Sonification Abstraite/Sonification Concr\`ete: An 'Aesthetic Perspective Space' for Classifying Auditory Displays in the Ars Musica Domain

TL;DR

This paper explores the aesthetic aspects of sonification and its relationship with music and sound art, proposing a classification space to improve ecological validity and listener comprehension in auditory displays.

Contribution

It introduces an 'Aesthetic Perspective Space' for classifying auditory displays, integrating insights from electroacoustic music and musique concrète to enhance sonification design.

Findings

Many sonifications lack ecological validity, hindering listener understanding.

Lessons from electroacoustic music inform better sonification practices.

Proposes a classification space to analyze and improve auditory displays.

Abstract

This paper discusses {\ae}sthetic issues of sonifications and the relationships between sonification (ars informatica) and music & sound art (ars musica). It is posited that many sonifications have suffered from poor internal ecological validity which makes listening more difficult, thereby resulting in poorer data extraction and inference on the part of the listener. Lessons are drawn from the electroacoustic music and musique concr\`ete communities as it is argued that it is not instructive to distinguish between sonifications and music/sound art.