FAQs: Sonification Suite

Is the Sonification Suite free to use?

Yes!

Do I have to give attribution for use?

Where possible, we ask that you acknowledge the Audio Universe project if you make use of the Sonification Suite. We would be particularly grateful if you shared with us how you used the Suite, so we can report this to our funders and attract future funding. If you make use of the Sonification Suite or data accessed through the Suite for any commercial outputs or publications, it is your responsibility to provide the appropriate attributions. The credit information is found in READTHEDOCS

How can we justify using sound to represent data, isn't this a bit strange?

In several contexts this can be justified because so much is invisible to human's (e.g., most of the electromagnetic spectrum is outside of the visible range, gravitational waves are not light, dark matter does not interact with light, atoms are too small to be seen etc.). Therefore we are regularly converting data into something we can experience. Usually this is light we can see (e.g., we might convert X-rays into a blue picture or represent dark matter with purple blobs). For sonification, we are converting signals or data into sounds. Otherwise, we can justify sonification because: it can be interesting and fun; it allows us to experience data in a different way, which might help us understand; etc..

Doesn't using sound only work well for audiences who are musically trained?

In short, no! If done well, using sound for communication of any data/phenomena works well for audiences with no musical training. We are usually not asking our audiences to listen for fine details in the data, like we would not ask them to look for fine details in a visual representation. Indeed, the equivalent is using visuals that work well for those who are not trained in using visuals to interpret data. For public audiences you would provide visuals that are easy to interpret without training, and you would ensure that they are explained well to help the audience extract the key information - or simply use them for sharing their beautry. We use sound in the same way! They should be easy to understand without extensive training, and you should give a simple explanation to help the audience understand what is going on. More advice on this can be found in the Usage Guidelines. 

Sound and music are subjective, doesn't that cause a problem?

It is true that people have different preferences for music and sound, and there is subjectivity in the listening experience. However, this is also true for visual representations. Therefore, you are already using a communication method that is subjective! We are simply more used to experiencing visual representations. With this in mind we have: (1) designed the Sonification Suite to enable you to design your own sounds, which you can tailor to specific audiences/goals; and (2) performed research with audiences to test sound designs for both the learning outcomes and the positive listening experience (these guide the pre-set styles we provide). It is important to note there are also cultural factors in people's listening preferences. Our research for the Sonification Suite has predominantly been conducted with UK-based audiences, which may not reflect the same outcomes for audiences with very different musical cultural experiences. If you are interested in this topic you can see our work re-designing Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System for Caribbean audiences. If you are using sounds with SEND audiences, there are additional things to consider around additional sensory sensitivites. Please see our using with SEND guidelines. 

Sound doesn't travel through space, how can we make sense of using sounds for astronomical data?

This is an important point, and when using sonification we should avoid giving the mis-interpretation that we are detecting sounds that are directly produced by astronomical bodies. The way we tend to frame this is that we are detecting signals (electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves etc.) and turning these signals into sound. The equivalent is detecting signals that we can not see with our eyes (i.e., most of the data we receive from the Universe!) and then turning it into a visual representation that we can see. For example, X-rays are often represented by blue light in images and radio waves are represented by radio light. Where you might say "we've represented these X-rays with blue light, even though we can not really see them with our eyes", you could say "we've represented the changing power of the X-rays from this accreting black hole with a windy sound, but remember that sound doesn't travel through space".