Sonification Week 2 Blog Post

Week 2 Project Aims

Our aim for this week was to start exploring how we might sonify one of our initial ideas created in week 1: the collision of two black holes.

We wanted Week 2 to focus on developing our skills and confidence in using the coding programme Strauss and some musical outputs such as synthesisers, Pure Data, and Ableton Live to sonify our chosen topic through data. The group also decided to consider what we wanted the sonification’s purpose to be and how we could strategically tailor the output to successfully engage people from any background, education, and age.

Summary of Week 2

After spending the first week of the project brainstorming and becoming familiar with each other, our skills, and working styles, we decided to jump into week two by using our varied skill set to explore the idea of sonifying data using Strauss and later synthesisers and Ableton Live.

• On Monday, we decided to have an independent research day as to allow us to become more familiar with the field of sonification as a whole. We all separately investigated the methods and tools others had used to create successful sonifications, focusing on the conversion of data to sound but also the communication of the sonifications, making them accessible through features such as visual aids, narration and text.

• In our meeting on the following day, we discussed our thoughts and findings from our independent research before going ahead with exploring the collision of two black holes idea in more detail. We found some LIGO data about gravitational waves from a suspected blackholes collision and plotted a graph of the frequency (of the gravitational waves) against time with Strauss. We mapped the frequency to pitch to create a sonification and then attempted to apply different methods to auditorily emphasise the intense change in the data, but we ran into a few issues with the coding. Oliver also brought his synthesiser to the meeting and so continued our exploration of the extent to which data can be interpreted as musical.

• On Wednesday, we had an informal meeting with our supervisors to discuss our progress and the initial ideas we have been exploring. This was an insightful meeting as the supervisors not only answered our questions on our issues with Strauss, but Jorge also helped us realise we have the freedom to interpret our data as creatively as we desire. We collectively felt they had given us the tools to move forward with our project, as well as outlined some ideas we could explore, such as using speakers to create an experience of our data through vibrations through the floor, and the application of pure data to support the sonification.

• On Thursday, we managed to build off and apply the advice from our supervisors, successfully solving our coding problems by resampling the data and applying a filter cut-off to best emphasise the change in the data. We also discussed how to approach the final output of our sonification, collectively developing the idea of having separated speakers vibrating two data sets across the floor, coming into a collision to represent the collision of the black holes. Similarly, we considered the idea that a visual aid projected across the floor would support the auditory experience.

• On Friday, we explored the sonification through the music programme Ableton Live. We converted the WAV file into a MIDI file and started to explore how the different musical effects, such as volume, panning, reverb and distortion devices, manipulated the interpretation of the data. Most noticeably, we imputed synthetic instrumental sounds onto the data and were intrigued by how the change in timbre made us automatically perceive the data in a more musical form than it had been when it was sonified by Strauss.

Black Hole Sonification:

After coming together on Tuesday to discuss our findings from our independent study day, we decided to explore the idea of sonifying two black holes colliding.

To begin this process, we obtained some gravitational wave data and plotted the graph that you can see below:

We then, after some issues with coding, mapped pitch to the frequency values of the graph to create a successful sonification of the data.

We ran into a few problems with the coding due to the amount of data that was available, so we tried several methods to adjust the material, including our attempt to sonify the original image of the data, as seen below. Ultimately, after implementing the suggestions from our supervisors, we managed to input the data into a more suitable form by resampling the data and applying a low-frequency filter cutoff to aid in emphasising the intense change in the data. This sonification can be heard below:

We also explored Oliver’s use of his synthesiser, using a range of techniques and effects to investigate the musical potential of sound created through data. Here are some of his explorations below:

After we had successfully sonified the data in Strauss, we began to explore with it in Ableton Live. We thought this software would give us a wider range of effects and a more interpretive tactile approach to manipulating the data than Strauss. We used a range of effects with a focus on emphasizing the original data but merging it with a creative musical element through using a synthesised instrument and layering the data in contrasting ways. The use of Ableton Live gave us more creative freedom with the data and was useful in showing us the potential of the data that we couldn’t see whilst it was in Strauss. Here is our first creative modification of the data in Ableton Live:

Week 2: Interdisciplinary Teamwork

Below is a summary of how we felt our teamworking skills have developed and been challenged across week 2, aided by some student quotes.

This week we continued to develop and strengthen our rhythm as a team in this project. We have continued to work well together, with everyone showing enthusiasm and respect for the project through individual work, idea creation, and collaborative decision making.

Through everyone’s interest in the project, we managed to find a topic that everyone was excited to explore, which led to more idea creation as well as motivation.

However, something all students found ‘challenging’ and ‘frustrating’ throughout this week was dealing with our technical issues with the coding. We found that a trial-and-error attitude and positive mindset kept the group working to find a solution without feeling dejected by a lack of quick progress. Thanks to our resilience, we managed to work out the problem, which felt ‘like a big achievement’ after a few days of working on it.

One change that was unintentionally implemented this week was that on Thursday, instead of notesbooks each student brought an individual laptop to the meeting. Despite being a coincidence, this resulted in a more productive meeting as each student could work on their own research or exploration related to the project, whilst still being able to communicate with the other students on the main task at hand. This is something that would be useful to employ for the remainder of the week as it increases productivity but also team spirit, as each member can contribute to group discussions, but also work independently when their expertise is not the focus of the session.

One feature of our interdisciplinary group that was carried over from last week was the students’ struggle to understand certain aspects of each other’s expertise. This was most apparent from the Humanities students at the beginning of the week, as they felt ‘useless’ and ‘frustrated’ over their lack of understanding of coding elements and therefore minimal contribution to solving the coding issues. However, theses feelings shifted to the Physics students on Friday when they felt ‘a little out of their depth’ when confronted with unfamiliar music software.

However, both sets of students highlighted that they felt ‘respected’ and ‘supported throughout the week and expressed that they helped one another understand the other’s expertise, so the group was always on the same page. This sharing of information highlighted once again the benefit of this being an interdisciplinary project, as we have all expressed multiple times across the week that we were glad that we had different expertise and how we would not have been able to complete the project without our varied set of skills.

Aims for Week 3

After our session on Friday, when we creatively worked with the data in Ableton Live, group members felt they were in a ‘good position’ and felt ‘excited’ to continue experimenting with ‘different interpretations’ and ideas, already ‘thinking about how we can further develop the basis we created’ on Friday.

Some avenues we are going to explore are: placing speakers in such a way that their sounds intersect, mirroring the experience of the collision sonically as well as working with panning techniques and potential sources for visual aids.