, no precedents in experience. These are catastrophes of a new kind, for which our eyes, our ears, and even our language remain unprepared.
All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost is a sensorial journey that explores our deepest fears and resilience in the face of unimaginable horrors, through the story of a survivor who chose not to evacuate her home. Voluntarily confined to a space rendered inhospitable, she recounts her vision of the disaster in a surreal landscape made of concrete and fog—a portrayal of a land where no return to origins is possible.
It is only in the final moments that the nature of this calamity is disclosed, yet without this knowledge, the looming threat remains silent, unnamed, inviting viewers to confront their own anxieties about possible future catastrophes.
Premiered in 2022 at the Venice Biennale within the Immersive Selection, the project has since been showcased over twenty times in exhibitions and festivals worldwide. That same year, it was distinguished with the Best VR Award at Animafest Zagreb.
Video game, immersive installation
YEAR 2024
ART DIRECTION, PRODUCTION Mélanie Courtinat
CURATION Victoria Mühlig
DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat, Alpha Rats, Alex Sinh Nguyen
MUSIC Inès Chérifi at Færies Records, Yatoni
The Siren is a digital exploration that questions the traditional conventions of video games. The work probes the meaning we assign to actions within a game, the motivations behind our playful engagements, and aims to eventually introduce an art exhibition public to the medium.
This inclusive approach is designed to be accessible to everyone, including newcomers, while also providing an additional level of understanding for those already acquainted with video games. As a result, the piece features accessible gameplay and incorporates a so-called 'cinematic' dimension, thus offering a rich visual experience for those who prefer to watch.
In The Siren, players embody a heroine wearing a shimmering armor who initially wanders aimlessly along a beach at dusk. Once in control, players quickly engage in actions under the watchful eye of an omniscient narrator. This narrator prompts players to undertake a seemingly arbitrary task—or side quest—of collecting bioluminescent seashells scattered across the sand, before being allowed to move on to the main quest: the rescue of a damsel in distress.
The player's interaction, especially through multiple-choice dialogues with the narrator, influences the unfolding of the story and can trigger multiple distinct endings, depending on players interpretation and conscious choices.
[The Siren was commissioned by the Pully Art Museum as part of their exhibition Vivre l’œuvre / Voyage aux frontières de l’art immersif contemporain.]
I’M NOT TOUGH ENOUGH TO BE ONLINE ___ MAGAZINE MAGAZINE
CGI images, 3D scanYEAR 2023
ART DIRECTION Mélanie Courtinat, Salomé Chatriot
CGI Mélanie Courtinat
STYLING Salomé Poloudenny
3D SCANS Pierre Moulin, Nino Filiu
MUA Nora Le Dour
CHAINMAIL, JEWELRY Milari Barker (Membrane)
Conceived by Mélanie Courtinat and Salomé Chatriot, this fashion series for issue 40 of Magazine magazine explores the worlds of these two artists through a series of images featuring characteristic elements of their styles and practices.
Serving as models, their bodies were captured through 3D scanning, allowing for their transposition into a virtual universe integrated within Unreal Engine video game software. The sets are entirely CGI, crafted not with the intention of achieving photorealism, but to evoke a sense of ambiguity—celebrating the imperfections of the scans rather than concealing them.
COOKING FOR WILLIAM
Video game, visual novelYEAR 2023
ART DIRECTION, PRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat, Nino Filiu, Pierre Moulin
MUSIC Yatoni
Cooking for William is a short horror visual novel disguised as a cozy cooking video game 🥬🍅🥗🍕in which we assist ▢ ▢▢▢▢▢ chef in preparing a delicious meal ▢▢▢▢▢▢ her husband ▢▢▢▢▢▢ William ▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢ ▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢ ▢▢▢▢ ▢▢ ▢ ▢▢▢▢▢▢ ▢▢▢ ▢▢▢▢ ▢▢▢. ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა | ₊‧°𐐪♡𐑂°‧₊ | ✮⋆ 💕
The game is initially presented in the parodic form of a simplistic, casual cooking game, in which we help Marie, a jovial and naive NPC (Non-Player Character), to prepare dinner for her husband.
Quickly bored, the player finds himself tempted to install another game instead, in this case a horror game, Forest of Fears. As the second game gradually replaces the first, the latter becomes populated with monstrous creatures and elements from another register that gradually interfere with the cooking narrative and disturb the main character, who finally breaks the fourth wall, begging the player not to delete her.
The visuals, entirely created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, prove as often to be very effective in generating archetypes.
