Development Process

of Authority Sorter

1. Data Sonification ➝ 2. Data Visualization ➝ 3. Interactive Object

Affected by sound artists Yuri Suzuki and Marguerite Humeau, I tried to start from the perspective of sound at first. What will it sound like if I use sound to express artificial order? What will happen when the sounds of nature are rearranged artificially?

After trying to intervene the human sequence into the sounds of nature, I also began to express the same questions through different visual ways. Inspired by the works of Michael Najjar, I tried to intervene artificial arrangements into the natural landscape. Will the nature view be realistic or extremely unnatural?

Completing these two attempts, I recombined sound, vision, the concept of sorting to develop an interactive device. I try to create an experience to ask: Is that correct to take the social behavior for granted? Whether an unordered community would be equal or more chaotic?

1. Data Sonification

When choosing sonification data, I thought about what kind of sequence has the meaning of human intervention. After searching the data on birth rate, death rate, and GDP, I selected the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan. Because each piece of data needs to be reviewed and checked through quotas, it seems closer to the meaning of human control than other factors such as birth and death.

The way of presentation is converting the value into frequency and relative speed (the more significant the value, the higher the audio frequency, and the faster the reading and writing of the following data, resulting in natural bird chirping sounds.) At the same time, I also found that if there is a prolonged low-frequency sound after the fast-paced high-frequency melody, will it mean the deterioration of cross-strait relations? Or is it the occurrence of other historical events? Moreover, is politics a manifestation of the maximization of human intervention.

2. Data Visualization

In visualizing the process of the data, I also use the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan. It made the waves a strange shape which I had never seen before. To express a series of numbers, I look for suitable carriers in the natural environment. So I tried to use the planar or annular scene to show the relationship between numbers and time, such as the vast ocean and flower petals. Through these creations, I wish people could reflect on human intervention and the meaning behind the data.

3. Interactive Object

In the first two attempts, I used human data to change the appearance of the natural world (the singing of birds, the fluctuation of waves, the growth pattern of flowers). After creating these works, I rethought whether the work's performance can be more provoking?

In some research, I found a species that can use voice to declare their class, so I combined the previous techniques and the concept of sorting, developing it into an interactive device. Concerning the shapes in nature: leaf veins, bird's nests, flowers, and other elements, I prototyped several different interactive installations and finally found a form that can let people connect with sorting at first glance.