"trained Ears" and "correlation Coefficients": a Social Science Perspective on Sonification

This paper presents a social science perspective on the field of sonification research. Adopting a perspective informed by constructivist science and technology studies (STS), the paper begins by arguing why sonification is an interesting case study to reconsider the role of sensory representation in scientific practice, and in particular the creation of credibility in science. It then focuses on a debate in which the meaning of objectivity is negotiated within the sonification community, showing that different notions of objectivity and scientific quality co-exist within the community, which are linked to different research questions being asked with the sonifications, different users that are envisaged for the sonifications, and different disciplinary backgrounds of the sonification researchers.