Sonification of underwater acoustic data: an art-science intiative to explore aquatic life

International audienceThe project aims at better understanding the functioning of aquatic ecosystems by using the most advanced 3D sound technologies (Wave Field Synthesis, binaural synthesis...) to design a spatialized audio representation of underwater active acoustics data. This so-called "sonification" process will enable to benefit from the excellent temporal and frequency acuity of the auditory system for the exploration and analysis of echosounder data, whose quantity and complexity still constitute a major challenge. Sonification has initially been tested in artistic contexts, with an emphasis on pedagogy and mediation for the general public: creation of electronic music by students in Hydrography/Oceanography/Acoustics, digital art installations, composition of a string quartet, musical conferences, etc. These various experiments will participate in the elaboration, in a second time, of a tool for sound analysis of underwater active acoustics data, whose scientific relevance and complementarity to traditional analysis methods will have to be validated (signal processing, statistics, data classification algorithms, multi-frequency approaches, visual representations such as echograms, etc.)