Abstract
After only 18 years, the 21st century might already be called the century of data. Internet usage has boomed and terabytes of data are being generated every day. Hence, it comes as no surprise that these data are used in ways other than originally intended. Data visualization as well as data sonification has become a widespread practice for scientific and artistic purposes. In the case of their use in artistic contexts, visualization and sonification are not limited to simply conveying information to users. Artists can use data to control specific elements of their works such as musical or visual parameters, reinterpreting the data, and creating awareness and engagement. In doing so, the artists transform abstract data into an aesthetic experience . This chapter focuses on sonification and discusses some projects that use the pair “data-sound” as a key building block. Looking at these projects, an aesthetic framework for sonification in an artistic context is then proposed.
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Notes
- 1.
Looking at the object was not sufficient to grasp its meaning: the audience had to know the concept behind it as well. This was clearly not the case when Canadian customs officials considered the work to be merchandise instead of an original sculpture and wanted to levy a customs duty when the artwork was imported into Canada (Danto 1998).
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor António de Sousa Dias for his continuous (incremental!) revisions and careful guidance in writing this chapter. This research is sponsored through a Ph.D. scholarship by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Art with reference SFRH/BD/72601/2010.
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Van Ransbeeck, S. (2018). Sonification in an Artistic Context. In: Cermak-Sassenrath, D. (eds) Playful Disruption of Digital Media. Gaming Media and Social Effects. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1891-6_10
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