Vincent Moulinet

is a real-time media artist working with game engines and space on the edge of reality, trust and faith. 


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R.OT. stands for Realm of Tears (2024)


Video game, laptop, modified keyboard, custom headphones, poppers vials.



ROT stands for Realm of Tears is a modification of the video game DOOM II, reinterpreting its virile artistic direction and its fundamental principle of level design: the imposition of a repetitive circulation through a labyrinthine space, subject to transformations caused by time and by our own actions. ROT unfolds a xeno-erotic phantasmagoria, inviting the player to embody a libertine monstrosity in order to explore an ambivalent relationship to masculinity, violence, and sex.
 credits
Vincent Moulinet: concept, development and screenwriting
Circé Cherry Lac: 3D modeling, handpainting 
Biche Jaouen: handpainting





I designed it over a very short period, as an improvised story, writing the characters alongside the construction of the spaces, alternating between development sessions and nocturnal outings. 
I met men on apps or in saunas, and they ended up in the game, like a puppet theater built from real hair gathered at night. Although it borrows some of Doom’s level design rules, the game’s production process is very punk and instinctive; the dialogues were written in a single burst and never revised. The music in the game, composed by Goffbaby and Laura Trans Curtis, is what I was listening to on repeat while shaping the flow and energy of the spaces. 
 The “Stinky helm of brainrot” was designed, printed and painted with performance artist Circé Cherry Lac as part of our reflections on what we called “cruising vandalism”, the action of claiming a place by leaving trash on the spot as a monstruous way to keep families away from our sacred spaces. It infuses poppers in the air, increasing game difficulty and player’s pleasure. 
Extract of the map showing the cruising paterns of 
“The Stinky helm of brainrot” at A.MAZE festival 2025


By using the open-source Doom engine to weigh only a few megabytes, and by incorporating music bootlegs stolen from the internet or drawn from the rave scene, ROT stands for Realm of Tears is also an experiment in permacomputing through the repurposing of existing objects. 

Due to its rudimentary technology, the game is exhibited on an early-2000s ThinkPad laptop, and will always be able to run on inexpensive, widely accessible, and low-impact machines, in stark contrast to today’s energy-hungry computers.

As videogames seem to be one of the most challenging medium to preserve, developping a modification of a bulletproof lowtech software seemed to be the best option in terms of conservation for the game to remain stable and playable in the next hundread years.  

This aspect of my work was documented in 2025 by journalist Nastasia Hadjadji in arte’s TRACKS.




Players controlling “Rubber” at Soto (Kyoto, JP), 2024

Exhibitions

 
2025_ Harmonia Ltd. (Paris, FR), “Proof of concept” curated by yours truly
2025_ A MAZE. (Berlin, DE), “Comfort me” curated by Thorsten S. Wiedemann
2025_ Espace Dukat (Geneva, CH), “Gross Encounters” curated by Noam Toran
2024_ Soto (Kyoto, JP), “COLLAGEN” curated by Théo Casciani
2024_ TLN Hybrid festival (Toulon, FR), “Me & who ?” curated by Cami Chochinbi
2024_ Bohoshorts (Bogota, COL), “new media competition” curated by Andrés Suárez
2024_ The Supermarket (Atlanta, US), “Avant-Beetle, Queer Games” curated by Eric Lorenz

Press


ARTE Tracks, Nastasia Hadjadji, 2025, Hacking & gaming écolo
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