Making Music from Data

By Elsa Partan

Published December 26, 2017 at 11:32 AM EST

Our ears are actually better at picking out trends than our eyes. That’s just one reason that Mark Ballora of Pennsylvania State University turns big data into beautiful soundscapes. He has transformed data from hurricanes and stars, and is working with deep-sea biologists. On Living Lab radio, we talk with Mark about data sonification, and seeing with your ears.

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Elsa Partan

Elsa Partan is a producer and newscaster with CAI. She first came to the station in 2002 as an intern and fell in love with radio. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. From 2006 to 2009, she covered the state of Wyoming for the NPR member station Wyoming Public Media in Laramie. She was a newspaper reporter at The Mashpee Enterprise from 2010 to 2013. She lives in Falmouth with her husband and two daughters.

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