Sonification Abstraite/Sonification Concr\`ete: An 'Aesthetic Perspective Space' for Classifying Auditory Displays in the Ars Musica Domain

Abstract

This paper discusses {\ae}sthetic issues of sonifications and the relationships between sonification (ars informatica) and music & sound art (ars musica). It is posited that many sonifications have suffered from poor internal ecological validity which makes listening more difficult, thereby resulting in poorer data extraction and inference on the part of the listener. Lessons are drawn from the electroacoustic music and musique concr\`ete communities as it is argued that it is not instructive to distinguish between sonifications and music/sound art.