Echoes of Nature

“Echoes of Nature” (EoN), an interactive platform functioning as a
touchpoint for a range of diverse experiences designed to open up dialogues between
visitors of the island of Madeira and its rich natural capital, traditions and folklore. In
order to create opportunities for this dialogue the platform supports two main points
of connection. On one hand, it functions as a repository of locally collected video
interviews highlighting many aspects of Madeiran island’s natural capital and local
culture; on the other, it points users to the location-aware fictional story “Fragments
of Laura” (FoL).

FoL’s storyline is
based on the history and natural capital of the island, and it is narrated through the
adventures of a local heroine, Laura, a proto pharmacist in the early 1800s (see Dionisio
et al., 2016). The focus on a fictional character allows for the interweaving of
varied facts (cultural, historical and scientific) that would be difficult to incorporate if
not for the liberty that fictional writing affords. Through our transmedia experience,
visitors to Madeira will embark on a quest following a fantomatic ancient herbarium
and its author, Laura