Carnival Land: An creative consideration of sequential storytelling to discuss cultural dislocation

Keywords: carnival, immigration, picture book, practice-led, storytelling., Carnival

Abstract

This article will outline the practice-led research project Carnival Land, a picture book that weaves together sequential storytelling and illustration to discuss cultural dislocation. Based on the researcher’s experiences as an immigrant from Brazil to New Zealand, it provides a narrative in metaphors and a creative orchestration of photomontage, bilinguality, and theatricised multi-page spreads. The story tells of the trials and eventual transformation of a young girl in a foreign land, where aspirations appear as costumes in an annual Carnival parade. Several theoretical frameworks significantly influenced Carnival Land. These were notions of transgression, carnality, and Carnival (Bakhtin, 1968); structure and discourse surrounding bricolage (Strauss, 1962); and writings relating to journey both as a rite of passage (Gennep, 1960; Turner, 1979); and as a process of immigration. Methodologically, the project emanates from an artistic research paradigm (Klein, 2010) that supports a heuristic approach (Douglass & Moustakas, 1985) to the discovery and refinement of ideas. The project employed autoethnography as a research design intended to facilitate the strategic accessing of personal experience and synthesised it into a fictional work. Thus, the research draws upon both tacit and explicit knowledge in developing the narrative, its structure, and stylistic treatments.

Author Biographies

Tatiana Tavares, Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
Dr Tatiana Tavares is a Brazilian-Aotearoa New Zealand designer and a senior lecturer at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand. She is a practising artist with 16 years’ experience in the graphic design industry. Her research practice is concerned with the potentials of polyvocality and interactive digital narrative. Her subjects involve practice-led research methodologies, Latin American syncretism in artistic and literary form, magical realism, and emergent technology. Tatiana is a research associate for the Te Arai research group (Palliative Care & End of Life Research) — School of Nursing (University of Auckland).  
Marcos Mortensen Steagall, Auckland University of Technology

Marcos Mortensen Steagall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Design at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). In his research and professional pursuits, Dr. Mortensen Steagall explores the intersection of visual semiotics and practice-oriented methodologies in Art, Design, Communication, and Technology. His artistic practice, primarily centred on lens-based and digital image-making, serves as a method for knowledge production. Dr. Mortensen Steagall's work is characterised by an interdisciplinary approach that merges academic research with artistic practice, highlighting the significance of embracing diverse cultural narratives and knowledge systems in Design. Additionally, he is the editor of the academic journal LINK Praxis and chairs the LINK International Conference, focusing on Practice-led Research and the Global South.

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Published
2024-10-19