Polyphonies

Sound as augmented notational system and entertainment framework for data-telling and design mapping

Visualization and sonification can be understood in cartographic terms, as devices that map information about urban space. But whereas visual representation focuses on a flattened cartographic deception of data, sonification synchronizes visual and auditory compositions, establishing coordinate systems in sound space (ecological view), that optimize the aural perception of topographic maps.

We define interactive sonification of topographical space the use of sound within a tightly closed human–computer interface, where the auditory signal provides information about urban data. Doing so, we could create new ways of reading territories, where the sound is experienced with multimodal and absorptive sensory modes. Through the use of techniques capable of representing more dimensions at the same time, the imaginative power of sound allows to convey information about movements, places and simple actions that are located in the map. High-dimensional data, provided by the sound, enable the development of an augmented notational system that is required to perform urban space.

We can make sense of topographic map by using systemic thinking principles and data-driven science processes that enhance sonification practices. Sounds may be collected with hyper-local data aggregation tools and then, the resulting data can be processed to create custom paths. To navigate along a path is not just a sequence of play, stop, resume or rewind in a space–time dimension. The orientation process is used to reorder the acoustic objects archive in a flexible and modular structure. Visual translation and personalization of places and actions, operated by sonification, is not a mere juxtaposition of acoustic events, but it is a composition with an information centric approach based on hyper-local data.

Sonification success requires that this composition has an appropriate notation system for the data–to–display mappings and a new entertainment framework.