Sam Butin - Villa Albertine
A video game developer and writer will spend June-July 2025 at sea and in port cities researching and developing an interactive documentary video game about the SS Normandie's 1939 transatlantic journey.
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Get matched →- Deadline
- deadline unknown, verify at source
- Entry fee
- Not listed - check the source
- Location
- At sea (Le Havre to New York aboard the Marius) and in port cities of Le Havre and New York
- Exhibition window
- Jun 1, 2025 → Jul 31, 2025
About
Overview
Sam Butin, a video game developer and writer, will undertake a residency in June-July 2025 to research and develop Normandie: A Documentary Video Game. The project reimagines the SS Normandie's final transatlantic journey in August 1939, when Jewish refugees fled Europe. During the residency, Butin will immerse himself in the maritime world, documenting the ship's physical structure and the rhythms of life at sea to enhance the game's realism, narrative design, soundscapes, and environmental storytelling.
Project Details
Normandie: A Documentary Video Game blends archival research with interactive storytelling to explore themes of displacement, resilience, and historical memory. By retracing his ancestors' transatlantic journey through lived maritime experience, Butin aims to create a more textured, emotionally resonant game world that fosters historical empathy and new ways of engaging with refugee and migrant stories.
Locations
The residency spans maritime and terrestrial sites. The core research takes place aboard the Marius, recreating the SS Normandie's route from Le Havre to New York. Beyond the ship, Butin will explore cultural and historical archives in Le Havre and New York, engaging with historians, maritime scholars, museum curators, and educators.
Research Focus
Butin will engage with historians and maritime scholars in Le Havre regarding the port's history, the French Line, and the refugee experience. In New York, he will work with museum curators and educators exploring new approaches to Holocaust education and ways to integrate Normandie into broader conversations on memory and storytelling.
About the Residency Partner
MARFRET, founded in 1951, is a maritime company specializing in international freight transport operating nine regular shipping lines. The company has established a long tradition of hosting artists in residence aboard its ships and in onshore offices. The Musée national de la Marine is a public administrative institution under the supervision of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, housing one of the world's oldest maritime collections spanning over 250 years.
- Theme
- A residency for creating an interactive documentary video game about the SS Normandie's August 1939 transatlantic voyage, exploring themes of displacement, resilience, and refugee experience through immersive maritime research.
- Format
- Ship your work in
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