VNM Festival 2019 – Resonances

Brady Marks (Vancouver)

Goldilocks fights off Pareidolia

Thursday October 17, 2019

Annex (Vancouver, BC)

Pareidolia is pattern recognition gone wrong, seeing something significant where there is nothing but random noise.

Goldilocks is a girl in a nursery rhyme who gives her name to the so-named Goldilocks Planets that are neither too hot or too cold, but just right for water to be liquid and perhaps for life to be supported or to form.

In sonification we map data into sound, the rules for making these mappings are an art, not a science. We extract features, we use metaphor and symbology, any mapping is possible, some are misleading, but the object is the same as in science – an attempt to understand natural phenomena. Scientists also use analogies and hand waving explanations, to communicate intuitions to their colleagues. This performance crosses back and forth trying to find the sweet spot.

Video documentation by Mingtao Kong.
Audio documentation by Ira Jordison.