An Ear to the Sky: Intuitive Exploration & Discovery in Astronomical Data using Sonification
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Portsmouth
Department Name: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation
Abstract
The recent decades of astronomy has seen an ever more detailed physical picture of our Universe emerge, with the enhanced sophistication of observations and physical models. However, the growing detail and volume of data presents its own problems; human data exploration can become overwhelming, despite its central role in historical scientific discovery. Machine-learning tools have arisen to help, but human intuition for the data remains key to their development and interpretation. This problem afflicts how we interface with data at all levels, from high-level research, to presenting data to the public. What's more, the visual bias of data presentation excludes those with visual impairments, likely contributing to a strong underrepresentation of Visually Impaired (VI) researchers in the field. For this program we propose development of novel tools and techniques for 'sonification' (encoding data into sound) to provide a unique perspective on astronomical data sets, in particular the STRAUSS code (Sonification Tools and Resources for Analysis Using Sound Synthesis).
This free and open source python library uses an object-oriented and abstracted approach to allow uses to 'sonify' their own data, analogous to how a plotting library can be used for visualisation. STRAUSS will be used to sonify light spectra for classification, and as the basis for a novel IFU explorer, allowing users to hear the third frequency axis as they explore the 2D-projected spatial axes. We will also explore using STRAUSS to monitor high-volume data and as a way to present data to the public via a unique planetarium & VR show. Together, we intend to partner with commercial firms interested in human curation and exploration of big-data, as well as accessibility for a more inclusive society. Through commercial support we hope to maximise the broad societal and interdisciplinary benefits we perceive, establishing new intuition and accessibility for complex data in the global community.
This free and open source python library uses an object-oriented and abstracted approach to allow uses to 'sonify' their own data, analogous to how a plotting library can be used for visualisation. STRAUSS will be used to sonify light spectra for classification, and as the basis for a novel IFU explorer, allowing users to hear the third frequency axis as they explore the 2D-projected spatial axes. We will also explore using STRAUSS to monitor high-volume data and as a way to present data to the public via a unique planetarium & VR show. Together, we intend to partner with commercial firms interested in human curation and exploration of big-data, as well as accessibility for a more inclusive society. Through commercial support we hope to maximise the broad societal and interdisciplinary benefits we perceive, establishing new intuition and accessibility for complex data in the global community.
Publications
Trayford J
(2023)
Inspecting spectra with sound: proof-of-concept and extension to datacubes
in RAS Techniques and Instruments
Trayford J
(2023)
Introducing strauss: A Flexible Sonification Python Package
| Title | Hearing Black Hole Winds |
| Description | This is a press-release audio-visual associated with the article: "Inspecting spectra with sound: proof-of-concept & extension to datacubes", J. Trayford, C.M. Harrison, R.C. Hinz, M. Kavanagh Blatt, S. Dougherty, and A. Girdhar, RASTI, 2, 387 (2023), The original press release is here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2023/06/sonification/ The audio-visual is designed to show how using a new technique, astronomers can now use their ears to understand how the gas is moving inside galaxies. In this case we are listening to a specific frequency emitted by Hydrogen, which is shifted by the high-speed motion of the gas. In the central parts the sound is very "windy", due to a powerful supermassive black hole causing a strong wind. The rest of the gas is rotating, which sounds like higher notes for the parts moving away from and lower notes for the parts moving towards us. The sonification was produced using the code 'STRAUSS' (Trayford & Harrison, 28th Proceedings of the International Community of Auditory Displays (ICAD2023), p249-256, 2023), which is available on github: https://github.com/james-trayford/strauss The specific technique used is described in Trayford et al., RASTI, 2, 387 (2023). |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| URL | https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/media/Hearing_Black_Hole_Winds/28037885 |
| Title | Infinity in Our Hands |
| Description | Collaboration with artists for an exhibit at the Hirshhorn Gallery (Smithsonian) and Soundscene festival combining sonification and tactile elements. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Building an informal collaboration and experience collaborating with artists, engaging and collecting feedback from members of the public. |
