Feeling Loki’s Pain: Designing and Evaluating a DIY 3D Auditory Display for geodata sonification

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary WorksRGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)peer-review

Abstract

Loki’s Pain is an immersive 3D audio installation artwork, a sonification of seismic activity. Visitors take the place of Loki, who was punished by the gods and caused earthquakes. We designed an auditory display in the shape of a hemi- dodecahedron and built a prototype with a low-budget, DIY approach. Seismic data were retrieved from the Internet. Location, magnitude, and epicentre depth of hundreds of recent earthquakes were sonified with physical modelling synthesis into a 10-minute piece. The visitor experience was evaluated in a listening experiment (N = 7), comparing the installation with a version for headphones. Differences on eight semantic scales were small. A content analysis of focus group discussions nuanced the investigated topics, and qualitative interpretation strengthened the quantitative findings. Verbal expressions of immersivity were stronger in the installation, which stimulated longer and more detailed responses. Aspects such as audio quality, the structure's physical-visual shape, and multisensorial design evoked both positive and negative emotions, and elicited imagination and memory recall. However, the assumed capacity of the LOKI structure to stimulate a richer social experience than that of headphone listening was not supported by the responses in this study.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 26th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2021)
EditorsAreti Andreopoulou, Milena Droumeva, Joseph W. Newbold, Kyla McMullen, Paul Vickers
PublisherThe International Community for Auditory Display
Pages169-175
ISBN (Electronic)0-9670904-7-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2021
Event26th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2021) - Virtual
Duration: 25 Jun 202128 Jun 2021
https://icad2021.icad.org/
https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/49750

Publication series

NameICAD

Conference

Conference26th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2021)
Period25/06/2128/06/21
Internet address

Research Keywords

  • sonification
  • geodata
  • Earthquakes
  • seismology
  • data art
  • installation
  • sound
  • perception
  • auditory perception
  • aesthetics

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