hi, I'm Shirley 👋
I'm a Chinese-American artist, software engineer, data visualization designer, keynote speaker, and co-author of Data Sketches.
A very brief timeline
2012 University of California, Berkeley
B.S. Business Administration, Computer Science Minor
2012 – 2016 full-time software engineer on data visualization products
2016 – 2021 independent data visualization designer & engineer.
2021 published Data Sketches with Nadieh Bremer
2023 New York University, Tisch School of Arts
M.P.S. Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)
2024 founded studio hua in Tokyo
past clients include
Google News Initiative
Sony Interactive Entertainment
The Guardian
SFMOMA
M+ Art Museum
NBC Universal
Scientific American
International Rescue Commission
etc.
datasketch.es
a focus on delight
what stays with a reader is what they felt, not the exact numbers
empathy
how do we center (big) data on the individual, human experience, to incite conversation and enable action?
how do we visualize underrepresentation, or even harder, missing, "imperfect" data?
shirleywu.studio/notebook
truth-and-beauty.net/texts
physical is "imperfect"
some data stories are just too emotional, messy, and "imperfect" for the pixel precision of a screen
video by Ready Steady Cinema
photos by Tuan Huang
take up space
those emotional, vulnerable data stories deserve to take up physical space, to bring a community together for conversation—especially after the pandemic
shirleywu.studio/notebook
🎊 my first tokyo art show 🎊
9/23–9/28/2025 (tentative)
@ MIDORI.so gallery
→💌 newsletter.shirleywu.studio 💌 ←
artist statement
I design precise systems that manifest in the world imprecisely, freely.