““Pagan Baby”: A Mobile/Interactive Art App Unveiling Infant Mortality in Early 20th Century Brazilian Northwest” presented by Lucena and Ferreira
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Infant mortality remains a pressing concern in low- and mid-dle-income countries, with a unique historical narrative in the Brazilian northeast. In the early 20th century, families hurried to baptize infants within minutes of birth due to deep-rooted religious beliefs. The “pagan children” could not be buried in cemeteries believed to wander in purgatory until their souls received a blessing. This narrative, blending history, folklore, and religious practices, has remained largely unexplored in visual and interactive art. Our interdisciplinary project, bridg-ing art, science, and technology, aims to change that. We are developing a mobile app that guides users through this capti-vating story, covering the journey from birth to burial. After that, app operates in the background, notifying users when they are near significant locations through a locative interface. Users can actively participate by recording a blessing message and making the sign of the cross using smartphone accel-erometers. Voice data is securely stored in the “blessuarium” database. The app transforms the infant into an angel, offering users a collection of these “angels.” Influenced by folklore and medical anthropology, our project preserves this cultural narrative, shedding light on the history, social disparities, and regional traditions of the Brazilian northeast.
