Peter R. Marting, PhD

Arbeitsvorhaben

The Sound Engine: A New Comparative Tool for Perceiving Complexity

Modern biology generates data at a breathtaking scale and complexity, from genomics, to collective behavior, to ecological networks. Yet our ability to collect data has far outpaced our ability to perceive it. Visualizations and statistics can reveal much, but they often flatten the richness of dynamic, multidimensional systems. Meanwhile, human hearing is extraordinarily powerful at analyzing complex information. Any seemingly simple modern song actually contains a dizzying array of layered data across frequencies, rhythms, harmonics. Yet our ears effortlessly parse them into melodies, instruments, and patterns: hundreds of parallel data streams perceived as coherent structure. This natural perceptual power suggests a new opportunity for increasingly complex science: to listen to data.
At the Wissenschaftskolleg, I will develop a flexible, open-source sound engine that allows scientists to map data dimensions onto auditory parameters such as pitch, tone, rhythm, and spatialization (a process called sonification). The tool will enable users to hear their data and identify patterns through auditory experience, facilitating new insights and comparisons across disciplines. This project lies at the intersection of biology, computational modeling, sound design, and art, fields uniquely fostered by the interdisciplinary community of the Wissenschaftskolleg.
The project has three main components:
1. a conceptual study of the theory and history of data sonification,
2. the development of the sound engine itself, and
3. its application to my own ecological data on honey bee nest architecture.

Recommended Reading

Marting, Peter R., Nicole M. Kallman, William T. Wcislo, and Stephen C. Pratt (2018). “Ant-Plant Sociometry in the Azteca-Cecropia Mutualism.” Scientific Reports 8: 17968. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36399-9.
Marting, Peter R., William T. Wcislo, and Stephen C. Pratt (2018). “Colony Personality and Plant Health in the Azteca-Cecropia Mutualism.” Behavioral Ecology 29 (1): 264–271. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arx165.
Marting, Peter R., Benjamin Koger, and Michael L. Smith (2023). “Manipulating Nest Architecture Reveals Three-Dimensional Building Strategies and Colony Resilience in Honeybees.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 290: 20222565. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2565.

Publikationen aus der Fellowbibliothek

Marting, Peter R. (Cambridge, MA, 2024)

Form, function, and evolutionary origins of architectural symmetry in honey bee nests

Marting, Peter R. (London, 2023)

Manipulating nest architecture reveals three-dimensional building strategies and colony resilience in honeybees