Sound experts’ perspectives on astronomy sonification projects

Abstract

The Audible Universe project aims at making dialogue between two scientific domains investigating two distinct research objects, briefly said, Stars and Sound. It has been instantiated within a collaborative workshop that started to mutually acculturate both communities, by sharing and transmitting respective knowledge, skills and practices. One main outcome of this exchange was a global view on the astronomical data sonification paradigm that allowed to observe either the diversity of tools, uses and users (including visually-impaired people), but also the current limitations and potential ways of improvement. From this perspective, the current paper presents basic elements gathered and contextualised by sound experts in their respective fields (sound perception / cognition, sound design, psychoacoustics, experimental psychology), in order to anchor sonification for astronomy in a more well-informed, methodological and creative process.

A Universe of Sound: processing NASA data into sonifications to explore participant response

“…Generally, a primary goal of astronomy sonification relates to public engagement (Zanella et al, 2022); however, research investigating active listening by astronomers for data exploration and analysis exists (Alexander et al, 2010;Diaz-Merced, 2013). A notable project in this area is the Audible Universe Project by Misdariis et al (2022), which aims to create a dialogue between sonification and astronomy. Sonified celestial objects include pulsars, the cosmic microwave background, and solar eclipses (McGee et al, 2011;Ballora, 2014;Eclipse Soundscapes, 2022).…”

Electrochemical Synthesis of Sound: Hearing the Electrochemical Double Layer

“…17 Indeed, data sonification has been used extensively in astronomy and is beginning to find applications in bioengineering to augment understanding of protein sequences. 18,19 In another example, sound was found to be the most effective method to monitor the capture of CO molecules by scanning tunneling microscope tips. 20,21 Inspired by the power of sound to express scientific phenomena, we herein sought a method to intuitively represent the molecular interactions occurring at EDLs by transforming the movement of the interfacial chemical constituents into audible frequencies.…”

“…Audible signals also provide a more innate way to gain understanding of scientific principles . Indeed, data sonification has been used extensively in astronomy and is beginning to find applications in bioengineering to augment understanding of protein sequences. , In another example, sound was found to be the most effective method to monitor the capture of CO molecules by scanning tunneling microscope tips. , …”

The Audible Universe Workshop: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Design and Evaluation of Tools for Astronomical Data Sonification

“…Additionally, there was discussion on improving the evaluation process for both current and future sonification projects in astronomy. The results of these discussions were published in a series of four articles in Nature Astronomy ( [1], [3], [4], [5]). The AU2 workshop was designed to address the development needs that were identified in the previous workshop.…”

“…We will focus on the sessions dedicated to knowledge exchange on how to design and evaluate current and new sonification tools in a collaborative and participatory manner. This was one of the major requirements identified during AU1 for sonification applied to astronomy to be successful and widely adopted by the astronomical community [1], [5]. We especially focus on how to integrate the often-missing step of evaluation in the development process.…”