April 8th, 2024 marked an exciting astronomical event\u2014a total solar eclipse in North America. Viewers of this rare phenomenon could experience a darkening of the sky and a quieting of the environment caused by the moon obstructing the sun’s light. The full expression of the eclipse could be witnessed along the path of totality, which ran across North America from Texas to Maine. But how might those unable to view it experience this cultural moment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I created an audio-visual map containing a guided data sonification of the eclipse’s path of totality. Data sonification is the practice of representing data through sound. As a data scientist, information designer, and audio enthusiast, I have found data sonification to be an exciting realm for representing data engagingly and creatively. This project was in support of the Georgia Tech Sonification Lab’s endeavor to create accessibility resources<\/a> for the total solar eclipse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data sonification has enormous potential in information communication and is especially beneficial to the data viz community in two significant ways. First, expressing data in the form of audio makes data accessible to people who are visually impaired or blind. There is a heavy reliance on visualization in data analysis and educational storytelling, but by integrating sonification into these realms, data can be consumed without reliance on sight. Second, data sonification is beneficial for engagement, sparking curiosity, and stirring emotion within someone. A sound composition may have the power to activate a poignant reaction more than a static data visualization can, just as hearing a powerful speech may stir more emotion than reading it on a page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This project involved several phases and allowed me to practice an iterative design process. I was able to explore how I wanted to convey the geographical movement of the eclipse\u2019s presence through sound and visualization. I brainstormed with hand-drawn sketches; I used R to wrangle the data; I worked on the sound design in Logic Pro X; and I created the visual animation components with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects. This project definitely challenged me creatively and technically!<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you convey geographical movement in the form of audio? One way is to associate latitude with pitch, and longitude with stereo image. As a data point moves south to north, the listener will hear a change from low-frequency to high-frequency notes. As a data point moves west to east, the listener will hear a “panning” effect from left to right in their speakers or headphones. I felt that this would be an intuitive approach to expressing the path of totality through sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To determine the range of notes I would use, I began with the minimum and maximum note values. I imagined the United States framed by a bounding rectangle, with \u201cextreme coordinates\u201d in each corner. Then, I mapped binned groups of latitude values to notes in the G major scale, where the northernmost coordinate matched with the highest note and the southernmost coordinate matched with the lowest note. I also wanted to sonically capture major cities along the route of totality with brief audio flourishes, as well as a quietly spoken announcement of the city name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next step would be to explore how to layer these sonic components together into a single composition. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe benefits of data sonification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The process<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Mapping geography to sound<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n