EVENT: DEVIANT SPACES (OCTOBER 2025—FEBRUARY 2026, ISTRES, FRANCE)
Between October 2025 and February 2026, artist and game maker Chloé Desmoineaux inaugurates Deviant Game Space, a temporary laboratory dedicated to experimental play. Conceived as an “espace-temps” for both creators and audiences, the initiative explores alternative forms of videogame making and unmaking through three intersecting themes: détournement, media archaeology, and accessible creation.
The programme opens in October with two events in Istres:
Conference: Jouer autrement
Friday 3 October 2025, 14:00 — Espace Pluriel Jeunes, 16 Place Champollion 13800, Istres, France
What happens when the controller is replaced with a flute, lipstick, or a jammed button that shifts the logic of play entirely? In this performative talk, Desmoineaux introduces her ongoing practice of hacking and misusing controllers. Far from a mere “fun” twist, these acts of détournement foreground issues of representation, accessibility, and agency: Who gets to play, who designs, with which tools, and to what ends? At the crossroads of performance, tinkering, and hacking, the conference situates videogames as unstable, reconfigurable interfaces.
Atelier #1: Hacking ludique
Saturday 4 October 2025, 14:00–16:00 — Médiathèque d’Istres, CEC Les Heures Claires, Avenue Radolfzell, 13800 Istres, France
The first workshop invites participants to experiment with videogame tools beyond their intended functions. By dissecting keyboard and controller circuits, attendees will learn how these interfaces operate and how they can be reshaped. Activities include:
- rewiring a controller to alter its behaviours;
- diverting a keyboard through unexpected connections;
- crafting cardboard interfaces using Makey Makey;
- inventing alternative modes of play by bending both rules and hardware.
Deviant Game Space is produced by LABgamerz, in partnership with Polaris – Centre d’art, Médiathèque Istres Ouest Provence, and Espace Pluriel Jeunes d’Istres, with support from the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence.