The fields of media archaeology and data sonification have not been without contestation regarding means and methods. However, in combination, these fields present an opportunity for a novel approach to the creation of media archaeologically informed sound-based art. This article discusses the artistic use of data sonification techniques and the need to balance the musification of data while maintaining a sense of the underlying data. The use of data sonification techniques within media archaeology to facilitate the organisation of sound is briefly discussed. A framework is presented for utilising data sonification to facilitate the organisation of sound within the lens of media archaeology inquiry. Such an approach provides a novel method in media archaeologically informed sound-based art that utilises the sound of the artefact as a method of expression between genealogically related forms of media. A sound installation developed by the authors is presented that critically examines the use of, and gives concrete form to, the framework and the ideas established in this article.

Peter Manning first established an international reputation with his book Electronic and Computer Music, originally published by Oxford University Press in 1985 and now in its fourth edition (Manning 2004). The book presents a detailed account of the technical and creative evolution of electronic music from its earliest days. Starting from Thaddeus Cahill’s 1897 patent application for the Dynamophone, it traces developments in North America and Europe and discusses a range of analogue techniques including tape manipulation and voltage-controlled synthesisers. Later chapters consider the digital revolution that followed, including developments in MIDI and digital workstations. In later editions, the sections on computer music were significantly revised and expanded to reflect the major and rapid transformation of the field. A distinctive feature of the book is the way it combines detailed historical information and thorough explanations of technical developments, often clarified by use of explanatory diagrams, with insightful accounts of the musical repertoire produced using this technology. The book was derived from Peter’s PhD thesis at Durham University in which he surveyed and analysed numerous contemporaneous texts documenting developments in minute detail.