Data and Information Transmission in the Context of Sonfication

Abstract

This paper illustrates the significance of the concept of information as a tool to expound sonification design. Previous works approached the concept of information systematically. However, its structural characteristics during the process of sonification have not been thoroughly discussed. In order to address the above, this paper presents a framework based on the definition of information from the fields of physics, communication engineering, cybernetics, and systems theory. According to this framework, the representation of a phenomenon into organized sound becomes possible by the propagation of organization within the components of the sonification communication model. Moreover, a distinction between the terms data and information is proposed and related to well-established sonification techniques (Audification, PMSon, MBS). The structural characteristics of the phenomenon (described in terms of entropy) are linked with sonification functions leading to new perspectives of sonification design.