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James Trayford

@trayford.bsky.social

320 followers 210 following 74 posts

Audible Astrophysics :: Galaxy Formation & Evolution - Research Fellow at the Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation, University of Portsmouth UK - audiouniverse.org - github.com/james-trayford/strauss - https://james-trayford.github.io/

james-trayford.github.io

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 13

Check out this article from STFC about our sonification of astronomical data, and beyond! including a new sonification at the end - perceive multi-scale information about galaxy formation in our cosmological simulations... 🧪🔭⚡🐡. medium.com/big-science-...

The sound of silence: how sound brings space to life

The vacuum of space is famously silent, but what if you were able to use sound to help you visualise the Universe? What would a black hole…

medium.com

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Sep 2

... showing multiple galaxy maps conveys different properties - but we can't watch them all at once... I'm interested in sound to enhance perception of data, and find new things! If you have application ideas, try our STRAUSS sonification code (github.com/james-trayfo...), or let me know! 🧪🔭⚡🐡

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Sep 1

...Temperature illustrates the hot outflowing gas corresponding to the windy sound - pale plumes emanate from the central region. Sonification allows us to represent this with sound while visualising something else - such as starlight - so we can impart more dimensions of the data at once! 🧪🔭⚡🐡

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Sep 1

The sophisticated COLIBRE simulations finally land on the arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2508.21126. Treating these with sonification, we can get new intuition for galaxy evolution to augment our visuals. Sound on for the explainer vid, visit the site for more! colibre.strw.leidenuniv.nl/videos.html 🔭🧪

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · May 6

🚨 you can also find more strauss examples here! www.audiouniverse.org/research/str... 🎶🎧🧪🔭🐡🚀 @stsci.edu #EduSky #musiciansky #philsci

Journal of Open Source Software @joss-openjournals.bsky.social · May 6

Just published in JOSS: 'strauss: Sonification Tools & Resources for Analysis Using Sound Synthesis' https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.07875

Reposted by James Trayford

Emily Hunt @emily.space · Apr 3

Next paper I want to highlight: the paper for STRAUSS by @trayford.bsky.social et al. came out! ☄️ #astrocode

STRAUSS is a tool for sonifying scientific data, meaning you can enhance the presentation & accessibility of your data.

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2504.01660

Here's a great example:

Hearing black hole winds

YouTube video by Audio Universe

www.youtube.com

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Thanks Emily! 🙌

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Thanks Ben! 🙏

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Jan 31

Through diverse perspectives, we discover a lot. We found composite rhythms in calypso ideal for representing many planets at once, which we will build on. Arron guided us musically, providing the joyful incidental music, instrument recordings and endless enthusiasm...(3/n)🧪🔭🐡 #edusky #musiciansky

Arron George, a tall man from Trinidad wearing a patterned shirt and dark glasses

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Jan 31

Collaboration helped us do this as authentically as possible; The instruments chosen to 'voice' each star and planet, the harmonies used that represent calypso styles, and the relative emphasis on musical elements like melody, rhythm and harmony... www.port.ac.uk/news-events-... (2/n) 🧪🔭☀️🐡 #EduSky

Caribbean beat brings the Universe to life

A new show exploring the Solar System through the vibrant sounds of the Caribbean premiered last night.   

www.port.ac.uk

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Jan 31

In 2021, we released a unique planetarium show for blind or low vision kids, using sounds and music convey space. Music of course is very cultural... now we've collaborated with Trinidadian scientists and musicians for a Caribbean version, watch below (1/n)! 🧪🔭⚡☀️🐡 www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjkA...

Caribbean Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System

YouTube video by Audio Universe

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by James Trayford

Sophie Newman @sophienewman.bsky.social · Jan 7

It's a very happy first-author paper day for me! In this thread I'll explain some of the exciting results from my paper
nicknamed 'Cloudy-Maraston' with the aid of doodles inspired by the amazing work of @clairelamman.bsky.social !

arxiv.org/abs/2501.03133

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 19

Are the dark regions embedded in 100% areas (e.g. near Finland-Russia border) bodies of water?

