Data sonification with Highcharts

This month we'll be learning about data sonification -- the process of turning data into sound -- using Highcharts.

If we think of data visualisation as the process of turning data into visuals, data sonification is the lesser explored experimental area of doing the same but for audio. In daily life we often encounter sounds being used to inform us of things -- from vehicles reversing to phones beeping -- aiding understanding and accessibility. Might it be useful and take this a step further and try and encode all the information you would see in a chart into sound? This is something the Financial Times, the BBC, and the Loud Numbers podcast have all played with.

Highcharts is a popular Javascript library for creating charts on the web. It can be used to produce many types of data visualisation, but we'll be specifically looking at its' data sonification capabilities

In this session we'll be following a tutorial that covers how to get started with Highcharts' sonification module, covering everything you need to know to use it to produce audio charts. Alongside the sonification we'll also produce some more typical data visualisations for the data we'll be working with.

All of our events are suitable for beginners, and no programming experience is required. Bring a laptop along as this a practical, hands-on workshop. Please also sign up for a Dropbox account if you don't already have one so you can edit the shared doc we'll be using during the event.

Schedule
7:00 🚪 Doors open
7:30 🗣 Show and tell
7:40 💻 Tutorial
9:00 🍺 Drinks at the George

If you can't make the main event, you're also welcome to just join us in the pub from 9!

What is Journocoders? We are a community and monthly meetup for journalists and other people in the media who want to learn technical skills for use in their reporting -- and meet likeminded others.

Our events do often fill up, but if it's full please do join the waitlist as spaces do typically become available. And if you find you can no longer make it, please update your RSVP so someone else can take your spot.