| URL | https://www.lizwaughmcmanus.co.uk/infinity-in-our-hands |
| Title | Sonification of Earth's Rotation (Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System) |
| Description | This is a sonification to represent the sunlight bouncing off the spinning Earth as it spins. The sound changes timbre as the Sun passes over water (a "brighter" sound) or land (a "darker" sound). For this, we used data of the covering fraction of water as a function of longitude from the GEBCO 2021 bathymetry*.The sonification was produced using the code 'STRAUSS' (Trayford & Harrison, 28th Proceedings of the International Community of Auditory Displays (ICAD2023), p249-256, 2023), which is available on github: https://github.com/james-trayford/strauss This was created for the show Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System. A show about the Solar System that aims to be accessible to audiences irrespective of their level of vision. A description of how it was produced is presented in Harrison et al. 2022, Astronomy & Geophysics, Volume 63, Issue 2, Pages 2.38-2.40. Project website: www.audiouniverse.org. Credit: J. Trayford (Earth visuals from Google Earth). * Data obtained from GEBCO Compilation Group, 2021, "GEBCO 2021 Grid", (doi:10.5285/c6612cbe-50b3-0cff-e053-6c86abc09f8f). |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Online engagement (>1700 views) |
| URL | https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/media/Sonification_of_Earth_s_Rotation_Audio_Universe_Tour_of_the_So... |
| Title | Sonification of Growing Black Hole |
| Description | We present a sonification of time series data of X-rays and visible light from the black hole system MAXI J1820+070, during a rapid accretion episode in 2018. We used the open source Python package STRAUSS to produce the sonification (Trayford and Harrison 2023). This sonification is designed to represent a complex physical process to the general public in a way that is intuitive and accessible. Sound is used to simultaneously represent the different wavelengths by using different timbres and pitches of synthesised sounds, and by using stereo panning. The visible data can be heard to the listener's left, with each of five different observed bands assigned a separate pitch. The X-ray data is heard to the right and is represented by a 'windy' white noise sound. Both the pitched and the noisy sounds increase in intensity (controlled by varying a filter cutoff frequency) with increasing visible and X-ray brightness, respectively. This sonification is designed as a public engagement piece, with a secondary goal of making an accessible representation of the data for users with who need, or prefer, non-visual methods of communication. The sonification is combined with an animation, which is an artistic impression of the same data. This animation was created by John Paice and collaborators, using data obtained and analysed for a scientific publication (Paice et al. 2019). In the attached article, we describe the methods used to create this sonification, as well as the design rationale. We release the code used to make the sonification alongside the article.Here we release: 1. An article (or README), explaining how the audio-visual was produced: Growing_Black_Hole_Sonification.pdf 2. The audio file of the resulting sonification: black_hole_sonification.wav3. The audio-visual file: black_hole_animation.mp44. A zip file containing the script (in the form of a Python Jupyter notebook) that was used to produce the sonification. In this zip file, there is: 4a. The code to make the sonification: Black_Hole_Sonification/STRAUSS_black_hole_animation.ipynb 4b. The six base sound samples that were manipulated (within the code) to create the sonification: Black_Hole_Sonification/base_sounds/xray_base_sound.wavBlack_Hole_Sonification/base_sounds/u_base_sound.wav Black_Hole_Sonification/base_sounds/g_base_sound.wav Black_Hole_Sonification/base_sounds/r_base_sound.wav Black_Hole_Sonification/base_sounds/i_base_sound.wav Black_Hole_Sonification/base_sounds/z_base_sound.wav |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| URL | https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/media/Sonification_of_Growing_Black_Hole/28044524 |
| Title | Sonification of Warming Stripes |
| Description | We present a sonification of the temperature anomalies (deviations from an average, reference value) on the Earth's near-surface over the period 1930-2024. The sonification is combined with the famous "Warming Stripes" visualisation to create an animated audio-visual. Similarly to the visualisation, the sonification is designed to create a sense of urgency and an appreciation of the gravity of the situation of ever-increasing temperatures. A synthetic mix of sounds is used, which is modified so that with increasing temperature the sound appears to increase in intensity (by modifying a filter cut-off frequency and the amplitude) and increase in harmonic tension (by modifying relative pitches). To represent the passage of time, there's an additional 'tick' for each year of the data, which also could be interpreted as an ominous countdown to disaster. It is intended as a data journalism piece for general