Abstract
Sonification and visualization practices usually take "data" as a given, without considering the complex ways in which data is collected or the complexity of the phenomena that data represents. Autographic design is an emerging field approaching this issue by starting the design process before data collection with the phenomenon itself, treating data as a material trace rather than an abstract reference. An autographic display uses a phenomenon's self-inscription, rather than its mediation and representation in symbolic encodings. While the existing framework of autographic design has a strong relation to the visual domain, a phenomenon may also reveal itself through its sonic trace. The contributions of this paper are threefold. We extend autographic design into the sonic domain, introduce autographic sonification instruments, and propose a design continuum.
Keywords
Autographic Design, Sonification, Design Methods, Design Theory, Field Study, Prototyping
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.750
Citation
Enge, K., Offenhuber, D., and Lenzi, S. (2026) A Design Continuum for Autographic Sonification, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.750
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
A Design Continuum for Autographic Sonification
Sonification and visualization practices usually take "data" as a given, without considering the complex ways in which data is collected or the complexity of the phenomena that data represents. Autographic design is an emerging field approaching this issue by starting the design process before data collection with the phenomenon itself, treating data as a material trace rather than an abstract reference. An autographic display uses a phenomenon's self-inscription, rather than its mediation and representation in symbolic encodings. While the existing framework of autographic design has a strong relation to the visual domain, a phenomenon may also reveal itself through its sonic trace. The contributions of this paper are threefold. We extend autographic design into the sonic domain, introduce autographic sonification instruments, and propose a design continuum.