The Utility of Sonification

Sonification is the process of translating data sets into sound or music for artistic, scientific, or practical purposes. As a tool, sonification can facilitate the interpretation and comprehension of information by perceiving it in a traditionally unusual manner - aurally, through expressions and variations in volume, pitch, timbre, and more. However, each of these factors present their own limitations and strengths, due to their nature as well as due to human perception, which must be considered when creating an audio display. Through sonification, the line between artist and scientist is often blurred, as this field attracts a wide interdisciplinary following since its future potential for useful application is still being explored. This paper will examine the various ways in which sonification is currently being used in multiple disciplines, as well the dynamics of sound as they relate to human perception