Towards a definition of Autographic Sonifications: Listening as an act of knowledge

Abstract

In recent years, sonification as a method to analyze, represent and communicate data through sound has grown significantly showing a diversity of purposes, users, and topics. In data journalism, education, art, or data monitoring, sound is used to both support and engage experts, researchers, and the general public with a broad range of scientific and social phenomena. As the field is moving towards shared design and evaluation processes, new practices seem to emerge that put the listener at the center. By analyzing recent cases from the Data Sonification Archive, the paper proposes a definition of autographic sonification as a self-encoding process in which the act of listening becomes central to making sense of complex phenomena.