John Krygier 12/2/15

"Sound and Geographic Visualization"

Published in Visualization in Modern Cartography (MacEachren & Taylor eds., 1994).

Making Maps blog version of the chapter here.

Sound and Geographic Visualization

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

Harry Warner on being confronted with the prospect of the sound movie.

Introduction

The issue of sound in the context of visualization may at first seem incongruous. There is, however, evidence to support the claim that sound is a viable means of representing and communicating information and can serve as a valuable addition to visual displays. Abstracted two-dimensional space and the visual variables - the traditional purview of cartography - may not always be adequate for meeting the visualization needs of geographers and other researchers interested in complex dynamic and multivariate phenomena. The current generation of computer hardware and software gives cartographers access to a broadened range of design options: three-dimensionality, time (animation), interactivity, and sound. Sound - used alone or in tandem with two-or three-dimensional abstract space, the visual variables, time, and interactivity - provides a means of expanding the representational repertoire of cartography and visualization. This chapter discusses the use of realistic and abstract sound for geographic visualization applications. Examples of how and why sound may be useful are developed and discussed. Uses of sound in geographic visualization include sound as vocal narration, as a mimetic symbol, as a redundant variable, as a means of detecting anomalies, as a means of reducing visual distraction, as a cue to reordered data, as an alternative to visual patterns, as an alarm or monitor, as a means of adding non-visual data dimensions to interactive visual displays, and for representing locations in a sound space. The chapter concludes with research issues concerning sound and its use in geographic visualization.

...

Approach taken analogous to the visual variables (from Making Maps):

Some curious facts about this book chapter:

• Rejected for publication in CAGIS (Cartography and GIS) in early 1993: rejection letter (PDF) here.
  • Review 1: "I think the musical typology proposed in this paper is questionable..."
    • there is no "musical typology" in the paper!

  • Review 2: No experimental results

• Citations: Google Scholar
  • The chapter has a significant number of citations and continues to be cited

  • The idea (sound variables) and graphics continue to be reproduced in textbooks and other articles

• Despite the fact that the idea seems to resonate, applications remain elusive. Why?

• Google search for "sound maps"

• David DiBiase: idea came up in conversation with David while we were both at Penn State

• Developed in a seminar in Information Graphics with Mark Detweiler
  • 1991 seminar paper (Psychology 597a): "An Elemental Approach to Animation and Sound in Information Graphics" (PDF, 1mb)

• Influenced by work visualizing (Geographic Visualization) complex climate model data (DiBiase, Catherine Reeves, etc.)
  • Screen Shot: SLC Viewer: Global Climate Model Visualization: UNIX software (ca 1985)

    

  • dots: ocean temperature; grey: atmospheric CO2; blue lines: salinity

  • 30-40 different variables: temperature, ocean salinity, ocean currents, etc.)

  • SLC Viewer: select and view any 1, 2, or 3 variables together

  • Question: how can we make even more information available (beyond 3 climate data variables visualized)?

  • Sound!

• Music: Christopher Weber (SUNY Buffalo): Sonic enhancement of map information: experiments using harmonic intervals. Dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1994.

• Abstract sound: Peter Fisher "Hearing the Reliability in Classified Remotely Sensed Images" (CAGIS, 1984)

• "Sound and Geographic Visualization"
  • take a more comprehensive view on sound and information display (sonification)

  • assume expert users (geographic visualization)

  • link to traditional cartography approach: Bertin's Visual Variables

  • create some applications

    
    

Original Video Demo (download, .m4v Movie, 131.6mb)

• GPS / vehicle navigation voice is a sound map?

• sound requires time, maps are a-temporal

• sound is annoying on maps

• sounds are not mappy

• sound undermines the social role of the map - abstract, universal, power

• maps power comes from status as legal documents; property and territory; sound does not have same legal status for geographic data

• "the map can't get too crazy." (Denis Wood, 2012)

E-mail: jbkrygier@owu.edu

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