An interdisciplinary journey towards an aesthetics of sonification experience

Abstract

The aesthetic dimension has been proposed as a potential expansion of sonification design, creating listening pieces that reach the goal of effective data communication. However, current views of aesthetics still aim at optimising mapping criteria to convey the ‘right meaning’, maintaining a mostly functional view on what is considered a successful sonification. This paper proposes an interdisciplinary approach to the aesthetics of sonification experience, grounded on theoretical foundations from phenomenology of interaction, post-phenomenology, cross-cultural studies, acoustic ecology and deep listening. From this journey, we present the following design insights: (1) the design of sonifications becomes a design for experience, (2) co-designed during the interaction with each participant; (3) the sonification artefact gains a mediating role that guides the participant’s intentions in the sonification space; (4) the aesthetics of a sonification experience generates a multistable phenomenon, offering new opportunities to experience multiple perspectives over data; (5) the interaction between human participants and the sonic emanations compose a dialogic space. A call for action to reframe the sonification field into novel design spaces is now open, with aesthetics gaining a transformational role in sonification design and interaction.