School of Communication and Culture

TY - JOUR

T1 - From Particle Data to Particular Sounds

T2 - Reflections on the Affordances of Contemporary Sonification Practices

AU - Bjørnsten , Thomas

PY - 2015/10/28

Y1 - 2015/10/28

N2 - This article reflects on recent notions about data sonification within sound based experimental and artistic practices. The intention is not to survey the current state of data sonification methods and techniques as such, but rather to suggest a number of selected points of critique for addressing specific assumptions about processes and discourses related to what we may broadly refer to as sonification. Furthermore, these issues will be discussed by critically asking what we understand by ‘data’ in the first place as that which make up an abstract (immaterial) foundation susceptible to be turned into actual sounding material. Considering how specific discourses and cultural understandings frame contemporary notions of data, the article also includes different examples of alternative, exploratory practices. Thus, one of the aims will partly be to open up a transdisciplinary discussion about the critical affordances and potential pitfalls of data sonification seen both as an aesthetic and a knowledge producing practice. This involves not only attention toward a strictly academic and scientific setting, but relates also to how data sonification ventures are being communicated within broader societal, cultural and art institutional contexts.

AB - This article reflects on recent notions about data sonification within sound based experimental and artistic practices. The intention is not to survey the current state of data sonification methods and techniques as such, but rather to suggest a number of selected points of critique for addressing specific assumptions about processes and discourses related to what we may broadly refer to as sonification. Furthermore, these issues will be discussed by critically asking what we understand by ‘data’ in the first place as that which make up an abstract (immaterial) foundation susceptible to be turned into actual sounding material. Considering how specific discourses and cultural understandings frame contemporary notions of data, the article also includes different examples of alternative, exploratory practices. Thus, one of the aims will partly be to open up a transdisciplinary discussion about the critical affordances and potential pitfalls of data sonification seen both as an aesthetic and a knowledge producing practice. This involves not only attention toward a strictly academic and scientific setting, but relates also to how data sonification ventures are being communicated within broader societal, cultural and art institutional contexts.

KW - Sonification

KW - data

KW - Large Hadron Collider

KW - exploratory

KW - Artistic

KW - Martin Howse

M3 - Journal article

VL - 10

JO - Journal of Sonic Studies

JF - Journal of Sonic Studies

SN - 2212-6252

ER -