SONIFICATION SUITE

Sonification is the method of turning data into sound. For our purposes, we will also use this term to describe representing phenomena with sound, even if it is not produced from data directly.

The Sonification Suite is primarily designed to be a tool for communicators to make their own sounds to represent data and phenomena. By "communicators" we mean anyone who wants to communicate something about a data set, this could include: educators (in formal or informal settings), journalists, scientists wanted to share results to various audiences, etc. 

There are many benefits to adding sound to your communications. For example, 

• communicating information which is challenging, or less interesting, to show visually; 

• to make educational shows or digital communications more immersive in a meaningful way (using the data to inform the sound, not just music and sound effects); 

• providing another mode of communication for those who need, or prefer, non-visual methods; 

• creating sensory experiences. 

Whilst clearly beneficial to those who need, or prefer, non-visual methods of communication our research provides evidence that general audiences also benefit from listening to sound to represent data and phenomena. 

Our tool is founded on our research in sonification and our experience in producing multi-sensory shows and educational workshops. 

The first Sonification Suite Domain we develped was for astronomy communicators, and we carefully developed this in collaboration with the members of the planetarium community and working with focus groups of audience members. However, our underpinning methods can be tailored to any types of data, which inspired us to create the "Data Composer", which will accept any tabulated datasets. 

We look forward to hearing the ideas and applications that you produce in the Sonification Suite, and perhaps tailoring specific other Domains in the future!

We have prepared some general guidelines on how to use the Sonification Suite including how to go about designing you own sounds and incorporating them into educational shows:

Good Practise Guidelines

Additionally, we've prodivided a dedicated set of guidelines for using with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) audiences:

For some general and specific suggestions of how you might incorporate sonification into astronomy communication activities or planetarium shows, you check out these dedicated pages:

Usage Suggestions for Astronomy Communication and Planetaria

Pre-made examples of sonifications are available in our astronomy Example Bank. These include short audio only and audio-visual clips. We have a separate set of pages for our feature length pre-rendered sonification-based shows. 

We have provided some pre-made examples of sonifications for other topics (which we hope to expand with examples from the community, please share your examples with us):