Shelley Lake (Born 1954) was born in Miami Beach, Florida. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1976.. Her experimentation with technology and art began more than 4 decades years ago. She studied computer science at Brown University under the guidance direction of Andy van Dam, a computer expert. Shelley proceeded to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from where she received a Master of Science degree in 1979. She became the first female graduate of the Media Lab, the institution formerly known as the Architecture Machine Group. At MIT, she trained with Aldo Tambellini, Harold Edgerton, Nicholas Negroponte, Otto Piene, and Muriel Cooper, who were pioneers in the fusion of technology, art and science. Shelley art is featured in numerous film festivals and international art exhibitions.
Shelley has won Japan's NICOGRAPH award, a Clio award, and was placed first in an AT & T image competition. Shelley was also a technical director for The Last Starfighter, the Academy Award winning. Shelley also studied at Cleveland Chiropractic College from where she received a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. Currently she operates and owns Sky Lake Studios, a futurist computer graphics establishment based in Central Florida. She focuses on the attributes of the computer, such as its ability to organize, process and store information. She does not focus on computer’s precision or efficiency. Shelley says that an understanding of the core of a computer differentiates it from being an alternate nervous system to being a slave and make a good use of it.