Switzerland
2025
15'
Summary
In The Siren, players embody a heroine in shimmering armor, wandering a beach at dusk. Under the guidance of an omniscient narrator, theycollect bioluminescent seashells before facing a deeper dilemma: the rescue of a damsel in distress. Through choice-driven interactions,the experience unravels multiple endings, questioning the meaning we assign to game actions and our motivations as players
Director: Mélanie Courtinat
Production: Mélanie Courtinat
Mélanie Courtinat
Réalisateur-rice
Mélanie Courtinat (b. 1993) is an artist and art director based in Paris. Her work spans video games, CGI images and films, and immersive virtual reality experiences, with most of her pieces developed using real-time engines and exhibited internationally. Her practice draws on the structures and aesthetics of video games, treating gameplay as a creative material in its own right. By focusing on core mechanics such as tutorials, quests, NPCs or save points, she examines the underlying logics of play and the assumptions they carry. Through the reworking of these familiar systems, she creates sensitive meta-games in which established rules are subverted to reveal deeper layers of meaning. Alongside her artistic practice, she leads commissioned projects for luxury, fashion and high jewelry, helping brands explore the visual languages and forms of interaction specific to video games. She is also a recurring guest lecturer in video-game history and digital humanities at ECAL, and regularly speaks, mentors and serves on juries across Europe and North America.
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