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The Air Listening Station: Bridging the gap between Sound Art and Sonification

Published: 11 October 2023 Publication History

Abstract

When developing auditory display systems, one must balance the tendency for sonification algorithms to produce potentially informative, but less engaging, direct representations of data, with more aesthetically pleasing transformations where the underlying data is prone to obfuscation. In a scientific communication context, the successful navigation of this continuum becomes increasingly critical. As such, we take air quality data as a vehicle to explore this concept, with the ultimate goal of raising awareness of declining air quality in modern urban landscapes in order to drive societal change in response.
Employing an aesthetically driven, artistic practice-based approach, we transform field recordings into an ever-evolving soundscape using generative music and algorithmic composition methods. Specifically, we present a novel, real-time granular synthesis-based sonification method that draws upon auditory icon, parameter mapping, and model-based sonification concepts, to create an output that invites an emotional connection with the underlying data. Finally, we discuss the design implications and constraints of this approach, before challenging some fundamental assumptions and conventions of modern sonification practice, while advocating for a tighter integration between the worlds of traditional sonification and sound art.

Supplementary Material

1) aesthetic_direction_01.mp3 --> Initial aesthetic direction/proof of concept created using 1 hour of PM_10 and PM_2.5 data rendered at a 10:1 ratio (i.e. 60 minutes of air quality data results in 6 minutes of audio). Created using the Ultimate Grainer module of Ajax Sound Studio?s Cecilia 5 audio signal processing environment. 2) sample sonification - original - good AQ - 5x bad AQ.mp3 --> contains several example outputs created using the sonification instrument created in Supercollider presented during the radio art zone broadcast on August 28, 2022 [0:00] - original field recording before processing [0:30] - example of "good" air quality data [1:02] - example of "bad" air quality data #1 [2:10] - example of "bad" air quality data #2 [2:45] - example of "bad" air quality data #3 [3:08] - example of "bad" air quality data #4 [3:38] - example of "bad" air quality data #5 (sonification_examples.zip)

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Cited By

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  • (2024)NEXUS: A Tangible Multi-User Sensor-Based Telematic Novel Mixing-Interface for Multimedial ExplorationProceedings of the 19th International Audio Mostly Conference: Explorations in Sonic Cultures10.1145/3678299.3678323(245-259)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2024

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences
AM '23: Proceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference
August 2023
204 pages
ISBN:9798400708183
DOI:10.1145/3616195
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 11 October 2023

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Author Tags

  1. Sonification
  2. air quality
  3. auditory display
  4. data art
  5. digital signal processing
  6. responsive sonic environments.
  7. sonic art
  8. soundscape art

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  • Research-article
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AM '23
AM '23: Audio Mostly 2023
August 30 - September 1, 2023
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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Overall Acceptance Rate 177 of 275 submissions, 64%

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View all
  • (2024)NEXUS: A Tangible Multi-User Sensor-Based Telematic Novel Mixing-Interface for Multimedial ExplorationProceedings of the 19th International Audio Mostly Conference: Explorations in Sonic Cultures10.1145/3678299.3678323(245-259)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2024

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