public audiences, with a secondary goal of making an accessible representation of the "Warming Stripes" for those with sight loss. The sonification was produced using the STRAUSS sonification Python package. Here we release: 1. An article (or README), explaining how the audio-visual was produced: Sonification_Warming_Stripes.pdf 2. The audio file of the resulting sonification: warming_stripes.wav 3. The audio-visual file: warming_stripes.mp4 4. A zip file containing all of the scripts (in the form of Python Jupyter notebooks) that were used to produce the sonification, and the plots for the explanation article (Sonification Warming Stripes.pdf). In this zip file, there is: 4a. The code to make the sonification and visual frames of the audio-visual: Warming_Stripes_Sonification/STRAUSS_Stripes.ipynb 4b. The data used to create the sonification within the code: Warming_Stripes_Sonification/data/HadCRUT.5.0.2.0.analysis.summary_series.global.annual.txt4c. The base sound samples that were manipulated (within the code) to create the sonification: Warming_Stripes_Sonification/samples/gentleSound_a4.wav and Warming_Stripes_Sonification/samples/powerfulSound_bb1.wav 4d. The code used to make the spectrogram figures shown in Sonification_Warming_Stripes.pdf: Warming_Stripes_Spectrogram/Spectrograms.ipynb 4e. Mono versions of the three audio files required to make the spectrograms (created by merging the original stereo files): Warming_Stripes_Spectrogram/warming_stripes_audio_mono.wav and Warming_Stripes_Spectrogram/gentleSound_a4_mono.wav and Warming_Stripes_Spectrogram/powerfulSound_bb1_mono.wav. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| URL | https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/media/Sonification_of_Warming_Stripes/28030463 |
| Title | Sonification of Warming Stripes |
| Description | We present a sonification of the temperature anomalies (deviations from an average, reference value) on the Earth's near-surface over the period 1930-2024. The sonification is combined with the famous "Warming Stripes" visualisation to create an animated audio-visual. Similarly to the visualisation, the sonification is designed to create a sense of urgency and an appreciation of the gravity of the situation of ever-increasing temperatures. A synthetic mix of sounds is used, which is modified so that with increasing temperature the sound appears to increase in intensity (by modifying a filter cut-off frequency and the amplitude) and increase in harmonic tension (by modifying relative pitches). To represent the passage of time, there's an additional 'tick' for each year of the data, which also could be interpreted as an ominous countdown to disaster. It is intended as a data journalism piece for general public audiences, with a secondary goal of making an accessible representation of the "Warming Stripes" for those with sight loss. The sonification was produced using the STRAUSS sonification Python package.Here we release: 1. An article (or README), explaining how the audio-visual was produced: Sonification_Warming_Stripes.pdf 2. The audio file of the resulting sonification: warming_stripes.wav 3. The audio-visual file: warming_stripes.mp4 4. A zip file containing all of the scripts (in the form of Python Jupyter notebooks) that were used to produce the sonification, and the plots for the explanation article (Sonification Warming Stripes.pdf). In this zip file, there is: 4a. The code to make the sonification and visual frames of the audio-visual: Warming_Stripes_Sonification/STRAUSS_Stripes.ipynb 4b. The data used to create the sonification within the code: Warming_Stripes_Sonification/data/HadCRUT.5.0.2.0.analysis.summary_series.global.annual.txt4c. The base sound samples that were manipulated (within the code) to create the sonification: Warming_Stripes_Sonification/samples/gentleSound_a4.wav and Warming_Stripes_Sonification/samples/powerfulSound_bb1.wav 4d. The code used to make the spectrogram figures shown in Sonification_Warming_Stripes.pdf: Warming_Stripes_Spectrogram/Spectrograms.ipynb 4e. Mono versions of the three audio files required to make the spectrograms (created by merging the original stereo files): Warming_Stripes_Spectrogram/warming_stripes_audio_mono.wav and Warming_Stripes_Spectrogram/gentleSound_a4_mono.wav and Warming_Stripes_Spectrogram/powerfulSound_bb1_mono.wav. Version Notes - Version 2 (21/12/24): Fixed an issue with panning the sounds. In Version 1 all sounds were panned, whilst in Version 2 only the tick sound in panned. All codes and outputs corrected, accordingly. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | Online engagement (>4000 views) and collaboration with field experts |
| URL | https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/media/Sonification_of_Warming_Stripes/28030463/2 |
| Description | Audio Universe |
