Quantum: An art-science case study on sonification and sound design in virtual reality

Molecular sonification is the transformation of chemical data into sound and has been used to gain insight into chemical systems and for the creation of contemporary music compositions. The combination of sonification with a virtual reality environment offers potential benefits such as providing a visual frame of reference, an increased sense of immersion, nuanced spatial information through binaural audio cues and ease of interactivity. To explore how strategies developed in sonification research and contemporary electroacoustic music composition can be adapted to virtual reality, the art-science installation 'Quantum' was created. The multi-media work consists of computer-generated molecules in a virtual space producing sound created via the sonification of nuclear magnetic resonance data. Upon user interaction with different molecules, the overall composition and complexity of the sound world develop. The binaural sound material can migrate back and forth from the molecules to the non-binaural background composition and, depending on user input, develop in terms of timbre, spectral complexity, and gestural content. `Quantum' is an exploration of the combination of sonification and virtual reality and offers first points of discussion that can be elaborated upon in future artworks, games or educational content.