An Illustrative Design Case of Systemic Sonification

Abstract

The experience of sonification as a living system is a recent proposal for designing audio-centred communication. Drawing concepts from embodied perception and phenomenology of interaction, the systemic sonification approach has been characterised as a dynamic, evolving auditory community of sound beings that act and are acted upon by humans through interactive exchanges. In this study, we take on this theoretical proposal to explore a tentative design and develop a proof-of-concept of how this approach can be realised in practice. Departing from a previous sonification exercise of retail consumption data and adopting the proposed foundations of systemism, we develop an illustrative design case for the system’s composition, its environment, its structure, and the mechanisms which translate the behaviour of the evolving system to human interaction. While discussing the particular results, we debate the generativity of such a perspective towards envisioning alternative design spaces and novel interactive experiences.