| Organisation | Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Audio Universe is a collective of astronomers interested in going beyond the visual means we tend to rely on to communicate astrophysical data and concepts, and explore sound as an alternative medium. Audio Universe provides tools and resource for outreach and education in particular. As well as focussing accessibility for those who may be blind or visually impaired (BVI) or with non-visual learning styles, we make all our resources appeal to a general audience as a means of integrating auditory methods into astronomy education and outreach. The Ear to the Sky team (PI Trayford) facilitated Audio Universe through development of the STRAUSS code, representing the underlying engine of Audio Universe. This is used to generate the sonifications used in all Audio Universe activities. Dr James Trayford is the technical lead for the Audio Universe, and involved in the design and conception stages of Audio Universe materials Dr Nic Bonne has provided accessibility consultancy on Audio Universe materials and products throughout, as well as involvement in the design and conception stages of Audio Universe materials |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System planetarium show was directed by Dr Chris Harrison (Newcastle), funded by the Spark award he led. He has also led evaluation of Audio Universe outputs. Chris founded and leads the Audio Universe collaboration. Dr Anita Zanella and Dr Enrique Perez-Montero have handled dissemination and delivery of the planetarium show in Italian and Spanish languages, respectively Dr Vicky Fawcett has lead and delivered Audio Universe outreach activities in the UK |
| Impact | - The Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System Planetarium Show - Audio Universe: VR - Audio Universe Educational Workshops |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Audio Universe |
| Organisation | National Institute for Astrophysics |
| Department | Padova Observatory |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The Audio Universe is a collective of astronomers interested in going beyond the visual means we tend to rely on to communicate astrophysical data and concepts, and explore sound as an alternative medium. Audio Universe provides tools and resource for outreach and education in particular. As well as focussing accessibility for those who may be blind or visually impaired (BVI) or with non-visual learning styles, we make all our resources appeal to a general audience as a means of integrating auditory methods into astronomy education and outreach. The Ear to the Sky team (PI Trayford) facilitated Audio Universe through development of the STRAUSS code, representing the underlying engine of Audio Universe. This is used to generate the sonifications used in all Audio Universe activities. Dr James Trayford is the technical lead for the Audio Universe, and involved in the design and conception stages of Audio Universe materials Dr Nic Bonne has provided accessibility consultancy on Audio Universe materials and products throughout, as well as involvement in the design and conception stages of Audio Universe materials |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System planetarium show was directed by Dr Chris Harrison (Newcastle), funded by the Spark award he led. He has also led evaluation of Audio Universe outputs. Chris founded and leads the Audio Universe collaboration. Dr Anita Zanella and Dr Enrique Perez-Montero have handled dissemination and delivery of the planetarium show in Italian and Spanish languages, respectively Dr Vicky Fawcett has lead and delivered Audio Universe outreach activities in the UK |
| Impact | - The Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System Planetarium Show - Audio Universe: VR - Audio Universe Educational Workshops |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Audio Universe |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| PI Contribution | The Audio Universe is a collective of astronomers interested in going beyond the visual means we tend to rely on to communicate astrophysical data and concepts, and explore sound as an alternative medium. Audio Universe provides tools and resource for outreach and education in particular. As well as focussing accessibility for those who may be blind or visually impaired (BVI) or with non-visual learning styles, we make all our resources appeal to a general audience as a means of integrating auditory methods into astronomy education and outreach. The Ear to the Sky team (PI Trayford) facilitated Audio Universe through development of the STRAUSS code, representing the underlying engine of Audio Universe. This is used to generate the sonifications used in all Audio Universe activities. Dr James Trayford is the technical lead for the Audio Universe, and involved in the design and conception stages of Audio Universe materials Dr Nic Bonne has provided accessibility consultancy on Audio Universe materials and products throughout, as well as involvement in the design and conception stages of Audio Universe materials |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System planetarium show was directed by Dr Chris Harrison (Newcastle), funded by the Spark award he led. He has also led evaluation of Audio Universe outputs. Chris founded and leads the Audio Universe collaboration. Dr Anita Zanella and Dr Enrique Perez-Montero have handled dissemination and delivery of the planetarium show in Italian and Spanish languages, respectively Dr Vicky Fawcett has lead and delivered Audio Universe outreach activities in the UK |
