Assigned Date: Monday, Mar. 30, 2020
Due Date: Monday, Apr. 6
Due Time: 30 mins before class
This is a pair-programming assignment (i.e., you may work with one partner). You may discuss the assignment only with your partner or the instructor.
Contents
Assignment
This assignment focuses on data sonification, i.e., converting complex numerical data to sounds, so that the underlying patterns can be better perceived, understood, and/or appreciated.
According to Scaletti [1],
[t]he idea of representing data in sound is an ancient one. For the ancient Greeks music was not an art-for-art’s sake, practiced in a vacuum, but a manifestation of the same ratios and relationships as those found in geometry or in the positions and behaviors of the planets.
Data Sonification
According to Wikipedia [2],
Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data.[1] Auditory perception has advantages in temporal, spatial, amplitude, and frequency resolution that open possibilities as an alternative or complement to visualization techniques.
For example, the rate of clicking of a Geiger counter conveys the level of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the device.
Details
Write a Jython program that sonifies some interesting data you find on the Internet. Examples include:
- temperatures over time (e.g., for a city, country, etc.),
- planetary or astronomical data,
- financial data,
- geographical data (e.g., city sizes, population of countries, etc.),
- oceanographic or marine biology data,
- census data, etc.
The data you select must have some inherent interest (for example, temperatures over time might inform the controversy over global warming, or not…). There should be something worth observing in your data. Feel free to ask, if unsure.
You must explain your reasoning for selecting these data, in your program’s header documentation (see documentation section below).
You should try to design a sonification worth listening to (if not aesthetically pleasing).
You may use MIDI or AudioSamples (or both).
Finally, you must submit your sonification design as a separate image (e.g., see Fig. 7.1 in textbook).
Notes:
- Make your program do all the necessary calculations. In other words, your program should include the formula that generates each pitch. Make your program do all the work (as opposed to you doing some of the calculations (e.g., in the Python interpreter, or via a calculator) and then using the numeric results in the program).
- Your piece should last between 1 to 3 mins approximately. A little longer is OK, especially if your sonification is engaging / interesting.
- Design, design, design.
- Think…
- Ask questions…
- Draw.
- Experiment with different types of data.
- Play with different sonification ideas.
- You should perform your piece by pressing Run once (i.e., no Live Coding for this assignment).
Program Documentation
Provide usual header documentation describing the performance generated by this program via Live Coding.
Follow the documentation instructions from Homework 2.
Remember, the Golden Rule of Style: “A program should be as easy for a human being to read and understand as it is for a computer to execute.” Your code should have general comments at the top, which explain what the program does. You should comment all variables, obscure statements, and blocks of code.
Follow the textbook examples on how to write comments.
Your code should be organized well, so it is easy to read and understand.
Submissions
Upload everything that follows on OAKS:
- Your program file – make sure you give it a meaningful name, e.g., treeDataSonification.py, or honeyBeeFeedingPatternSonification.py
- Your sonification design (as a PNG, JPG, or PDF file).
- Upload any audio files necessary (if using AudioSamples) – I should be able to download everything in one folder and run your program successfully, to hear your sonification.
And, as usual… be ready to perform it in class.
Grading
Your grade will be based on how well you followed the above instructions, and the depth/quality/thoughtfulness of your work.
References
- Quote from Carla Scaletti, “Sonification – An Ancient Idea Made Feasible by New Technology”, ACM SIGRAPH ’93 – Course Notes 81, Aug. 1993, p. 4.2.
- Sonification, Wikipedia entry, accessed Mar. 31. 2, 2020.