Selma Eduarda Pereira, a Portuguese artist born in Lagos in 1983, has forged an uncommon path through art by merging the tactile world of textiles with the expanding horizons of digital media. Her educational journey reflects this hybrid sensibility. Starting with a Sound and Image course at ESAD in Caldas da Rainha and later shifting focus to Fashion and Textile Design in Castelo Branco, her academic formation has been deliberately interdisciplinary. A formative internship with designer Michelle Lowe-Holder in London introduced her to the expressive depth of fashion as an artistic language. Later, a specialisation in Textile Design at Central Saint Martins allowed her to refine her technical mastery, particularly in fabric manipulation.
Instead of taking a conventional route for her postgraduate studies, Pereira pursued a Master’s in the History of the Algarve, where she examined local customs, with a particular interest in the region’s textile legacies. This research deepened her engagement with heritage and informed her artistic outlook, enriching her understanding of how cultural memory is encoded in fabric. Her PhD in Digital Media Art marked a decisive pivot towards a practice-based methodology. Working closely with her advisor, Adérito Fernandes-Marcos, and other collaborators, she began developing installation-based projects that engage with the aesthetics of post-digital art, blurring the boundaries between analog and algorithmic textures.
Her academic and artistic practices have always intersected. Alongside participating in artistic residencies and exhibitions, she has worked as a university lecturer, including a teaching collaboration with the Biennial of Art in Vila Nova de Cerveira. These overlapping roles—researcher, educator, and artist—form the framework through which she continues to interrogate the tactile and virtual layers of her work. Her artistic journey, firmly rooted in rigorous study and a hands-on relationship with materials, is a continuing dialogue between ancestral knowledge and contemporary innovation.