| Impact | - The Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System Planetarium Show - Audio Universe: VR - Audio Universe Educational Workshops |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | IFU Listener Test Group |
| Organisation | Space Telescope Science Institute |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Having developed the joint STRAUSS-Jdaviz sonification technology for exploring IFU data, we run a longitudinal study group with diverse IFU scientists in different fields, testing the functionality and working towards |
| Collaborator Contribution | Hosting testing sessions in Nov 2024 |
| Impact | Building experience and expertise within a new data method. This is within the astronomy discipline. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | STRAUSS-Jdaviz |
| Organisation | Space Telescope Science Institute |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We work on audio extensions for the Jdaviz data interface, which underpins the science data archives for the NASA/STScI space telescopes. We co-develop a sonification plug-in for IFU data |
| Collaborator Contribution | In kind contributions of developer time and support, hosting the STRAUSS teams for a week intensive collaboration, alongside promotion of the functionality at the national AAS meeting. |
| Impact | Releases of JDAViz >= v4.1.0 now include the STRAUSS sonification plug-in. This powers an ongoing collaboration, testing the hyperspectral listener approach for IFU investigation |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Title | Jdaviz |
| Description | 4.1 (2024-12-23) New Features New design for viewer legend and future data-menu. [#3220, #3254, #3263, #3264, #3271, #3272, #3274, #3289, #3310, #3370] Improve performance while importing multiple regions. [#3321] API method to toggle API hints. [#3336] Changing flux/SB display units no longer resets viewer zoom levels. [#3335] Cubeviz Add Sonify Data plugin which uses the Strauss package to turn a data cube into sound. [#3269] Imviz Orientation plugin API now exposes create_north_up_east_left and create_north_up_east_right methods. [#3308] Add Roman WFI and CGI footprints to the Footprints plugin. [#3322, #3345] Catalog Search plugin now exposes a maximum sources limit for all catalogs and resolves an edge case when loading a catalog from a file that only contains one source. [#3337] Catalog Search plugin zoom_to_selected is now in the public API. The default zoom level changed from a fixed 50 pixels to a zoom window that is a fraction of the image size (default 2%) to address and issue with zooming when using a small image or WCS linked. [#3369] Specviz Specviz parser will now split a spectrum with a 2D flux array into multiple spectra on load (useful for certain SDSS file types). [#3229] API Changes Removed API access to plugins that have passed the deprecation period: Links Control, Canvas Rotation, Export Plot. [#3270] Subset Tools plugin now exposes the subset, combination_mode, recenter_dataset, recenter, get_center, and set_center in the user API. [#3293, #3304, #3325] Metadata plugin: metadata_plugin.metadata API has been deprecated; use metadata_plugin.meta instead, which will return a Python dictionary instead of list of tuples. [#3292] Add get_regions method to subset plugin to retrieve spatial/spectral subsets as regions or SpectralRegions, deprecate get_interactive_regions and get_spectral_regions. [#3340] Bug Fixes Fixed broken flux unit conversions in all plugins that respond to changes in flux unit changes. These cases occured when certain flux-to flux-conversions occured, as well as certain conversions between flux and surface brightness. This PR also fixed an issue with unit string formatting in the aperture photometry plugin. [#3228] Fixed broken histogram pan/zoom in Plot Options plugin. [#3361] Fixed bug with Plot Options select_all when data is float32. [#3366] Fixed an issue with back-to-back calls of set_limits and get_limits. [#3371] Cubeviz Removed the deprecated save as fits option from the Collapse, Moment Maps, and Spectral Extraction plugins; use the Export plugin instead. [#3256] Fixed bugs where cube model fitting could fail if Jdaviz custom equivalencies were required. [#3343] Other Changes and Additions Added a short description of each plugin in the side menu, visible before the plugin is opened. Removes redundant descriptions above link out to documentation when plugin is opened. Enable search on plugin description in addition to title. [#3268] Improved performance of app.get_subsets for the single-subset case. [#3363] |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | JDAVIz version with integrated sonification for IFU data via STRAUSS Premiered at the AAS meeting 245, core of ongoing study exploring IFU data from different astronomical fields using sound. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.14549030 |
| Title | STRAUSS v1.0.0 |
