On Breathing and Geography: Explorations of Data Sonifications of Timespace Processes with Illustrating Examples from a Tidally Dynamic Landscape (Severn Estuary, UK)

Michaela Palmer (née Reiser) and Owain Jones
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Michaela Palmer (née Reiser): University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY, England
Owain Jones: Countryside and Community Research Institute, Oxstalls Campus, University of Gloucestershire, Oxstalls Lane, Longlevens, Gloucester GL2 9HW, Gloucestershire, England

Environment and Planning A, 2014, vol. 46, issue 1, 222-240

Abstract: This paper consists of a discussion of data sonification—a procedure in which information gathered from systems such as bodies or environmental processes is analyzed and reprocessed into audio models, so aspects of the process generating the data (for example, emotional or tidal ebb and flow) can be apprehended by human senses. This serves various purposes relevant to geography. Firstly, it sets out the principles of sonification as a method, defining its basic principles and relating it to both qualitative and quantitative data. Secondly, it offers potential to geographic interests in process, times, rhythm, landscape, place, and more besides— ‘representing’ various aspects of processes that are beyond normal human apprehension, perhaps through register, duration, pitch, and so on. Thirdly, in the illustrating examples, which comprise sonifications of tides and other processes in the Severn Estuary, UK, it highlights possibilities of engaging local communities and stakeholders with the dynamics of landscapes such as tidal processes, which have significant implications for culture, economy, and ecology, as do other tidal and other process geographies elsewhere.

Keywords: sonification; process; rhythm; landscape; time; tides (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:1:p:222-240

DOI: 10.1068/a45264

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