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 19

Interesting to see ESA using the inverse spectrogram approach on Euclid images now. In general great that sonification is being thought of more by major agencies!

...shameless plug of this article on our sonification project and STRAUSS code if it's of interest bsky.app/profile/tray...

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 13

The sound of silence: how sound brings space to life

The vacuum of space is famously silent, but what if you were able to use sound to help you visualise the Universe? What would a black hole…

medium.com

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 19

Check out this paper for a thoughtful review of sonification in astronomy: arxiv.org/abs/2206.13536

Sonification and Sound Design for Astronomy Research, Education and Public Engagement

Over the last ten years there has been a large increase in the number of projects using sound to represent astronomical data and concepts. Motivation for these projects includes the potential to enhan...

arxiv.org

Reposted by James Trayford

Jen Gupta @jengupta.bsky.social · Dec 18

Last week of work and everyone seemed to get their toys out! A mini Mars rover and a work in progress from @trayford.bsky.social

A photo of a mini Mars Rover model on a wooden desk.

A photo of a strip of coloured LED lights snaked around on a grey carpet. The first LEDs at the top are off and then the LEDs go from blue to orange as they go down.

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 18

🔭🦑

Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · Dec 18

From the depths of the ocean to the most distant galaxies, we’re all connected! In celebration of both organizations receiving Clarke Foundation awards, the @montereyaq.bsky.social has partnered with STScI to bring you images from outer space and Earth’s life-giving ocean.

Two images side by side. At left: Hazy red, white, and blue cotton candy-like strands form the shape of a spinning toy top on its side. Text at the top reads: Crab Nebula.
On the right: A close up of a strawberry anemone highlights its transparent tentacles. The luminous pink-orange glow at the center of its mouth is a result of the biofluorescence. Text at the top reads: Strawberry anemone.

Two images side by side. On the left: Two collided spiral galaxies on a black background. The streamer of blue light going bottom left to top right intersects another stream at the center of this image create a flat X shape. The front stream is pale yellow oval with dark patches of dust across it, and goes from top left to bottom right. Text at the bottom reads: Interacting Galaxy NGC 520.
On the right: An opalescent nudibranch on rocky substrate of the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit. The gold-tipped dread-like cerata of the nudibranch stands out against the dark background. Text at the top reads: Opalescent nudibranch.

Two images side by side. At left: At the very center is a small hourglass shape with an orange outline set against the black background of space. Flecks of dark orange spot the region that would make up an hourglass’s flat bottom and top. Text at the top reads: Southern Crab Nebula.
At right: Two pillow-like moon jellies bump gently against one another, their bells slightly touching. They are a creamy, partly-translucent white color, with lacy oral arms and wispy tentacles, drifting against a dark blue background. Text at the top reads: Moon jellies.

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 18

Great to see ESO on here!

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 17

also not sure 3.54 rounds to 3.6

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 17

This has happened to me before when i'd forgotten to convert argvals from strings. My favourite recent is converting a numpy boolean index array to an integer array by accident so it just happily indexes the 0th and 1st element and yields garbage

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 16

Do you mean real drummers? I do think machine music has influenced drummers to innovate in really interesting ways, e.g. JD Beck as a current example

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 16

I've definitely seen instances of people new to creative mediums referring to things they've generated with prompts as 'my art'. I think what they're closer to is curators, and that curatorial skill is usually developed alongside the creative one (choosing ideas, throwing away bad ones)

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 16

Exciting! Hope the booth goes well 😉

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 16

Noticed different sentiment between arts, STEM, education etc surrounding machine learning & AI. How about a bit of word association? interested in adjectives for any/all of:

- AI: ___
- Generative AI: ___
- LLMs: ___
- ChatGPT: ___
- Machine Learning: ___

🧪🔭⚛️🐡🐙 #art #artsci #musicianfeed #EduSky

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James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 15

Just realised Peterborough united have scored and conceded the most goals in league 1 this season excepting leaders Wycombe and last-place Shrewsbury, respectively. Just about sums it up - still good win this weekend #pufc

James Trayford @trayford.bsky.social · Dec 15

A nuanced issue fs, but definitely one worth bringing to light!