What is the sound of research? Obvious enough if the subject in question is directly related, such as music, acoustic technology, languages or zoology. But what if the connection doesn't immediately jump to mind? How do you "sonify" data that isn't acoustic to begin with?
That was the challenge put to graduate students and post-doctoral scholars from all disciplines at the University of Alberta in a new competition called Sounds of Research. Participants were asked to produce a short audio presentation of less than five minutes, along with a short artist's statement, capturing the sonic essence of their work.
The top 12 finalists, chosen by a multi-disciplinary jury, are featured in an exhibit in the Sound Studies Institute's Sound Art Gallery in the Arts Building until the end of January, and are also posted online for everyone to hear.
"As people interested and engaged in music and sound studies, we were curious to see what kinds of sonic pieces graduate students and postdoctoral scholars might submit, and to demonstrate how sound is a creative yet underutilized medium for communicating research," says the competition's creator, Sean Luyk, digital curation librarian for U of A Library and Museums.
Take neuroscience. Can the "silent symphony of electrical waves" that form the patterns of conscious and unconscious thought be expressed in something akin to music?
Using an algorithm to "identify and assign brain waves of different frequencies to distinct musical notes," it is absolutely possible to hear the music of the brain, says this year's first-place winner, Mitch Prostebby.
"The resulting music yields important insight into how brain rhythms form harmonies and melodies which frequently co-operate across neural inputs to process internalized experiences," he says.
Third-place winner Anna-Sofia Jylhae, a doctoral student in the Department of Physics, aimed to capture the sound of the 2025 Gannon solar storm, the most powerful geomagnetic storm of the last 20 years.
In space, of course, there is no sound. But by constructing a "remix" of data acquired by instruments on the ground and on satellites, she was able to "sonify magnetic disturbances recorded during the event, allowing listeners to experience the invisible dynamics of space weather in an accessible and immersive way," she says.
Other entries sonify phenomena such as bats' response to disturbance, Indigenous ancestral voices and even the elusive search for silence in the city. Ecology master's student Martin Hinojosa's entry is the story of a person walking through Edmonton in search of a peaceful place to read. It is inspired by "urban noise in Edmonton and how birds respond to it."
Only one finalist, doctoral student Clare Pellerin, focuses on music itself, an examination of J.S. Bach's Solo Sonata for Violin No. 3 in C, part of Pellerin's recital program for her degree. Considered "exquisitely beautiful, it opens a window into an experience that was very common in Bach's time: the pain of losing small children," she says.
Students from every U of A faculty submitted entries to the competition, says Luyk. With help from the Sound Studies Institute and a Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) Innovation Grant, students gained valuable experience in data sonification, research communication, audio recording and editing.
With the success of the pilot, Luyk says he hopes to make Sounds of Research an annual event. Finalists' entries will be preserved in the University of Alberta Library's Aviary repository as part of a permanent digital sound gallery collection.
