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Lesson 3- Narrativizing the Data

Lesson Objectives

  • Create a scoring framework that transforms data into a narrative form, using data points as characters to highlight conflicts and tensions.
  • Select sonification tools that align with the research narrative, understanding the impact of musical elements on data interpretation.
  • Manipulate musical elements such as instrument choice, volume, and tempo to enhance the storytelling aspect of sonification.
  • Prepare sonifications for public presentation, using accessible formats and detailed methodological explanations to aid understanding and replication.
  • Explore various platforms for sharing sonifications, ensuring they are accessible to a broad audience including academicians and the public.

The Scoring Framework

When developing a scoring framework, it may be helpful to think about your sonification as a story. Sonification is one way you can narrativize your data to a wider audience, as well as create an opportunity for individuals from different backgrounds or with skill-sets other than your own to engage with your research.

  • Consider what kind of story your research tells. Most stories revolve around tension or conflict: where do your data diverge? What values stand out the most? What values are most important for your listener to consider?

  • Depending on the context of your research, it may be helpful to think of your data as characters in a story. The categories with the most variation (i.e, the largest scale) will likely become the most prominent characters in your sonification, and can create tension in your story.

Once you’ve chosen a tool to help you sonify your data (more on that in Lesson 4), you’ll be able to realize your scaled data as a range of instruments. Carefully aligning instruments with your categories can help reinforce the narrative to your listeners:

  • For example, a church organ will likely stand out more than a double bass.

  • As you experiment, adjust the volume of certain tracks or categories of data to help those values become more or less pronounced to your listener.

After they are complete, consider how you will share your sonifications. Here are a few options:

  • Upload to a public-facing website that showcases your research with the broader public

  • Share at a conference with colleagues

  • Present on a platform like YouTube or SoundCloud

You will likely want to include text alongside the sonifications to help contextualize the sonification and its representation of your research. It may be helpful to break down how and why you developed your scoring framework in the way that you did. Providing this information can also help other researchers replicate your sonification.