Unveiling the Marvellous: A Practice-oriented Exploration of Realismo Maravilhoso

Abstract

This article outlines a practice-oriented, artistic research project that asks: What is the potential of an interactive digital narrative in exploring the interplay between story elements to examine the boundaries between reality and imagination within the framework of Realismo Maravilhoso? The design outcome, Saints of Paradox, is a printed picture book enhanced with AR (Augmented Reality) technology, allowing for multiple readings of a narrative through three distinctive syncretic narrators, or saints. These narrators reinterpret the story by altering both the illustrative content and monologue, shaping the narrative through polyvocality. Formatted as a series of pictorial sets in potentia, the book enables readers to scan pages with a mobile device, revealing animated characters within illustrated environments, accompanied by cinematic soundscapes. The work challenges the supremacy of a singular, authoritative truth, aligning with postcolonial critiques of absolutes and Bakhtin’s theories of polyphony and dialogism. Syncretism operates not only as a cultural reference to Brazilian traditions and religion but also as an artistic and narrative device that negotiates multiple perspectives within a parallax structure—both a technical and artistic mechanism. This research is framed within an artistic paradigm that employs a heuristic approach, integrating tacit and explicit knowledge in the development of the fictional narrative, its structure, and stylistic treatments. The methodology consists of designer’s journals, iterative assembly, overviewing and testing, and the strategic use of feedback. The project contributes to polyvocality and dialogical storytelling, expanding the possibilities of interactivity and immersion within a sequential, print-based format and fostering a distinctive transcultural narrative through practice.