Description
Sonifying an image of a galaxy is not a straightforward task. There is a wealth of information encoded in the brightness of each pixel and how brightness changes as a function of location. Typically, brightness is mapped to pitch and spatial information is included via some form of panning across or around the image. While this approach successfully converts data from the visual to the aural domain, it does not succinctly summarize the salient features of a galaxy such that a listener can identify the type and structure within a few seconds, as can be possible for the same data via visual inspection. In this talk, I will present how basis function expansions provide a new avenue for sonifying galaxy data. In a two dimensional basis function expansion, the light distribution of a galaxy is condensed into a sum of weighted basis functions. Each term in the expansion corresponds to a different spatial scale, and the weight indicates the contribution of that term to the overall distribution, effectively summarizing and quantifying the structure within a galaxy. These weights can be mapped to sounds, such that a single chord can convey all of the relevant spatial and structural information in a given galaxy. I will share some examples of sonification with basis function expansions, and discuss applications of these sonifications in quantitative research. This novel application of basis function expansions advances the set of tools available in multi-sensory research and augments the data examination options that are available in morphology-based analyses.
