Sound is Information

Sound is indeed a very powerful multichannel information carrier. Church bells ringing communicate different meanings/events to people living in a neighbourhood through the day, footsteps sounds inform us about intention, gender, weight, age, and shoes of a person. These two everyday examples tell us how skilled we are in using sound for decoding information. In this workshop, five experts will touch upon the field of sonification (information representation with sound) from different perspectives. We will hear about equivalence relations between multimodal perceptualizations such as sonifications and visualizations; how sound can be used for helping visually impaired individuals to perceive the environment, or elite athletes to improve technique. Two talks will focus on the therapeutic aspects of new interfaces for sound and music, and how they can be used for training hearing by active listening, and for helping people with autistic spectrum disorders to engage in music practice.