Data sonification: As I turned the story of the coronavirus pandemic into music
I have no musical talent. I am a terrible singer and the only instrument I can play is the residence bell. But I´ve composed a song for the first time in my life. Actually, as a data journalist, I used sound to tell the tragic story of coronavirus deaths around the world in 2020.
I applied a technique called data sonification. Basically, instead of creating graphs for data visual representation, we use sound, which is much more sensorial and impacting.
The project
I´ve decided to create this data sonification project as an alternative to the pandemic graphs presented by the press and institutions daily.
The project followed the basic steps of a data-driven story: data collection, data cleaning, and data analysis. However, for the data visualization, I chose a sonification approach using the free and open platform TwoTone.
The double bass tones are equivalent to the deaths per day, while the glockenspiel marks the time passing.
The ambient sound is human breathing, part of the respiratory system, which is attacked by the SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Every time the coronavirus deaths reach at least six thousand, you are going to hear a mandolin sound.
What is sonification?
Sonification is the use of “unspoken” audio to communicate or transmit information (Avilla, 2016).
According to the researcher Thomas Hermann, there are five categories of sonification, and three of them are the most prominent: audification (transforming a data collection into a sound that human ears can pick up), auditory icons (short sound messages for event notification, like a cell phone ring) and parameter mapping (when data is transformed into a sound using parameters such as tone, pace, volume, duration, rhythm).
Why should you use sonification?
Data sonification offers several possibilities for communication. It is a way of transmitting numbers, graphs, and statistics to visually impaired people. It is also a way to take data information to radio and podcasts.
You can tell complex stories, with dozens of variables, because the human ear can perceive patterns, oscillations, and small details, things that can go unnoticed in visual graphics.
Furthermore, sonification also has the power to activate other senses, connect feelings and provoke emotional reactions.
Data sonification and the journalism
Several media have already used data sonification in news coverage. In 2018, KQED told the story of 1,200 years of climate change on Earth through sonification. In March 2019, the Financial Times created a sonification project to report finance issues.
The BBC frequently produces audio-graphics podcasts. But one of my favorites was done by The World about school shootings in the United States.
More recently, Duncan Geere and Miriam Quick announced the launch of the podcast Loud Numbers, which combines history, data, and music.
Like any data journalism project, sonification requires care of precision, rigor, and ethics. The information must be communicated correctly and perceived by the audience as accurately as possible, with no margin for inferences and misinterpretations.
To learn more about data sonification
The book “The Sonification Handbook”, by Thomas Hermann, Andy Hunt, John G. Neuhoff
Some works from the researcher Samuel Van Ransbeeck’s
The TwoTone platform
The project “The sonification of COVID-19”
Avilla, W. (2016) What is sonification? SEFiM, Porto Alegre, Brazil. 02:2, p.209–2012. Available at www.ufrgs.br/sefim/ojs/index.php/sm/article/view/330/286 [Accessed 20 January 2021]
