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This article presents a new approach to interactive spatial sonification of multidimensional data as a tool for spatial sound synthesis, for composing temporal–spatial musical materials, and as an auditory display for scientists to analyze multidimensional data sets in time and space. The approach applies parameter-mapping sonification and is currently implemented in an application called Cheddar, which was programmed in Max/MSP. Cheddar sonifies data in real time, where the user can modify a wide variety of temporal, spatial, and sonic parameters during the listening process, and thus more easily uncover patterns and processes in the data than when applying non-real-time, noninteractive techniques. The design draws on existing literature concerning perception and acoustics, and it applies the author's practical experience in acousmatic composition, spectromorphology, and sound semantics, while addressing accuracy, flexibility, and ease of use. Although previous sonification applications have addressed some degree of real-time control and spatialization, this approach integrates space and sound in an interactive framework. Spatial information is sonified in high-order 3-D ambisonics, where the user can interactively move the virtual listening position to reveal details easily missed from fixed or noninteractive spatial views. Sounds used as input to the sonification take advantage of the rich spectra and extramusical attributes of acoustic sources, which, although previously theorized, are investigated here in a practical context thoroughly tested alongside acoustic and psychoacoustic considerations. Furthermore, when using Cheddar, no specialized knowledge of programming, acoustics, or psychoacoustics is required. These approaches position Cheddar at the junction between science and art. With one application serving both disciplines, the patterns and processes of science are more fluently appropriated into music or sound art, and vice versa for scientific research, science public outreach, and education.

��� NoiseSpeech is a compositional device in which sound is digitally manipulated with the intention of evoking the sound qualities of unintelligible speech (Dean 2005). Speech is characterized by “rapidly changing broadband sounds” (Zatorre, Belin, and Penhune 2002), whereas music—particularly tonal music—changes more slowly and narrowly in frequency content. As Zatorre and colleagues argue, this distinction may be reflected in better temporal resolution in the left auditory cortex and better spectral resolution in the right, so that perception is adapted to both ranges and extremes of sonic stimuli. NoiseSpeech is constructed either by applying the formant structure (that is, spectral peak content) of speech to noise or other sounds, or by distorting speech sounds such that they no longer form identifiable phonemes or words. The resultant hybrid is an artistic device that, we argue, may owe its force to an encapsulation of the affective qualities of human speech, while intentionally stripping the sounds of any semantic content. In this article, we present an empirical investigation of listener perceptions of NoiseSpeech, demonstrating that non-specialist listeners hear such sounds as similar to each other and to unaltered speech. NoiseSpeech is ambiguous in evoking the identification of an everyday source of sound—human speech—within the musical context of sound art. Arguably, it could be said to blur the distinction described by Gaver (1993a, 1993b) between two types of listening: the “everyday” and the “musical.” When NoiseSpeech occurs in the context of a composition or performance, what form of listening does a listener employ? The context is one of musical listening, yet the identification of the sounds with the human generation of speech is an everyday listening concern. The propensity to identify the source of a sound is a question of interest to both cognitive and ecological approaches to perception. Handel (1989) posits that cognizing sound in

11 The Italian composer Agostino Di Scipio (see Figure 1) is one of the most interesting European personalities today working in the space between computer music and sound art. In his recent work, he creates purely sonic interactions between a source, realtime digital signal processors, and the room hosting the performance. The network of interactions is conceived as a dynamic, self-organizing system, symbiotically connected with the surrounding environment. The following interview addresses such issues and provides an overview of the theoretical and technological background behind them. It also touches on the central role of noise in Mr. Di Scipio’s live electronics compositions and on the degree of freedom allowed to human agents involved in the performance of such works. A list of his compositions is given in Table 1, and a list of recordings is provided in Table 2. Born in Naples in 1962, Mr. Di Scipio first approached composition as a self-taught musician, and later he pursued more formal studies at the Conservatory of L’Aquila and the University of Padua. A former visiting composer in several institutions, including Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Columbia, 1993) and the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, 1995), he is today Professor of Electronic Music at the Conservatory of Naples and instructor in live electronics at Centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris. In 2004, Mr. Di Scipio lectured at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and at Johannes-GutenbergUniversitat in Mainz. A portrait compact disc, including some of the works recalled in the interview, will soon be released by Edition RZ, Berlin. He is also greatly interested in issues of music theory involving the relationship between art and technology, and he has published numerous articles and essays in international publications devoted to such issues. In 2004–2005, he lived in Berlin as a guest artist of