Experiential Graphic Sonification for Visual and Auditory Communication Design and Musical Expression

This dissertation explains two sonification platforms designed for image-sound association study and art, and the study results. A platform for user study was developed first and an artistic audiovisual platform was derived based on it. First, the five image-sound association studies were conducted to see whether people can successfully associate sounds and fundamental shapes (i.e., a circle, a triangle, a square, lines, curves, and other custom shapes) and the correct answer rate was high. Then, the same sonification platform was transformed by adding colors to the audiovisual platform for artistic/musical expression. A line-by-line sonification method and an object-oriented method were newly developed to sonify the background and the shapes separately. To enhance user experience, the sound of each shape was spatialized in a multi-layer speaker environment or a virtual listening environment.