More sonification links

Here are some links to projects we looked at today - in particular I think the Skype article has some interesting insights that we didn't get to. And Luke duBois's work is almost always worth spending time with.

• Boston Globe article on Luke duBois's recent work; and his website
• verge.com article on Skype's sound design
• New York Times, "A Conversation with Whales"; interesting thoughts on interspecies communication
• Philosopher Daniel Dennet's brainwaves sonified, ala Brian Eno
• An in-depth feature on musicologist and acoustician Stephen McAdams on musical timbre - really interesting!
• A bunch of sounds from Nasa

April 22 meetings

We have two classes left: for next week, April 22, I'd like to get through as much of the Sonification Handbook as we can - again, focusing on the audio links. We'll meet as a group until 12:30; then I'd like to have 15-minute meetings with these people:

12:45 Will

1:00 Dakota

1:15 Elisa

1:30 Ralph

1:45 Mike

Then on April 29, we'll have our final group meeting, again ending around 12:30; then we'll have the following individual meetings:

12:45 Qi

1:00 Matt

1:15 Tori

1:30 Guillermo

1:45 John

And as we discussed, we'll have a final presentation/performance on Monday, May 9, to coincide with the transit of Mercury (there are about 13 transits of Mercury every century, so if we miss this one it's not the end of the world, but still). For Central Standard Time, this year's transit starts at 6:12 am, and ends at 1:42 pm; the greatest transit (Mercury right in the middle of the Sun) is at 9:57 am.

So maybe, if we start our event at 11 am, just like our regular seminar, that would work! Is everyone free from 11 am - 1 pm on Monday, May 9? Let me know - thanks!

Christopher Macklin's sonification links

Thanks to Professor Macklin for coming in and sharing his expertise and research! Here are some links to things he was talking about:

- ICAD 2004 dataset and description of channels: http://www.icad.org/websiteV2.0/Conferences/ICAD2004/concert_call.htm

- ICAD 2004 concert with links to sonifications and write-ups describing methods: http://www.icad.org/websiteV2.0/Conferences/ICAD2004/concert.htm

- Example of an audio game, or a "video game without video": https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-nightjar/id431598741?mt=8

Sonification plans

This Friday, I'd like us to discuss specific sonification strategies for our final projects, and how we can use the readings and other projects we've looked at to get ideas. Specifically I'm interested in some aspects of semiotics which I don't think we've discussed yet: icons, indices, and symbols. If you haven't encountered this before, a good starting point is wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotic_elements_and_classes_of_signs

I'd also like to continue diving into the Sonification Handbook - we can check out the first several chapters together, focusing on the sound examples. My dream is to get through the first four or five chapters - we'll see how we do!

Getting into sonification

We've discussed Bach and his use of representation; we've looked at film music; today we are looking at program music. Now it's time to start taking the next step, sonification of data. You can easily find many examples on the internet. Next week, instead of spending another session on program music, I'd like to start focusing on data - but if you like, you can continue to focus on program music. Please choose two or three sonification examples and critique them: what do you think makes them successful or not? Would you do anything differently? And perhaps the biggest question, how does the sonificator (sic) decide on their mapping?

Here are a few places you can get started:

cycling74.com - many Max projects are involved with sonification; here is a feature about some of them.

gizmodo.com - a search for sonification articles on gizmodo, some good stuff here

wired.com - again, the results of a search for sonification

And two other places that are active right now:

Georgia Tech sonification lab - headed by Bruce Walker, this group is doing a lot of interesting work; check out the Sonification Sandbox.

And a project featuring slime mold work by Professor Eduardo Miranda at Plymouth University in the UK.

Revised schedule

We are behind schedule, or at least my original schedule - here is a possible revision, ideas welcome!

Week 7, March 4
Each of us brings in one or two moments of a film score, discuss aspects of representation. What is the music representing, in your scene(s) of choice? How is it representing? Is it playing with or against stereotype? Those are some beginning questions; there is lots of literature on film music, but we have enough reading already, so I will leave it up to you if you'd like to dive into this (of course if you decide on film music for a final topic I'll expect a bibliography).

Other topics:

• Mithen, Fitch on evolution
• Music and neuroscience
• Infant-directed speech, pet-directed speech
• Ligeti, Kubrick & 2001: A Space Odyssey (and film music in general). Movie night either Wednesday or Thursday

Week 8, March 11

• Hofstadter concluded
• Program music
• Hatten & topics
• Wagner & leitmotifs

Week 9, March 18

• Presentations on program music & musical representation

Spring Break

Week 10, April 1

• The Sonification Handbook

Week 11, April 8

• The Sonification Handbook, continued

Week 12, April 15

• Tom Johnson, Looking at Numbers
• Sonification & SuperCollider, other programs

Week 13, April 22

• Sonification & Max

Week 14, April 29

• Preparation for final presentation (or concert?)

Tim Smith on Bach's fugues and religious symbolism

At the website for the Oregon Bach Festival, Tim Smith has created a quite beautiful analysis and performance of the Well-Tempered Clavier. I found this weeks ago by accident and finally re-found it; to my layperson's mind the B minor fugue is one of the best examples I've seen of Bach's religious symbolism. Highly recommended!

There is also an older article at his Northern Arizona University website on the 25th variation of the Goldberg Variations, "That Crown of Thorns" - another good example of Bach and extramusical references.