| Description | Version 1.0.0 of the STRAUSS code - a free and open source, flexible sonification package for python. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | First major release of the STRAUSS code, used to power applications like the JDAViz IFU listener, and generate all of our data products. Submitted to the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) |
| URL | https://github.com/james-trayford/strauss/releases/tag/v1.0 |
| Title | james-trayford/strauss: v0.1.0 Pre-release |
| Description | First publicly available version of the
strauss code, with documentation available here: https://strauss.readthedocs.io/en/latest/. This is in pre-release form, awaiting the v1.0.0 release and accompanying article (Trayford et al in prep.) Features example notebooks demonstrating the Sonifications included in the Audio Universe tour of the Solar System (full article here) Also demonstrates sonification of 1D data series, applying various mappings of the expressive properties of sound (pitch, filtering and volume). |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The STRAUSS code is a central part of the Ear to the Sky project, providing a tool to produce all of our sonifications, and paired with example Jupyter notebook files that demonstrate how our materials are generated. This is under ongoing development for the duration of the project. The STRAUSS code has been downloaded and applied in many cases cases, as of writing the STRAUSS repository has 22 stars. Some notable examples beyond our own work are where BVI astronomer Enrique Perez-Montero used STRAUSS to communicate his own work (https://astroaccesible.iaa.es/content/%C2%BFpor-qu%C3%A9-astroaccesible-es-un-proyecto-integrador-e-inclusivo), and the application of STRAUSS to sonify TESS light curves for a pilot Zooniverse project (https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/eatyourgreens/audio-planet-hunters). |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/5776280 |
| Description | .Astronomy 13 Workshop & Hack Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop at the .Astronomy 13 Conference @ ESAC Madrid, followed by a hack day activity developing interactive sonification tools with STRAUSS. Intending to promote the code and approaches, as well as benefiting from crowdsourced development of new applications in the hack day |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.dotastronomy.com/schedule-13 |
| Description | Caribbean Tour of the Solar System |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An adapted version of our tour of the solar system planetarium show, adapted for a Caribbean cultural context, through collaboration with Trinidadian musicians and educators. This was jointly premiered in Trinidad and online, with about 30 people in physical attendance and 487 views as of writing. Paired with press releases: https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/news/caribbean-beat-brings-the-universe-to-life & https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2025/01/caribbeantourofthesolarsystem/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjkAoqgJvYg |
| Description | Exhibition and Fireside Chat at Zero Project 2024 meeting at the UN in Vienna |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Exhibiting our sonified VR experiences to attendees at the Zero Project at the UN building in Vienna, and participating in a 'fireside chat' discussing our use of sonification for accessibility with STRAUSS (recorded at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzxZ_ucEsbA). Aiming to engage an international audience of potential investors, stakeholders and end users of our work. The exhibition of our work led to exchanging details with a number (over 20) organisations and business interested in collaborating or investing in our future work, as well as many more interested conversations and questions. The fireside chat also stimulated a number of questions, and provides a high quality recording of our work for further dissemination. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://zeroproject.org/conferences/zerocon24 |
| Description | Gosport Discovery Center demonstration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Exhibiting our multimodal stellar evolution exhibit to the general public at the Gosport Discovery center |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Invited Seminar at Space Telescope Science Institute |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seminar talk at STScI, engaging new collaborators and popularising our research and communication work |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://stsci.box.com/s/ltwbtbxkar7mmekoud5ux4hks9ontuab |
| Description | Leading workshop at Waves and Instabilities in the Solar Atmosphere (WISA) 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Leading a dedicated solar physics workshop session using the STRAUSS code, using Python notebooks applied to solar data. Intended to demonstrate practical applications of sonification with STRAUSS to solar physics and monitoring problems. Led to a number of people expressing interest and enjoyment of using sonification in the future, experimenting with our code and installing or following the STRAUSS code repository for further development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://github.com/james-trayford/WISA2023Notebooks |
