Word of the day: Phenomenology.

The philosophical investigation of the structures of lived experience

(as defined by Marc Davis in "Theoretical Foundations for Experiential System Design.")

What qualities decide that a given constraint of time becomes worthy of being called an experience? What about them makes us human?

Sonification

As the new school year begins, I'm excitedly preparing for one of the two classes I will be the TA for by looking up examples of Sonification. This subset of Auditory display is focused on conveying complex information and patterns through non-verbal sound and/or music. In some cases, the brain is much better at interpreting meaning from patterns when presented aurally rather than visually. In looking for examples, my inner math/music nerd flipped over this straight forward, if somewhat trivial example. Pi to the 1000th digit in MIDI notes.

For better and less nerdy examples, start here and then head on over their blog.