New Sonification Work, Awards, and Immersive Experiences
Hello friends,
We're Duncan and Miriam, and together we're Loud Numbers - a data sonification studio. It's been a while since you last heard from us, but we've been hard at work on a bunch of different projects, which you can read about below.
A quick reminder: you're getting this email because you signed up for our newsletter, probably at loudnumbers.net, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.
New Loud Numbers Episode
Exciting news! In January, we'll be releasing a new episode of the Loud Numbers podcast! The episode will centre on Canada's record-breaking wildfire season, featuring eyewitness testimony. It was created in partnership with the fantastic Data is Plural podcast, which has just published its own episode on the subject - interviewing Bruce Macnab, head of Canada's Wildland Fire Information System. Go give that a listen.
Unfortunately, this new Loud Numbers episode doesn't mark the start of a new series for us - it's a one-off between-series release, like how Oasis' Whatever and Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart never appeared on an album. But we'd love to do a second series, so maybe it'll happen one day soon? In the meantime, go subscribe in your favourite podcast client - search for "Loud Numbers".
Awards and Awards
We've been collaborating with the folks behind the Data Sonification Archive on the Data Sonification Awards - an annual awards scheme that we're hoping to launch in 2024. There'll be three categories - art, communication and analysis, and we're in the process of convening expert committees in each category to decide on judging criteria. Sign up to the awards mailing list if you'd like to hear when submissions open.
Speaking of awards, we've also been given a few! Duncan won Impactful Community Leader at the 2023 Information is Beautiful Awards for his work bringing together the sonification community. And Miriam's Bristol Burning sonification was shortlisted in the "unusual" category. Miriam also gave a talk about Bristol Burning in the "day of inspiration" that preceded the awards. You can find that talk, along with all of the other public-facing talks we've done, on our website.
Finally, our work - both individually and collectively - has been featured in Alli Torban's new book, Chart Spark. There's a whole page on our "End of the Road" sonification, which talks up the way you can combine two familiar things to create something new. The rest of the book is all about strategies to harness creativity in data communication, and it's excellent.
Immersive Experiences
One thing we're really interested in right now is putting together immersive experiences in partnership with events companies. We recently opened Live Union's recent London breakfast event on audience immersion by turning search data into sound. You can see a video over on LinkedIn or Instagram.
To make this piece, we mapped Google Trends data for the phrase 'immersive experience' over five years to a filter on a generative musical track. As the number of searches grows over time, the filter rises and the music gets louder and brighter. (Like the future of immersive experiences.)
It was a lot of fun to work on, and hearing (and seeing) it played in the unique space of Soho's Underbelly Boulevard was really special. Thanks to Jez Paxman, Conor Howell-Harte, and everyone at LiveUnion for organising such a great event! If you'd like to chat with us about immersive experiences, just hit reply.
Live Sonification
The other big thing that we're increasingly interested in exploring is what sonification looks like in a live performance context. Duncan participated in a performance of Jamie Perera's Oil, Coal & Gas for Three Cellos sonification at ICAD2023 in Sweden, and since then he's been exploring what it means to perform sonifications live - where do they sit on a scale from "unexplained sound art" to "full-on PowerPoint presentation"?
Elsewhere in Sonification
This is a short round-up of sonification news, links, and other stuff that's caught our eye in the last few months.
- DataSonifyer is looking like an excellent replacement for the increasingly-difficult-to-access TwoTone.io. Just as easy to use, and arguably more capable. Go give it a try.
- ChucK is a strongly-timed programming language for interactive sound synthesis and music creation.
- "High" and "low" pitch are universal, right? Wrong.
- Ripple Effect is sonifying water quality in Arizona
- A collection of Max for Live devices that turn data into effects, modulation signals, audio, and more.
- Recenturies uses patterns from climate data to control the sounds, rhythms, and emotional arc of a musical piece.
- Max Graze is working on a sonification of fermentation microorganisms.
- Weekly sonifications of stock market data on YouTube
- Cotter Koopman performing a forest fires sonification live, using the Loud Numbers VCV Rack module!
- Reef Elegy is a sonification of Hawaii's coral bleaching
- Jamie Perera sonifying clouds using orchestral wind instruments for the European Space Agency
If you've done something cool then let us know about it by hitting reply and we'll include it in our next issue.
We'll be back in touch again early next year with another update - probably when the new episode is out. In the meantime, drop us an email if you have anything you'd like to chat about!
- Duncan and Miriam