PhD student 2025–2028
Amélie Deschamps was selected as part of the joint doctoral program run by Villa Arson and the Université Côte d’Azur – EUR CREATES (IdEx), for a three-year doctoral project entitled:
“CRIPhasie1, une utopie ambiguë. L’Égérie Crip en bout de course: évacuer le point de vue validiste au sein des institutions de la création contemporaine en expérimentant dans leurs architectures, par la narration transmédiale, une ré-appropriation des moyens de représentation du handicap par les personnes concernées.”
- Co-supervisor: Vanina Géré
- Fields: Art, Disabilities, Narratology
- Doctoral school: Shal
- Supervisor: Marc Marti, Laboratoire Lirces_Creates
Amélie Deschamps’ thesis
The object of my research is the critical need to restore to those affected by disabilities the power to represent themselves within the sites of dissemination and decision-making in the contemporary arts. To do so, I will develop an array of double-edged measures (generic and customized), with narrative as a key tool of empowerment within a transmedial arts practice that adopts an anti-ableist stance.
The project will also explore the structural challenges of practicing this profession in the current climate, examining them in relation to the DIY (homespun) solutions deployed by individuals with diverse abilities in order to live. There is a troubling parallel between the situation of artists living with a disability in contemporary arts institutions and the figure of the “patient-advocate” often invoked in the medical world.
It is this notion which must be questioned and urgently developed from within, and in tandem with, contemporary arts institutions to make up for the delayed response to this so-called “niche” subject in France — a subject which it is essential to address to re-establish a more plurivocal society.
During this practice-based doctorate, I propose to activate this lever, with the help of my peers, by drawing on a body of theoretical work and a plurality of artistic media: photography, writing, video, performance, installations. Video games, however, will be the main tool for developing this project devoted to the rewriting of subjectivities, and something I will explore over the next three years in collaboration with the Master’s program MAJIC (Management Jeu vidéo Image et Créativité), in order to create experimental, plurivocal narratives that I hope to showcase alongside the visitors’ services team at Villa Arson and at another site dedicated to contemporary art in Paris.
1CRIPhasie: neologism designating the language invented by the Crip community, akin to cyptophasia (a language developed by twins), or a secret language used by a small number of people.
