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8 Finalists Selected for 2026 Data Is Art Competition
The University of Virginia School of Data Science has announced the eight finalists for its 2026 Data Is Art Competition, a bi-annual exhibition celebrating the intersection of data, creativity, storytelling, and human experience.
Artists were invited to explore the theme of “Truth,” transforming raw data into works that uncover insights, evoke emotion, and reveal deeper layers of meaning. The School received more than 60 submissions, with the finalists selected by a jury panel.
The finalists' works will be on display prior to the 2026 Data Is Art Presentation and Award Ceremony on Sept. 4, 2026, at the UVA School of Data Science. The event will feature a keynote presentation by data visualization expert Alberto Cairo, whose work has helped shape public understanding of visual communication and data storytelling.
“The Data Is Art Competition challenges conventional boundaries between analytical inquiry and creative practice,” said Alex Gates, competition co-chair and assistant professor of data science. “This year's finalists demonstrate the many ways data can illuminate personal experiences, social issues, scientific discovery, and cultural narratives.”
The selected works span a wide range of media, including data visualization, sculpture, animation, sound, and physical installations. Together, they demonstrate how data can become not only a tool for analysis, but also a medium for reflection, discovery, and artistic expression.
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Family Touch
by Padmini Chandrasekaran
Graphic designer, educator, and artist Padmini Chandrasekaran transforms everyday interactions into data portraits in “Family Touch,” a series documenting everything touched by members of her family over designated periods of time. Through carefully recorded observations and custom visual systems, the work captures the rhythms of domestic life, from a toddler's exploration of the world to the routines of an aging family dog. By turning ordinary moments into visual narratives, the project invites viewers to consider how patterns of touch reveal connection, care, and the relationships that shape daily life.
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Mapping Equality: LGBTQ+ Equality Project
by Danielle Currier
Through a series of original visualizations, maps, rankings, and comparative analyses, Danielle Currier's “LGBTQ+ Equality Project” examines how geography, legislation, public opinion, and demographic factors influence the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals across the United States. Drawing on a wide range of national datasets, the project transforms complex social and policy data into accessible visual stories that reveal patterns often hidden within reports and spreadsheets. By visualizing equality, the work demonstrates how information design can deepen understanding of complex social issues and the relationship between policy, place, and lived experience.
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Data in Bloom
by Kelsey Dufresne
In “Data in Bloom,” Kelsey Dufresne explores the relationship between flowers, community engagement, art, and data through a floral installation created for the North Carolina Museum of Art's annual “Art in Bloom” exhibition. Drawing on principles of data humanism, the work reimagines floral arrangements as data physicalizations that communicate interpretation, analysis, and lived experience through sensory forms. Inspired by a museum artwork and realized through living floral materials, the installation invites viewers to see data as something deeply human, creative, and communal.
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Waiting for Child Care: Truth Across Modes of Representation
by Isabelle Fares
Drawing on findings from the 2025 Virginia Child Care Subsidy Waitlist Survey, Isabelle Fares presents a ceramic sculpture that explores how different forms of data representation shape understanding. The work juxtaposes aggregated statistics, excerpts from qualitative survey responses, and individual experiences to demonstrate how each perspective reveals certain truths while obscuring others. Through the physical form of the sculpture, viewers are invited to consider how decisions about data collection and presentation influence what data communicates and whose experiences remain visible.
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Bestselling Books Project
by Daria Koshkina
Daria Koshkina's “Bestselling Books Project” reimagines literary genres through the lens of network science and data art. Using bestseller data and user-generated labels from Open Library, the interactive visualization explores relationships among book subjects and their most popular titles. The project combines a network view highlighting connections among literary themes with a dynamic visualization representing individual books, revealing the fluid and interconnected nature of how readers understand and categorize literature.
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Asterisms
by Ranger Liu
In “Asterisms,” Ranger Liu layers personal biological data with celestial observations to create a deeply personal exploration of identity and duality. Testosterone treatments, menstrual cycles, and the visibility of ancient Chinese constellations are visualized and sonified across a calendar year. By combining astronomy, sound, and personal data, the work reflects on intersections of gender, cultural heritage, science, and selfhood.
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ICE Detention Data Visualized
by Rachel Saidi
Rachel Saidi's “ICE Detention Data Visualized” transforms detention data into a large-scale macramé installation inspired by the tradition of khipus, the knotted-cord communication system developed by the Incas. The work visualizes more than 145 weeks of aggregated ICE detention data collected between January 2023 and October 2025, with each strand representing a week and its length corresponding to the number of individuals detained. Through thousands of knots and varied fibers, the piece highlights the human impact behind the numbers while illustrating how policy changes and major immigration actions shaped detention patterns over time.
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Eclipse
by Anna Yao
Inspired by the concept of truth as both a momentary snapshot and a dynamic process, Anna Yao's “Eclipse” visualizes university research output through animation and large-scale data graphics. The installation includes an animation tracking the University of Virginia's publication history alongside sunburst visualizations comparing research activity across leading R1 institutions. Viewed from a distance, the visualizations form astronomical imagery, including a sunrise and solar eclipse, creating a layered commentary on discovery, perspective, and the evolving nature of knowledge. Yao is a fourth-year data science major at UVA.
