4/8/07
IDP 130
Final Project Proposal:
            Data Sonification experiments:

Concept:
For my final project, I intend to explore the use of data sonification programs and I will attempt to create a sound file which will sonify data collected by the Sandy Hook NOAA branch summer staff.  The data I intend to use is of striped bass and bluefish migrations through the Navesink River (summer 06), and also includes information on sunlight radiation levels, sunset/sunrise times, water depth and current direction.  Although the data is fairly low in resolution, I hope to gain an understanding of the interaction between my data sets.
            The data involved in this project really means a lot to me because I worked with it for weeks and weeks.  I was involved in every portion of the data collection from fish capture to surgery and tagging to rerelease to collection of data receivers to data download and interpretation.  I’m interested in learning if something new can be conveyed by observing the collected data through sound rather than sight or spreadsheet.
            Ideally, I would like to create a sort of symphony of sounds which reflect the various individuals included in the data set.  If this proves too complex, I may limit myself to one or a few individuals.

Technology required:
            My research so far has indicated that there are already a few environments for creating data sonification files.  I hope to find these environments and work with them to find the one which is best formed to fit my needs.  So far, I have found a program called “Sonification Sandbox” which is Mac Freeware and so, easily available.  This also implies that I will be doing the majority of my work on this project in the computer lab as my home computer is a PC.

Timeline:
            I hope to use my time up until April 16th determining what is possible with the program and learning how to incorporate data and sound
From the 16th to the 30th of April, I will work on a more solid piece, driving towards a final product.  From the 1st of May until the critique, I will work on perfecting and tweaking my final product until it is to my liking.  I’m not sure how much artificial tweaking can be done with data sonification, since it must accurately reflect the data, but I will be finding this sort of thing out in due time.

Resources
Data Exploration by Sonification - This page has a series of descriptions of various types of sonification and other information. The information on this page allowed me to better understand the model I would potentially be creating; this model of communicating something to an audience or listener. The listing of different types of sonification was an good discussion of all the different ways and reasons we sonify data.
StarChild Project - This page has a project created for a stage musical. The creators took solar flare and radiation data and turned it into sound. This is important because my data has a similar background. I love the sound created by this project and I can imagine a play being acted out to this. The sounds tell a story.
Sonifying Mt. Etna - Although the "Sonifying Mt. Etna" project is very similar to what I'm trying to do, it also bothers me a little. I enjoy the combination of sounds created by the data sonification, but the sounds themselves are not my style. I'm hoping I can create a wonderful sound palette that has less of the actual gritty sound displayed here, and more of the interesting tones created by the combination.
Other Uses of Sonification - This page has some interesting information about other uses of sonification. I thought the information about birdcalls was really interesting but it was also something I've seen and heard before. I particularly enjoyed the article about the color-blind man using sonifcation to enhance his senses. It's interesting to learn of functional uses of sonification.
Peep & the Tufts Servers - Peep Source - Another example of the uses of sonification. Tufts' servers are apparently running a sonification program which allows the technicians working on them to instantly understand the traffic and potential problems backing up the servers. I thought this was a really inovative use of sonification. It made me think differently about the changes in sound. Sound can change outside of pitch and in this case, volume is an important indicator of server traffic.
The Uses of Sonification - This is more of just an article about the properties of sound and the uses of sonification. The article lists a variety of past projects which have used sound in artistic and useful manners.
NASA - A government site about sonification! This is NASA's information site about the way they use sonification to better understand the phases of solar flares and other astronomy-related changes. I think it's so important to recognize that the this is such a useful tool that even the US government is making use of it. This site also includes a series of links to some of the programs they used and ICAD.
Andrea Polli - This page links to Andrea Polli's data-reader page. It's great that someone has already created a MAX/MSP patch that can be used to read data from a spread-sheet. This is the program I am using for my final project.