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"In the spring of 2011, Wanda L. Diaz Merced spent time at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, doing research for her doctoral dissertation at Glasgow University, Scotland. Wanda, who is blind, has been interested in sonification as a data analysis tool: how sonification might help scientists, even those who can see, detect patterns in large amounts of seemingly random astrophysical data. She used sonified x-ray data from EX Hydrae that have been collected by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. One day Gerhard Sonnert gave Wanda some advice on her research and, on the way out of her office, he noticed a ream of sheets on which sonified x-ray data were printed out in musical notation. Being a bass player, he immediately recognized that the data showed a particular Afro-Cuban rhythm called clave. It occurred to him that, in addition to being a scientific tool, sonification might have an artistic application. Gerhard asked his cousin Volkmar Studtrucker, a musician and composer, to write songs from the EX Hydrae material. Volkmar created nine musical pieces, in a variety of musical styles, which they played and recorded in a trio (Volkmar Studtrucker, piano; Gerhard Sonnert, bass; and Hans-Peter Albrecht, drums)."

"In the spring of 2011, Wanda L. Diaz Merced spent time at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, doing research for her doctoral dissertation at Glasgow University, Scotland. Wanda, who is blind, has been interested in sonification as a data analysis tool: how sonification might help scientists, even those who can see, detect patterns in large amounts of seemingly random astrophysical data. She used sonified x-ray data from EX Hydrae that have been collected by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. One day Gerhard Sonnert gave Wanda some advice on her research and, on the way out of her office, he noticed a ream of sheets on which sonified x-ray data were printed out in musical notation. Being a bass player, he immediately recognized that the data showed a particular Afro-Cuban rhythm called clave. It occurred to him that, in addition to being a scientific tool, sonification might have an artistic application. Gerhard asked his cousin Volkmar Studtrucker, a musician and composer, to write songs from the EX Hydrae material. Volkmar created nine musical pieces, in a variety of musical styles, which they played and recorded in a trio (Volkmar Studtrucker, piano; Gerhard Sonnert, bass; and Hans-Peter Albrecht, drums)."

"This curated collection is part of a broader research endeavor in which data, sonification and design converge to explore the potential of sound in complementing other modes of representation and broadening the publics of data. With visualization still being one of the prominent forms of data transformation, we believe that sound can both enrich the experience of data and build new publics."

"With this website I aim to give an overview of sonification and auditory display in general, and of my research and publications in particular."

"Sonification is the representation of data with sound and Auditory Display is the use of audio to present information to a listener. In certain contexts and for certain types of data sound can be an effective means of representation and communication. "

"VOSIS is a synthesizer that creates complex wavetables by scanning and filtering greyscale pixel data from images, videos, or live camera input. The audification and filtering of pixel luminance correlates visual shape to sound timbre. Scan rate in terms of octave, interval, and scale allows for use as a musical instrument. Thus, VOSIS is a tool for image sonification, sound design, and visual music composition."

"Welcome to the final installment of Hearing the UnHeard, Sounding Out!'s series on what we don't hear and how this unheard world affects us. The series started out with my post on hearing, large and small, continued with a piece by China Blue on the sounds of catastrophic impacts, and Milton Garcés' piece on the infrasonic world of volcanoes. To cap it all off, we introduce The Sounds of Science by professor, cellist and interactive media expert, Margaret Schedel."

"Two Trains: Sonification of Income Inequality on the NYC Subway by Data-Driven DJ aka Brian Foo: The goal of this song is to emulate a ride on the New York City Subway's 2 Train through three boroughs: Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. At any given time, the quantity and dynamics of the song's instruments correspond to the median household income of that area. For example, as you pass through a wealthier area such as the Financial District, the instruments you hear in the song will increase in quantity, volume, and force. Stylistically, I want the song to exhibit the energy and orderly chaos of the NYC subway system itself. "

An example of data sonified: "Did you ever wonder what the history of all life sounds like? Well this sonified data set gives you a sense of the sound of all the major extinctions since the beginning of life (well, about 550 million years). There is also a pseudo-tutorial on what kinds of steps you'll need to do to be able to make this sort of thing yourself, if you'd like to play with a little Python!"

Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, the phonautograph was conceived as a " ... investigating the development of a cluster of practices called "sonification,"

"The "Sonògraf" is an electronic audiovisual instrument. Thought as a music learning tool for primary schools, it allows the drawing to be transformed into music, turning gestural strokes and geometric figures into electronic sounds. A set of buttons and potentiometers allow live manipulation of the "sonification" characteristics of the drawing, making it possible to speed up, slow down or pause the resulting music, as well as decide its scales and tonalities."

"They're actually hearing the wave that traveled through the rock all the way to the Earth's surface," says William Ellsworth, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "When a fault slips suddenly underground, it radiates two different kinds of seismic waves."

"Thousands of species of fireflies all blink in different patterns, not only blinking in rhythms but simultaneously performing specific flight choreographies. The timing and pattern of their flashes are unique to each species. In Bioluminescence, I translated firefly behavior data from Prof. James E. Lloyd's Studies on the Flash Communication Systems of Photinus Fireflies into an orchestral piece. Rhythmic patterns of light and insect movement provide the material for both melodic and rhythmic figures. In biology, bioluminescence is the ability of living things to produce light through biochemical processes. Most bioluminescent organisms are found in the sea. The group of marine bioluminescent organisms includes fish, bacteria, and jellyfish. Some bioluminescent organisms, including fireflies and fungi, are found on land. Bioluminescence is used by creatures to make prey, defend themselves against predators, find mates, as well as for other vital activities. Recent studies show that the number of fireflies is declining. Light pollution from human-generated light disrupts insect courtship behavior because it can only occur in the dark. The artificial extension of daylight into the night disrupts the fireflies' dark-light cycles and thus their biological behavior."

"Thought to be lost for years, this playful film combines abstract geometry and textures to create a visible soundtrack, and even features the fingerprints of the director himself."

"Matthew Rubery discusses the Optophone as part of the 'How We Read: A Sensory History of Books for Blind People' exhibition. For more information see: http://www.howweread.co.uk."

"I wondered why an artist like Brian would be interested in matters of spacetime and relativity. The more I got to know Brian, I knew it wasn't a time filler, or for his health. What I was about to discover during my two years in London was that Brian was something I've come to call a "sound cosmologist." He was investigating the structure of the universe, not inspired by music, but with music."

"The 10-second recording of a singer crooning the folk song "Au Clair de la Lune" was discovered earlier this month in an archive in Paris by a group of American audio historians. It was made, the researchers say, on April 9, 1860, on a phonautograph, a machine designed to record sounds visually, not to play them back. But the phonautograph recording, or phonautogram, was made playable — converted from squiggles on paper to sound — by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif."

"This webpage contains earthquake "sounds" created from seismic recordings around the world generated by the 2011/03/11 Mw9.0 Tohoku, Japan earthquake. They provide a unique way for us to listen to the vibration of the Earth that is otherwise inaudible to us, and to decipher the complicated earthquake physics and triggering processes. "

"Meet the "motion microscope," a video-processing tool that plays up tiny changes in motion and color impossible to see with the naked eye. Video researcher Michael Rubinstein plays us clip after jaw-dropping clip showing how this tech can track an individual's pulse and heartbeat simply from a piece of footage. Watch him re-create a conversation by amplifying the movements from sound waves bouncing off a bag of chips. The wow-inspiring and sinister applications of this tech you have to see to believe."

"How to create music with simple rules and a loop pedal. A mix of music, maths, and molecular dynamics."