Sonification and Music, Music and Sonification

Despite it being more than twenty years since the launch of an international conference series dedicated to its study, there is still much debate over what sonification really is, and especially as regards its relationship to music. A layman’s definition of sonification might be that it is the use of non-speech audio to communicate data, the aural counterpart to visualization. Many researchers have claimed musicality for their sonifications, generally when using data-to-pitch mappings. In 2006 Bennett Hogg and I (Vickers and Hogg 2006) made a rather provocative assertion that bound music and sonification together (q.v., and further developed in Vickers (2006)), not so much to claim an ontological truth but to foreground a debate that has simmered since the first International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD) in 1992. Since then there has been an increasing number of musical and sonic art compositions driven by the data of natural phenomena, some of which are claimed by their authors to be sonifications. This chapter looks at some of the issues surrounding the relationship between sonification and music and at developments that have the potential to draw sonification and the sonic arts into closer union

Sonification as Negotiation - Learning from Translation Studies.

This paper introduces a first comparison between the re-search domains of translation studies and data sonification.This contribution explores the idea of considering the prac-tice of sonification as an hermeneutic motion which entailsthe transfer of information across different media. Sonifi-cation is then envisioned as an adaptation concerned withthe transfer of incoming data into sonic forms. Transla-tion theories are used to reflect on various sonification ap-proaches: three translation perspectives are discussed andcompared to different sonification scenarios. The notionof negotiation is suggested to frame the translation of datainto sound as a process by which the designer mediates be-tween the source data and the target sound

Ritualistic approach to sonic interaction design: A poetic framework for participatory sonification

Presented at the 27th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2022) 24-27 June 2022, Virtual conference.While sonification is often adopted as an analytical tool to understand data, it can also be an efficient basis for the construction of an interaction model for an aesthetic sound piece. Mirroring the performative arts, a ritualistic approach in participatory sonification can take place whenever a work relies more on the outer form of the piece, than on the meaning attributed to the information communicated, to connect with an audience, losing some degrees of readability and intelligibility in the process while maintaining a reliable data-to-sound relationship. We will present a few examples that anticipate or expand the use of sonification as analytical tool to propose aesthetic approaches, accessing more complex layers of meaning in interactive design. By proposing topological, semantic, and technical perspectives, we demonstrate the functional aspects of the multimedia artwork “The Only Object They Could Retrieve From Earth’s Lost Civilisation” (“The Only Object” from now on). Outcomes will be considered under the multidisciplinary framework here proposed, to conclude with possibilities and implications of a ritualistic approach to interaction design

Soundscape Composition as Environmental Activism and Awareness: An Ecomusicological Approach

Soundscape composition is a musical field that has converged from a diverse array of philosophies and methods of listening. Informed by the common mission of raising awareness towards the current environmental crisis, soundscape composers aim to re-connect audiences to the natural soundscapes of their everyday lives. To achieve this mission, soundscape composers interact with soundscape ecology, a scientific field that also addresses environmental issues like global warming and declining biodiversity through the study of sound. In so doing, soundscape composers repurpose scientific technology, transforming it into a tool that challenges the traditional nature/culture dichotomy and integrates listeners with their environments through spiritual, emotional, and sense-based ways of knowing

Complexity as Process: Complexity Inspired Approaches to Composition

This article examines the use of Complexity Theory as an inspiration for the creation of new musical works, and highlights problems and possible solutions associated with its application as a compositional tool. In particular it explores how the philosophy behind Complexity Theory affects notions of process-based composition, indeterminacy in music and the performer/listener/environment relationship, culminating in providing a basis for the understanding of music creation as an active process within a context. The author presents one of his own sound installations, Cross-Pollination, as an example of a composition inspired and best understood from the philosophical position as described in Complexity Theory

Data Sonification in Creative Practice

Sonification is the process of data transmission with non-speech audio. While finding increasing acceptance as a scientific method, particularly where a visual representation of data is inadequate, it is still often derided as a ‘gimmick’. Composers have also shown growing interest in sonification as a compositional method. Both in science and in music, the criticism towards this method relates to poor aesthetics and gratuitous applications. This thesis aims to address these issues through an accompanying portfolio of pieces which use sonification as a compositional tool. It establishes the principles of ‘musification’, which can be defined as a sonification which uses musical structures; a sonification organised by musical principles. The practice-as-research portfolio explores a number of data sources, musical genres and science-music collaborations. The main contributions to knowledge derived from the project are a portfolio of compositions, a compositional framework for sonification and an evaluation framework for musification. This thesis demonstrates the validity of practice-as-research as a methodology in sonification research

Safe and Sound: Proceedings of the 27th Annual International Conference on Auditory Display

Complete proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2022), June 24-27. Online virtual conference

Towards a Cross-Disciplinary Sound Design Methodology: A Focus on Semiotics and Linguistics

Esta tese foca-se no mundo do design de som, centrando-se no desenvolvimento de uma metodologia que engloba várias disciplinas. Explora o papel do design de som na transmissão de mensagens, servindo de interface entre utilizadores e dispositivos. O estudo também investiga os paralelos entre a semiótica e a linguística e o design de som, interpretando como os sons podem atuar como sinais que representam outras entidades, com base em convenções sociais estabelecidas, e como podemos utilizar a linguística como modelo para criar sons não-falados que, tal como a linguagem, transmitem sistematicamente um significado ao utilizador. Através desta análise abrangente, o trabalho pretende contribuir para o campo, propondo uma metodologia interdisciplinar para o design de som, melhorando assim a experiência auditiva em diversos contextos.This thesis delves into the intricate world of sound design, focusing on the development of a methodology that encompasses various disciplines. It explores the role of sound design in conveying messages, serving as an interface between users and devices. The study also investigates the parallels between semiotics and linguistics and sound design, interpreting how sounds can act as signs that represent other entities, based on established social conventions and how we can use linguistics as a model to create non-speech sounds that just like language systematically convey meaning to the user. Through this comprehensive analysis, the work aims to contribute to the field by proposing a cross-disciplinary methodology for sound design, thereby enhancing the auditory experience in diverse contexts

Digital Sound Studies

The digital turn has created new opportunities for scholars across disciplines to use sound in their scholarship. This volume’s contributors provide a blueprint for making sound central to research, teaching, and dissemination. They show how digital sound studies has the potential to transform silent, text-centric cultures of communication in the humanities into rich, multisensory experiences that are more inclusive of diverse knowledges and abilities. Drawing on multiple disciplines—including rhetoric and composition, performance studies, anthropology, history, and information science—the contributors to Digital Sound Studies bring digital humanities and sound studies into productive conversation while probing the assumptions behind the use of digital tools and technologies in academic life. In so doing, they explore how sonic experience might transform our scholarly networks, writing processes, research methodologies, pedagogies, and knowledges of the archive