Interactive Storyteller Towards Social Change
Data is not given — it is made. And when communities make it, the story changes.
Colombian-born, Boston-based designer, interactive media artist, and storyteller working at the intersection of data equity, environmental art, and participatory design. Amplifying community voices through data visualization, civic media, and collective storytelling.
Featured Work
Recent Projects
Creating participatory eco-infrastructures where communities build sensors, generate datasets, and shape the systems that affect their environments.
Installation · December 2025
Weaving Noise / Geluid Weven
Merksemdok Cultural Center · Merksem, Antwerp, Belgium
An environmental data visualization that transforms invisible noise pollution into tangible public art. From the street, passersby see patterns based on official European noise data mapped across day and night. Inside, community members add their own experiences — calm, stress, joy, fatigue — creating a fuller story of what sound means in Merksem.
Exhibition · 2022
Data Para Todes
Boston Cyberarts Gallery · Solo Exhibition
A data literacy initiative empowering first-generation Latine college students to build air quality sensors, collect indoor environmental data, and visualize their stories. The exhibition featured an 18-foot demographic map, a 25-foot string data installation, LED income inequality visualizations, and interactive Tableau dashboards — all created through community collaboration.
About
Lina Maria Giraldo
Lina Maria Giraldo is a Colombian-born, Boston-based designer, interactive media artist, and storyteller. As Associate Professor of Journalism at Emerson College, she specializes in data visualization, participatory research, and civic design with an inclusive and ethical approach.
Her practice centers on amplifying community narratives and advancing environmental equity through projects that engage underrepresented populations. With work spanning digital educational tools, grassroots storytelling, public installations, and screen-based computer-generated art, Lina creates visual tools with educational and civic purpose.
She holds a Master of Professional Studies in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her work has been featured in The Boston Globe, ABC News, WBUR, WGBH, NPR, and The Artery.