Design undergraduate students participate in Warsaw with an artistic project that explores pareidolia through drawing.
The students of the Bachelor's degree in Design at ISMAT are participating in the international exhibition Clouds Know No Borders: From Ink to Image – A Shared Act of Seeing, on display at SAN University in Warsaw, Poland, between June 1st and 14th, 2026.
The exhibition is the result of the International Week promoted by ISMAT within the framework of the Erasmus+ program, during which the institution welcomed international faculty members who developed various workshops and activities with the students. One of these workshops gave rise to the project now presented in the exhibition.
The initiative was developed in collaboration with SAN University and took as its starting point a set of inkblots produced by a Polish student during her artistic research process.
These abstract shapes were subsequently reinterpreted by the Portuguese students, who transformed them into drawings, characters, landscapes, narratives, and unexpected visual associations.
The project explores the phenomenon of pareidolia — the human ability to recognize shapes and meanings in ambiguous visual stimuli — demonstrating how different people, cultures, and experiences can generate distinct interpretations from the same visual element.
Among the participating ISMAT students are Sofia Parejo, Sara Inácio, Afonso Pinto, Ricardo Brazona, Eveline Landim, Sofia Lima de Andrade, Sara Caeiro, Eva Silva, Ilda Caldas, Lays Freitas, Matilde Bento, Mariana Santos, and Diana Lauro.
The exhibition constitutes another example of the international dimension of the education developed at ISMAT, promoting collaboration between European institutions and providing students with opportunities to work in multicultural contexts.
At the same time, it highlights drawing as a universal language capable of crossing geographical, linguistic, and cultural boundaries, reinforcing the academic bonds between Portugal and Poland.
