Abstract
The visual bias pervading STEM fields is particularly keen in astronomy, with an emphasis on observation and imaging of astronomical phenomena, and a public perception built on "pretty pictures". However, visual focus is exclusionary for a range of people who have non-visual preferences for learning and communication. Efforts are growing to explore a multimodal approach and express data in new ways. Sonification in particular provides many promising possibilities of building real insights and intuition into complex astronomical data sets, harnessing the high dynamic range of human hearing (in terms of both volume and pitch). Challenging the entrenched visual biases in the presentation of astronomy requires widespread and robust testing of alternative modalities, alongside adequate and general tools to sonify data. The Ear to the Sky project aims to tackle these two aspects through investigating a number of promising applications of sonification in astronomy, while using and developing the strauss Python code as a generalised tool for sonifying data for analysis, outreach and education.Resumen
El sesgo visual que impregna los campos STEM es especialmente notorio en astronomía, con unénfasis en la observación de fenómenos astronómicos, y una percepción pública construida en torno a ‘imágenes bonitas’. Sin embargo, el enfoque visual excluye a diversas personas que tienen preferencias no visuales para el aprendizaje y la comunicación. Actualmente, existen esfuerzos para explorar un enfoque multimodal y expresar datos de nuevas maneras. La sonificación, en particular, ofrece muchas posibilidades prometedoras para construir percepciones e intuiciones reales en conjuntos de datos astronómicos complejos, aprovechando el rango dinámico elevado de la audición humana (tanto en volumen como en tono). Desafiar los sesgos visuales arraigados la astronomía requiere pruebas extensas y sólidas de modalidades alternativas, junto con herramientas adecuadas y generales para sonificar datos. El proyecto Ear to the Sky tiene como objetivo abordar estos dos aspectos mediante la investigación de varias aplicaciones prometedoras de la sonificación en astronomía, al mismo tiempo que utiliza y desarrolla el co ́digo Python strauss como una herramienta generalizada para sonificar datos con fines de análisis, divulgación y educación.References
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