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Sonification

What is Sonification - Publications

‘Sonification’ is a technology to represent information and data, including images, in non-speech sound. Although Sonification is not a new technology (with the Geiger Counter in 1908 as a first example), world-wide right now sonification is increasingly being applied in science (particularly in astronomy), technology and the arts. There’s growing awareness about the opportunities Sonification offers for accessibility, inclusiveness, and multisensory learning.

Damsma, P. (2024). Hearing a circle: An exploratory study of accessible sonification for young children with blindness and low vision. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196241253534

Gower, L. & Damsma, P. (2023). How to use Sonification in the classroom. JSPEVI Journal of the South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment, 16 (1), 44-53. https://www.spevi.net/jspevi/#2023

How sounds can turn us on to the wonders of the universe. Astronomy is leading the way in making science more accessible through sonification—and the results sound amazing. Corey S. Powell, MIT Technology Review, June 19, 2023. Includes an acknowledgment of the relevance of early learning of sonification, Sonokids’ contribution to the field, and Phia’s work as Lead of the working group Learn of the Sonification World Chat. Illustrates how sonification can be applied in different areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and may importantly impact on future improved access to STEM for people who are blind or have low vision.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/06/19/1074049/universe-sonification/amp/

Damsma, P., Norgaard, J. T., & Cashmore, C. (2023, June 26–30). Accessible sonification design for young learners [Conference session]. In: Sonification for the Masses: Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2023), Norrköping, Sweden (pp. 280–282). https://hdl.handle.net/1853/72890

Sonification and sound design for astronomy research, education and public engagement. A. Zanella, C. M. Harrison, S. Lenzi, J. Cooke, P. Damsma & S. W. Fleming.  Nature Astronomy, 15 Aug 2022.
Note that Nature has embedded actual sonification in the online article - this is a first. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01721-z

Video presentation Phia Damsma for 2021 Conference of South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment: 'Discovering sonification: where to begin'.

Video Phia Damsma for 2021 Conference of the Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities: 'Discovering Sonification – Experience'.

Video presentation Phia Damsma for 2021 Vision Impairment Conference (VISCON), NextSense Institute, Sydney, Australia: 'Sonification in Education - From Outer Space to Spatial Orientation'.: 'Sonification in Education - From Outer Space to Spatial Orientation'.

Significance

Renowned Universities and Research Centres in Australia and abroad (including NASA), use sonification for the analysis of data and for educational outreach. Due to its inherent accessibility for people who are blind or vision impaired – data is represented in sound - the ability to use this mainstream sonification technology opens opportunities for students who are blind or vision impaired to have equal and independent access to science research and scientific data. This is important, because with its heavy reliance on visualization (graphs, charts, diagrams), students who are blind or vision impaired have traditionally experienced big barriers to access STEM subjects, or to pursue a career in scientific research. If sonification becomes widely available, they may no longer have to depend on others to provide lesson materials or scientific data in an alternate format. Sonification can also be applied for inclusive and multi-sensory projects within the Arts and Music curriculum.

Sonification on Sonoplanet

There currently are no international standards for the way things are sonified. The basic sonification algorithm that Sonokids applies in the app has been tested with the delegates of the 2021 SPEVI Conference and the 2021 Round Table Conference. It proved to be an effective algorithm, allowing delegates, including those who are blind or vision impaired, to comprehend and correctly identify the sonification of shapes after only a very short introduction.

How does it work? In short: a double tone indicates a point on a line. The tempo of the double tone goes up to the right on the line. The further to the left on a line, the lower the tempo of the double tone.
The higher a data point is located, the higher the pitch of the tone. If in the sonification of a line the pitch of the tone stays the same, it is a horizontal line. A ‘ding’ sound in a shape such as a rectangle indicates that a ‘turn’ is imminent.

Aims Sonoplanet Sonification method

The Sonokids sonification method that is used on Sonoplanet does not require the use of a headset (although it will enhance the audio experience), and it is very straightforward. The aim is to test the power and/or limitations of sonification. Purposely, there is only limited visual support in the app, although the Settings allow for customisation.

Students can build generic sonification skills through gamified learning on Sonoplanet. These skills can then be transferred to the use of other sonification tools. This approach is similar to Sonokids’ successful series of ‘Ballyland Code’ apps, which introduce basic, general coding concepts and computational thinking skills that prepare students for the use of any future programming language.

