Sonification of Emotions II: Live music in a pediatric hospital
Author(s)
Preti, Constanza
Schubert, Emery
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Abstract
In this paper, we argue that music can be used to sonify emotions. Further, we propose that the ‘sonification of emotion’ conceptualization can explain some aspects of the practice of playing music in hospitals. Music can be constantly adjusted to reflect (but more accurately, we argue, sonify) various aspects of the emotional situations unfolding in a hospital, namely the interaction between the child/patient, their caregivers and the hospital staff. The case study of a musical interaction between a musician and a child/patient is presented and led to the development of a Cycle of Sonification model, where the musician collects complex environmental cues and then portrays them through the music to adjust the emotional ‘temperature’. That is, the emotion of the environment is reflected (sonified) by the music, but additionally the music is also calibrated so as to allow the regulation of the emotional mood (including distraction) in the otherwise stressful environment. As well as adjusting the mood, the music provides a ‘reading’ or measure of emotion through the auditory, non-speech mode, consistent with some pertinent definitions of sonification
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Date
2011-06
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Proceedings