The Planetorium: Sonic Information Design for Earthling Audiences

R. Michael Winters

About this exposition

For millennia, humans have looked into the night sky and wondered at what they saw. This curiosity led them to develop instruments that enabled them to look deeply into space, which revealed celestial bodies in ever-greater detail. They developed new mathematics and physics to better understand and predict the cosmos and began to teach each other, pointing to what they knew to be true. Sadly, as the objective facts and figures poured in with ever-increasing precision, the oral traditions of myths, stories, and gods began to fade from view. In the past century, some humans have worked to cultivate a new technology that would allow humans to use their ears to hear the objects that, before, they could only see. By transforming numbers into sound, humans could listen again, which made those who could hear it very happy. However, others did not comprehend it, became confused, and began to ask one another: How can I make sense of something I cannot see? How do I know what I am hearing is true? Is this some kind of music, or something else altogether? In this paper, we use “The Planetorium” as a metaphor and context for understanding how we might best design aural celestial experiences for earthling audiences. Audiences are groups of individual humans all listening to the same thing at the same place for some length of time. And while planetariums are places they go to learn about space through stunning views and new perspectives, planetoriums (like auditoriums) are places they go to listen.

type	research exposition
date	02/10/2018
published	10/10/2018
last modified	10/10/2018
status	published
license	All rights reserved
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/513390/513391
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/JSS.513390
published in	Journal of Sonic Studies
portal issue	17. Issue 17

name	JSS Banner
copyright	JSS
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture

name	Planetarium-Sun
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Poster
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	1_MassesOfPlanets
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	2_LengthOfDay-InnerPlanets
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	3_LengthsOfDay-OuterPlanets
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	4_LengthOfYear-InnerPlanets
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	5_AuditorySpacecraft
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	6_SpacecraftSpeedUpX5
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	7_SpacecraftSpeedUpX10
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	8_Moons-Earth
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	9_Moons-Mars
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	10_Moons-Neptune
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	11_Moons-Saturn
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	12_NumberOfRings-Jupiter
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	13_NumberOfRings-Saturn
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	14_TemperatureRange-Mercury
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	15_TemperatureRange-Venus
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	16_TemperatureRange-Saturn
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	17_TemperatureRange-Neptune
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	18_BallDrop-Mercury
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	19_BallDrop-Jupiter
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	eclipse-yewear
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	20Sec
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	totality-graphic
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Entrance
copyright	Winters
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

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The Planetorium: Sonic Information Design for Earthling Audiences (2018)

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