| Description | Plenary talk at Communicating Astronomy with the Public Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Giving a plenary talk on our sonification work at the international CAP24 conference in Toulouse |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://cap2024conference.org/en/programme/programme/21 |
| Description | Portsmouth Stargazing 2024: Sonification in virtual reality and multimodal interfaces |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Running our immersive VR station and premiering our multimodal stellar evolution interface at the major local outreach event: Portsmouth Stargazing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/news/sellout-stargazing-event-brings-hundreds-to-portsm... |
| Description | Sonified VR experiences at Pompey Stargazing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Immersive virtual reality outreach exhibit combining spatial audio with panoramic visuals to convey astronomical data and concepts. Including a fly-through of the cosmic web, sonification of the gravitational wave sky from LIGO/VIRGO O3, A virtual reality version of the stars appearing sequence from "Audio Universe: Tour of The Solar System", and sonification of satellite constellations. By streaming the pointy-of-view sights and sounds to bystanders (using display monitors and speakers), we can also engage bystanders. This is enhanced by demonstrators explaining and answering questions about the science and related concepts, informed by provided scripts and information packs for each experience. This led to a number of questions from parents and children, as well as expressions of awe and interest in astronomy among school-age children |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Speaker at Waves and Instabilities in the Solar Atmosphere (WISA) 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Describing Sonification, the STRAUSS code and the Ear to the Sky project, and how this could be applied to solar physics. Intended to engage a new group with astronomy, and stimulated interest and questions about how sound can be used to improve our understanding of data. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Talk & Poster presentation at EAS meeting in Krakow, Poland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk at SS39 about Sonification with STRAUSS and the Ear to the Sky Project, and it's use for accessibility and outreach. Poster presentation in SS9 on application of STRAUSS to power a hyperspectral listener for integral field spectroscopy data, as published in RASTI (10.1093/rasti/rzad021). Intended to raise awareness of our accessibility and outreach work, as well as our research applications. Led to a number of questions and discussions, along with interest in future collaboration. 3-5 ongoing one-to-one collaborations have resulted directly from this so far. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://eas.unige.ch/EAS2023/ |
| Description | Talk at 28th International Conference on Auditory Display in Norrköping, Sweden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presenting our conference paper, introducing the STRAUSS code, including its philosophy, design and applications.Intended to engage sound experts and the broader sonification community with our work in astronomy. Led to a number of questions and discussion of our applications along with expressions of interest in our project, as as well as future collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://icad2023.icad.org/ |
| Description | Talk at Workshop on Astronomy Beyond the Common Senses for Accessibility and Inclusion in Uruguay (remote) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Contributed talk on accessible astronomy with STRAUSS and the Ear to the Sky project. Intended to show how sonification with STRAUSS can be used as a tool for accessible and multimodal approaches to astronomy. Stimulated discussion and questions among participants, with an upcoming conference proceedings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://accefyn.com/microsites/nodos/astroco/third-workshop-on-astronomy-for-inclusion/ |
| Description | The sound of silence: how sound brings space to life |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | STFC medium article about STFC 'big science', describing our project with quotes, and premiering a new sonification sequence for cosmological simulations, as a preview of a big upcoming release with new simulations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://medium.com/big-science-at-stfc/the-sound-of-silence-how-sound-brings-space-to-life-df0cc00ab... |
| Description | Watch And Listen To Gravitational Waves Arriving From Every Direction Of The Universe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Launch of our panoramic gravitational waves sonification sequence with spatial audio, via an article in IFL science, and associated National Astronomy meeting 2024 in Hull. Our online video accrued over 18000 views. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.iflscience.com/watch-listen-to-gravitational-waves-arriving-from-every-direction-of-the-... |