Inspired by the communal traditions of quilting bees, Quilt Tiles invites visitors to sit across from one another and collaboratively create a digital quilt. Using specially designed electronic quilt blocks developed by Edwards, participants can rearrange patterns, shapes, and colors in real time, transforming the building's facade into an evolving work of collective imagination.
Rooted in Edwards' personal exploration of family heritage and ancestral memory, Quilt Tiles began as a digital archive of stories, photographs, recipes, and cultural resources collected during her own journey of rediscovery. Through her residency with the Fulton County Public Art Futures Lab sponsored by Downtown Atlanta Inc., the project has expanded into an exploration of Atlanta's cultural memory and the ways individual histories contribute to a shared understanding of place.
Drawing on African American quilting traditions, Edwards has researched the visual language, symbolism, and communal practices of quilting, including through workshops at the Emma Darnell Aviation Museum & Conference Center. Her work brings these traditions into conversation with emerging technologies, using custom circuitry and interactive projection to explore new possibilities for storytelling, preservation, and co-authorship.
Sophia Edwards is a multimedia visual artist from Atlanta, Georgia. Edwards attended New York University Tisch School of the Arts and earned a BFA in Interactive Media Arts. Through the creative practice she built leveraging textile art, generative projection design, and zine-making, Edwards explores the southern Black identity, storytelling traditions, and Black feminist thought.
