Hearing data. Combining sensory experiences for improved human-data relationships.

Abstract

In the last two decades, rapid growth in data generation and use has transformed our social interactions and technological landscape. This change is driven by digitalizing critical infrastructures and the widespread adoption of technologies like IoT, social networks, and smart devices. These advances have posed significant challenges in interpreting and applying vast data volumes to generate practical knowledge and informed decisions across various fields.

The human ear, developing as our first sense, plays a crucial role in perceiving the environment from before birth. Exploring environmental sounds has been a focus in soundscape studies since the 1960s. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted urban sounds' profound impact on daily life, revealing human sounds like traffic and street activities in the absence of other noises.

In advanced technology settings, sound design serves essential practical and emotional roles. From alerting machine statuses to enhancing user experiences in film, digital gaming, and automotive sectors, sound design is a powerful tool. Data sonification, emerging in the 1990s, represents large datasets through sound, complementing traditional visualizations. This field has expanded into areas such as data journalism and activism, exploring sound's aesthetic dimension to enhance public understanding of complex phenomena.