This project aims to extend the Portuguese tradition of patterned tiles (azulejos) with digital technology. Made using data visualization and 3D printing, the tiles show the number of Portuguese-speakers on each continent through the symbolism of land, water, and ripples. Each continent is symbolized by a cube and each ripple signifies a million Portuguese-speakers on the given continent (i.e. 11 ripples around Europe = 11 million Portuguese speakers). Experienced passing by, azulejos create meaning in the background of our lives. As a tactile landscape, its patterns are primarily tactile and only secondarily visual. Ideally installed in a public space, people would engage with a central phenomenon of their culture through the rhythm and undulations of the surface of the piece.

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