Looks like you have JavaScript disabled. For the full Twine experience, you will need to re-enable it.

I am a multidisciplinary artist-researcher who explores the intersection of art, cognition, and technology. My practice spans sculpture, illustration, animation, and education, with a long-standing interest in how visual and linguistic systems shape understanding. I love turning complex ideas into engaging, approachable work that invites curiosity and collaboration. Through art, teaching, and community projects, I strive to connect storytelling with real-world impact, running workshops, public art initiatives, and collaborative exhibitions that bring science and creativity into everyday life.…I am a multidisciplinary artist-researcher who explores the intersection of art, cognition, and technology. My practice spans sculpture, illustration, animation, and education, with a long-standing interest in how visual and linguistic systems shape understanding. I love turning complex ideas into engaging, approachable work that invites curiosity and collaboration. Through art, teaching, and community projects, I strive to connect storytelling with real-world impact, running workshops, public art initiatives, and collaborative exhibitions that bring science and creativity into everyday life.

Michelle 'Misha' Oraa Ali





I am a multidisciplinary artist-researcher who explores the intersection of art, cognition, and technology. My practice spans sculpture, illustration, animation, and education, with a long-standing interest in how visual and linguistic systems shape understanding. I love turning complex ideas into engaging, approachable work that invites curiosity and collaboration. Through art, teaching, and community projects, I strive to connect storytelling with real-world impact, running workshops, public art initiatives, and collaborative exhibitions that bring science and creativity into everyday life.…I am a multidisciplinary artist-researcher who explores the intersection of art, cognition, and technology. My practice spans sculpture, illustration, animation, and education, with a long-standing interest in how visual and linguistic systems shape understanding. I love turning complex ideas into engaging, approachable work that invites curiosity and collaboration. Through art, teaching, and community projects, I strive to connect storytelling with real-world impact, running workshops, public art initiatives, and collaborative exhibitions that bring science and creativity into everyday life.

Available to hire

I am a multidisciplinary artist-researcher who explores the intersection of art, cognition, and technology. My practice spans sculpture, illustration, animation, and education, with a long-standing interest in how visual and linguistic systems shape understanding. I love turning complex ideas into engaging, approachable work that invites curiosity and collaboration.

Through art, teaching, and community projects, I strive to connect storytelling with real-world impact, running workshops, public art initiatives, and collaborative exhibitions that bring science and creativity into everyday life.

Skills

Illustration

Experience Level

Illustration

Expert

Work Experience

Intern at C&M Ceramics

January 1, 2025 - Present

Slipcasting intern; cast molds, glaze development, and kiln operation.

Graduate Research Scientist at Brown University, Language and Thought Lab

August 1, 2019 - January 1, 2024

Developmental psycholinguistics studies on learning distributivity/universality in children; research on data visualization and communicative efficiency.

Research Assistant at Harvard University, Department of Psychological Sciences

April 1, 2019 - August 1, 2019

Designing stimuli for welfare tradeoff tasks in children; infant data collection; contributing to studies on social cognition and Theory of Mind; collaboration on narrative compositionality stimuli.

Research Support Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brain and Cognitive Sciences

June 1, 2017 - February 1, 2019

Investigated prosody as a cross-linguistic universal; developed a software pipeline for analyzing recordings (HMM-based forced aligners) and extracting acoustic features; supported eye-tracking and language research.

Undergraduate Research Scholar at Janelia Research Campus, HHMI

June 1, 2016 - August 31, 2016

Studied sensorimotor integration and context-dependent behavior in Drosophila using optogenetics and confocal methods.

Archives & Special Collections Student Archivist at Mount Holyoke College

January 1, 2015 - January 1, 2017

Curated exhibitions; catalogued feminist zine collections and visual data representations.

Undergraduate Research Fellow at University of Pennsylvania, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

January 1, 2015 - January 1, 2016

Independent project on social responses to facial appearance; corpus creation and data analysis in R and SPSS.

Research Assistant at Mount Holyoke College; Biological Sciences

January 1, 2015 - January 1, 2016

Neuroscience and behavior research; involvement in neuroimmunology and developmental studies.

Lead Undergraduate Investigator; Thesis Student at Mount Holyoke College

January 1, 2015 - January 1, 2018

Used EEG to measure ERPs to study rhythm and metrical structure in implicit prosody during silent poetry reading; multiple independent research projects.

Radio DJ and Sound Engineer at MIT/Humanities radio stations

January 1, 2014 - January 1, 2019

Hosted and engineered radio shows; developed on-air content and sound design.

Freelance Illustrator and Designer at Self-employed

January 1, 2006 - Present

Created original characters and illustrated stimuli for research and educational projects; produced covers, logos, and publication/artwork for clients including top institutions.