About the Project
WHAT
“I like to think of [sonification] as finding the music in science.” -Mark Ballora
“Sonification” is basically visualizing for the ears. You take a data set, some kind of information, and create sounds with it.
For our “Sound of Data” project we will be using scientific data – traffic data, historical data, data from crowdsourcing art and 3D body scan data – to generate sounds, which will then be used by musicians to compose new tracks, and to be performed live on stage.
The Sound of Data will officially kick off on May 1st, 2022 at Rockhal with activities for families, tech geeks and musicians alike, and end, again at Rockhal, on December 3rd, 2022 with a musical extravaganza. But there will be many other activities throughout the year, with opportunities to actively contribute to our data collection, to attend hands-on workshops, and to learn more about sonification. Check out our events section to stay up to date.
WHY
“A surprising proportion of mathematicians are accomplished musicians.
Is it because music and mathematics share patterns that are beautiful?” -Martin Gardner
Many know Belval as the place where research happens, where data, the main driver of science, is generated, where students hang out. And many (others) know Belval as the place to go if you want to play music or hang out listening to music. But how often do these two worlds really meet and communicate? The Sound of Data project stands for creating bridges between these two worlds, for openness, for curious encounters, for blending scientific and musical creativity. The Sound of Data is where science meets music.
WHO
The University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, with four teams of researchers collecting data.
Bruno Teheux, Hugo Parlier
Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine, Department of Mathematics
Stefan Krebs, C2DH
Oliver Glassl, Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine
Cosme Milesi-Brault, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Valery Vermeulen, the mathematician and sonification artist, who will sonify the collected data sets and teach the artists in residence how to incorporate them in their work.
The National Research Fund, looking at how data sonification, which offers an exciting nexus between science and music, can support science communication and create permanent bridges between the scientific and the musical world.
Rockhal and Rocklab, where it all takes place, where musicians will learn how to compose with sonified data and where they will perform.
