DÉRIVE PROGRAMMÉE

Dérive programmée is a speculative research-creation project exploring unstable autonomous systems through kinetic, sonic, visual and algorithmic devices.

Developed by artists and researchers Valérie Cain Bourget and Pierre Boulanger, the project investigates states of drift, hesitation, reconfiguration and loss of stability that emerge when systems gradually move beyond their initial functions, exceed their operational frameworks or continue their deployment beyond the purposes for which they were originally designed.

Through experimental assemblages combining movement, sound, video, materials, sensors, simple electronics and speculative approaches to technology, the project creates situations in which autonomous systems may evolve, adapt, transform or deviate in unpredictable ways.

Operating at the intersection of sound art, kinetic art, video, technological imaginaries, autonomous systems and non-linear processes, Dérive programmée explores what remains when narratives of control, performance and functionality begin to fracture.

A European field research phase - Berlin, Dessau, Leipzig, Karlsruhe and Paris (Eurosatory 2026) - currently informs the project through observations, encounters, documentation and explorations of advanced technological and industrial contexts, feeding the next experimental phases of the project.

Lines of inquiry

• Autonomous systems and emergent behaviours
• Instability, drift and post-functionality
• Technological imaginaries
• Advanced technological, industrial and operational contexts
• Kinetic, sonic and visual transpositions