With almost 25 years of experience, Sonokids knows that the earlier students start to (playfully) work with technology and explore its concepts, the more beneficial this will be for their future use of this technology. Sonokids created the Ballyland CosmoBally on Sonoplanet app as a tool for early learning of essential sonification concepts and skills, coined ‘emergent sonification literacy’. Early learning of sonification concepts and basic skills can significantly contribute to students’ future interest in and access to STEM.

Other educational sonification and multisensory STEM projects

The Volcano Listening Project. Volcano music, data sonification tools, a bridge between research and art.

Experience the total eclipse of the sun in audio as observed in the Northern Hemisphere on 8 April 2024. The LightSound device uses sonification to convert light intensity into sound. The podcast opens with an interview of Allyson Bieryla, Science Center Astronomy Lab and Telescope Manager, Harvard University Astronomer at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, who describes the LightSound Project, and demonstrates and explains the LightSound device. About 10 minutes in, the sonification of the eclipse is played.

Listen to the Universe is a 25 minute documentary telling the story of the creative process behind the sonification of Chandra telescope images. It highlights the value of scientific data sonifications for inclusion and accessibility.

Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System is a planetarium show, but unlike traditional shows the soundtrack takes the lead role. The show can also be viewed on a computer, via YouTube. All of the objects in space are represented with rich sounds as well as with incredible visuals. The audience can listen to the stars appear and hear the planets orbit around their heads. Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System is an immersive experience that can be enjoyed irrespective of level of vision. An educational workshop is available from Audio Universe: https://www.audiouniverse.org/education-and-outreach/educational-workshops

Hearing the Stars - an episode of ‘Tumble Science Podcast for Kids’.
Yuma Decaux, computer engineer from Brisbane, Australia, who is blind, explains how astronomy collects data, signals coming from space, that we can't observe with the human eye: sometimes you can hear what you can't see, such as the transit of an exoplanet. Tips for multisensory exploration of constellations. Link: https://www.sciencepodcastforkids.com/single-post/astronomy-yuma

Explore some of the first full-color infrared images and data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope through sonification. Link:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-webb-s-first-full-color-images-data-are-set-to-sound/

NASA’s Universe of Sound – Listen to Space. Listen to sonifications of parts of our Milky Way galaxy and of the greater Universe beyond it, through data captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope.

NASA sonification of black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster. Link:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/new-nasa-black-hole-sonifications-with-a-remix.html

“Planetary Bands, Warming World”. Sonification of global warming through a musical composition for string quartet. Created by Daniel Crawford and Scott St. George, graduate fellow and professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.

Oceanographic symphonic experience. This sonification project was created by mathematically translating hidden layers of “ocean color” reflectance data from NASA’s Earth-observing Aqua-MODIS satellite into musical notes.

Accessible Oceans: Exploring Ocean Data Through Sound. The Accessible Oceans project is using sonification to convey meaningful aspects of ocean science data to increase access to ocean data and ocean literacy. This research is expected to contribute new strategies and resources for representing quantitative information that can be applied across STEM disciplines that use similar data displays in informal learning environments. By Amy Bower, Jon Bellona, Jessica Roberts, Leslie Smith.

Sensemath – Royal Dutch Visio. Free app for iOS, in the Appstore, sonifying mathematical graphs.

Pixel-Synth is a web-based sonification app under development by Matt Russo. This prototype tool can be used to sonify images, using scanning from left to right and mapping height to pitch. The app is an adaptation of an original application by Olivia Jack (with permission of the artist), with added accessibility features. The tool was tested by sighted and BLV people as part of the Sonification World Chat.

Tactile Universe: Tactile models and lesson plans for accessible astronomy education.

Stars in your hand A Guide to 3D Printing the Cosmos. By Kimberly Arcand and Megan Watzke. An illustrated guide to exploring the Universe in three dimensions.

Listen to the sounds on Mars (April 2022). Not sonification, but read and listen how sound samples collected by NASA Perseverance Mars Rover lead to new scientific insights about the atmosphere of the Red Planet.

Paths2Technology website posts related to Sonification (Sonification Summary Page)

Sonification Report 2019 from The DIAGRAM Center (a Benetech initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs).