A hundred years from now, someone could standface to face with Gilberto Gil.
I helped make that possible.
I'm Clelio de Paula. I turn Brazilian memory and culture into experiences
people can live — through extended reality and
artificial intelligence. And I teach people to think with this technology,
not to obey it.
a decade · volumetric capture · AI · extended reality
Tate Modern·Museu do Amanhã·CCBB Rio & SP·Horniman Museum·Lumen Prize·Latin American Design Awards·TEDx·Rio2C·PUC-Rio·Domestika·
Award
Silver at the Latin American Design Awards — Gil Futurível
Exhibitions
Tate Modern and Horniman Museum, London — Xingu Ensemble, shortlisted for the Lumen Prize
Teaching
521 students on Domestika, with 100% positive reviews
01
Work
Five works exploring memory, presence and imagination. In each, technology takes a different form: a virtual reality encounter, an artistic reconstruction, a landscape you can walk through. Find more in the archive at the end of this section.
+video · 21 items
01 / 2022 · Volumetric capture + VR
Gil Futurível
To immortalize is not to resurrect — it is to make something last.
Gilberto Gil in three dimensions, captured as he is today and approved by the artist himself. Inspired by his song "Futurível" (1969), written after his imprisonment under the dictatorship, this vision of a possible future became an interactive experience where visitors meet the artist in his "second humanoid stage".
My role Concept and creative direction With Azimove Labs · Rastro · Gege Produções · supported by Kusama Society Recognition Silver at the Latin American Design Awards · cited in an FGV public service examination (São José dos Campos City Hall, 2023) · NFT.Rio
+video · 12 items
02 / 2017 · VR from 3D documentation
Xingu Ensemble
Memory belongs to those who live it.
Created with the Kuikuro people in the Alto Xingu region — the elders became coauthors and decided what could be recorded. It grew out of two residencies in Aldeia Ipatse (2017 and 2018) and ongoing volumetric documentation work with Indigenous communities in Brazil.
With Kuikuro people · Takuma Kuikuro · Aldeia Ipatse, Alto Xingu Exhibitions Tate Modern Exchange Week · Horniman Museum & Gardens (London) · Museu do Amanhã Recognition shortlisted, Lumen Prize 2018
+video · 19 items
03 / 2024 · Generative AI · Lei Paulo Gustavo
Sementes do Rei do Candomblé
AI in the service of culture — against religious racism.
The memory of Joãozinho da Gomeia, reconstructed as an educational tool against intolerance. The AI-generated images were approved by religious leadership — the work draws its legitimacy from the community, not from technology.
With approval by Mãe Seci Caxi · African-rooted traditions approached through consent and reparation Funding Lei Paulo Gustavo (RJ) · approved with the highest score
+video · 13 items
04 / CCBB Rio · São Paulo · point cloud
Ressurgir — Sobre Corais
Art and technology facing an urgent challenge.
The memory of a natural heritage at risk, reconstructed as a point cloud you can move through. Art and technology respond to the environmental emergency — a disappearing reef, preserved as a document you can inhabit.
Exhibitions CCBB Rio de Janeiro · CCBB São Paulo
+video · 11 items
05 / 2019 · VR experience · Museu do Amanhã
RePangeia
A technoshamanic journey.
A landscape reconstructed through point clouds and volumetric video, which you can explore in virtual reality — where technology and cosmology meet. Presented at Museu do Amanhã.
I teach technology as a cultural language — understanding its logic means choosing what to do with it.
I created the course Introduction to Design for the Metaverse: Web3, AR, 3D and the creation of digital experiences anyone can explore. Audio in Portuguese and English, with subtitles in 11 languages.
I care for stories that must not disappear. I work with the people who hold the memory — a community, family or institution — and those who lived it have the final say on what is shown.
I use AI in the service of culture, guided by four commitments: consent from those portrayed, credit for those involved, context from the source, and a clear limit on what the machine can invent.
At its heart, my work is about one thing: keeping memory
from being lost — and bringing it back into circulation.
04
About
Rio de Janeiro, 1987. Founder and creative director of WeSense, creator of the Framework de Contexto Cultural (FCC™), and former innovation manager at the Laboratório de Atividades do Amanhã, at Museu do Amanhã, where I worked with exhibitions, prototypes and experimentation.
I conceived and creatively directed Gil Futurível. Xingu Ensemble, co-created with the Kuikuro people, was shown at Tate Modern and the Horniman Museum in London. For Encontro de Gigantes, I conceived and directed an imagined conversation between Noel Rosa and Martinho da Vila in mixed and virtual reality, commissioned by Embratur through WeSense and MEMOrIA XR.
I teach generative AI and am a Domestika instructor. I have also taught on PUC-Rio's postgraduate program in immersive storytelling. Nominated for iBest three times.
Recognition
Latin American Design Awards — Silver (Gil Futurível)
Lumen Prize 2018 — shortlisted · Xingu Ensemble
iBest — Innovation and Technology Influencer · nominated in 2023, 2024 and 2026
7 items
8 photos
4 photos