Survey Background:
Sonification is the process of mapping data to sounds. Sonification has a number of applications in a variety of settings, including both in community engagement and quantitative research. While the use of sonification as a means to engage with the public is relatively well established in astronomy, its use as a research tool in the field is in early stages. We have pioneered a novel sonification technique that uses basis function expansions to sonify galaxy images, and we aim to use our technique in a quantitative research setting. Two dimensional basis function expansions can be used to represent the light profile of images of galaxies. This expansion effectively condenses the information in the image into a sum of weighted basis functions, where each term in the expansion represents a different spatial scale. The weights on the terms indicate how much a given term contributes to the overall distribution, and thus summarize the structures present in the data. We then use these weights to sonify the data, such that a galaxy can be represented with a single chord with each note in the chord corresponding to a given structural scale.
Establishment of efficacy is critical to the use of sonification in a quantitative research setting. To this end, we seek to identify the optimal mapping of data to sounds for our specific sonification technique. Just as in creating plots for visualisation, there are aesthetic choices to be made in deciding a mapping. These choices can include whether a note is played with a synthesizer or a sampler (i.e. a synthetic or recorded sound), the choice of note ordering, the choice between Eastern and Western musical scales, and so forth. By surveying a large number of individuals, we aim to identify a mapping that conveys the structural information present in a galaxy image clearly and with minimal ambiguity. Once an optimal mapping is identified, we will use this mapping to produce auditory data for crowd-sourced, aural classification program (i.e. an audio version of GalaxyZoo, Lintott et al. 2008, 2011), outside of the scope of this IRB. The results of this program will be compared to the results of visual classification already obtained for these same data, thus establishing a baseline for aural classifications.
Survey Consent:
The goal of this survey is to identify the optimal mapping to transform galaxy data into sound. Participating in this study is entirely voluntary, and you can change your mind at any time. Participation in this survey will take between ten and fifteen minutes, and involves 1) reading short descriptions of galaxy properties 2) listening to sound clips and 3) classifying galaxies based on those audio clips. You can choose to not answer a given question, and you can also choose to stop taking the survey at any point in time.
No identifying information is collected in the process of this survey, and there are no risks associated with responding to this survey. You must be at least 18 years old to participate. By clicking the ‘yes’ check box below, you confirm that you are at least 18 years of age and consent to taking part in this survey.