Sound people speak to Star people. A sound experts perspective on astronomy sonification projects

Abstract

The Audible Universe project aims at making dialogue between two scientific domains investigating two distinct research objects, briefly said, Stars and Sound. It has been instantiated within a collaborative workshop that started to mutually acculturate both communities, by sharing and transmitting respective knowledge, skills and practices. One main outcome of this exchange was a global view on the astronomical data sonification paradigm that allowed to observe either the diversity of tools, uses and users (including visually-impaired people), but also the current limitations and potential ways of improvement. From this perspective, the current paper presents basic elements gathered and contextualised by sound experts in their respective fields (sound perception / cognition, sound design, psychoacoustics, experimental psychology), in order to anchor sonification for astronomy in a more well-informed, methodological and creative process.

14 pages, 1 Table

References in corpus (4)

• Sonification and Sound Design for Astronomy Research, Education and Public Engagement
• Audible universe
• Q&A: Accessibility in Astronomy for the Visually Impaired
• A Sonification of the zCOSMOS Galaxy Dataset

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Evaluating the efectiveness of sonifcation in science education using Edukoi
• A Universe of Sound: Processing NASA Data into Sonifications to Explore Participant Response
• Toward an auditory Virtual Observatory (preprint)
• Touching the Sky: The Use of Arduino in Transferring Telescopic Light to Haptic Vibrations
• AMACA: Astronomy education with a Multi-sensory, Accessible, and Circular Approach