Marcelo de Salete Souza is visual artist and works on web design, cartoon, illustrations, drawing and animations. Since 2002 he is responsible for the website Narrative Forms in Electronic Media. He is co-author of the narrative Theo, published in 2003, in this website. He has published works in the Quadreca magazine (Vol 11 and 12) and at the Front book (editions 10, 11 and 12). He maintains a personal website to disclose his works and language experiments at the web address www.dsalete.rg3.net.

The Narrative forms in electronic media is a research website with interactive narratives, and through this website, we intend to study how the established genres of fiction adapt to digital media. The first experiment was Selma, a multimedia narrative that, interrupted in the moment of highest suspense, leaves the user the task to develop an outcome. Published at the web address www.eca.usp/narrativas, in January 2002, Selma already received more than a thousand contributions and was exhibited in congresses and even in foreign countries.

One of the received contributions proposed a new character which Selma would have transformed herself into, called Theo. Inspired by this character, we created a new story that now is published at the same web address. It is a different narrative proposal: opposite to Selma, we know little about the protagonist or what happened to him. Everything starts with the news of his disappearance in August 15th 2002, published by his sister on Internet. Afterwards, through a circular structure based on independent testimonies, sometimes contradictory, we try to create the scenario where Theo lived – presenting what their parents, friends and girlfriend thought about him, what was his habits and preferences. The user is invited to participate creating another clue about the character or daring to give an explanation about his disappearance.

The intention is to create suspense through a non-linear narrative in which several elements are placed in a non-hierarchical form. Dramaturgic resources are used – a story tied up through interrelated characters – and literary – the creation of a hidden character.

Maria Cristina Castilho Costa is responsible for the script and narrative structure of Theo, and also, for the research Narrative Forms in Electronic Media. Marcelo De Salete is the visual artist responsible for the illustrations, animations and design.