Audio Universe Resources
Hello! I found my way here, but not completely sure how things are expected to work. However, seemed like a good place to share some of our resources from Audio Universe (www.audiouniverse.org). Our focus is on data sonification for research and communications. We do a lot of work with the sight loss community (children and adults).
- Planetarium Shows which are co-designed with members of the sight-loss community (one is also available on YouTube as flatscreen and in multiple languages, a brand new one was just released about Black Holes): https://www.audiouniverse.org/education-and-communication/educational-shows
- Multi-sensory workshops (made in collaboration with Tactile Universe): https://www.audiouniverse.org/education-and-communication/accessible-workshops
- Brand new for September 2026, is our "Sonification Suite" App. This makes it very easy for you to generate sonifications of astronomical phenomena (e.g., the night sky at any time/location, stellar light curves, constellations, or basically any tabulated datasets)...You can get started with the click of a few buttons. You can use our curated sound design options (much more interesting than simply pitch mapping), which have been tested with extensive research. Or you can create a custom sound design:
https://www.audiouniverse.org/sonification-suite - A heap of documentation covering ideas, examples and good practise guidelines for using sonification for astronomy communication with a range of different audiences.
Hi Chris. Thanks for posting this. This is completely new to me. It seems like the most comprehensive resource for both finding and creating sonification that I've heard of. We'll get some of the others involved in sonification to take a look, too.
FYI, this forum is brand new so we're just getting discussions going and organizing along the way as needed. We hope to have a lot more discussion and eyes on everything soon.
admin Thank you! There's a lot of research behind our resources, including a dedicated PhD student who has a couple of papers soon to be published as part of her thesis. We also have tried to make the Sonification Suite screen-reader friendly, so it can be used by blind and low vision users, as well as producing sonifications for accessible astronomy experiences. Furthermore, it is inherently expandable so other "domains" could be added specifically for different groups (e.g., school children).
There are some great resources here! I love the sonification of the stars coming out at night. Really impressive. I liked how you matched star types and distinct tones
Thanks for sharing this, Chris. Some of these resources are very helpful. Especially the planetarium resources. I will; share these further with my planetarium group. I have been testing some sonification resources that can be used for a workshop at the planetarium for visually impaired persons.