(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013-07)
Henry, Ashley G.; Bruce, Carrie M.; Winton, Riley J.; Walker, Bruce N.
Visitors to aquariums typically rely on their vision to interact
with live exhibits that convey rich descriptive and aesthetic
visual information. However, some visitors may prefer or need to
have an alternative interpretation of the exhibitÕs visual scene to
improve their experience. Musical sonification has been explored
as an interpretive strategy for this purpose and related work
provides some guidance for sonification design, yet more
empirical work on developing and validating the music-to-visual
scene mappings needs to be completed. This paper discusses
work to validate mappings that were developed through an
investigation of musician performances for two specific live
animal exhibits at the Georgia Aquarium. In this proposed study,
participants will provide feedback on musical mapping examples
which will help inform design of a real-time sonification system
for aquarium exhibits. Here, we describe our motivation,
methods, and expected contributions.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-06)
Jeon, Myounghoon; Winton, Riley J.; Yim, Jung-Bin; Bruce, Carrie M.; Walker, Bruce N.
In response to the need for more accessible Informal Learning Environments (ILEs), the Georgia Tech Accessible Aquarium Project has been studying sonification for the use in live exhibit interpretation in aquariums. The present work attempts to add more interactivity [1] to the project’s existing sonification work, which is expected to lead to more accessible learning opportunities for visitors, particularly people with vision impairments as well as children. In this interactive sonification phase, visitors can actively experience an exhibit by using tangible objects to mimic the movement of animals. Sonifications corresponding to the moving tangible objects can be paired with real-time interpretive sonifications produced by the existing Accessible Aquarium system to generate a cooperative fugue. Here, we describe the system configuration, pilot test results, and future works. Implications are discussed in terms of embodied interaction and interactive learning.