Our grant project supported the creation and study of auditory displays based on publicly available data collected near and within Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS). We worked with local Sea Grant personnel through a co-design process to decide which datasets and phenomena they feel would be most relevant and captivating for their local audience and potentially help to amplify existing outreach materials.
Use your ears to explore an 8x8 grid of Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary Habitat Map, with four habitats: Rippled Sand, Flat Sand, Dense Live Bottom, and Sparse Live Bottom. To interact with the map, click Start Audio and then drag on the map to hear sonic representations of the four habitats.
Click on buttons in the auditory legend to hear more context about each habitat type.
Watch videos and listen to data narratives and sonifications from the project to learn more.
Learn MoreDr. Jessica Roberts. PI. Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Jon Bellona. Co-PI. University of Oregon
Dr. Leslie Smith. Co-PI. Your Ocean Consulting LLC
Emily Amspoker. Georgia Institute of Technology
Solyane Berge. Georgia Institute of Technology
Rhoney Lee. Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Amy Bower. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Roberts, J. (2025) Beyond the Visual: Creating multimodal displays for maximizing ocean science engagement. Presented at the Information+ Conference. Boston, MA, USA (Virtual Presentation due to Government Shutdown)
Leslie M Smith, Jessica Roberts, Jon Bellona, Rhoney Lee, Solyane Berg, Anuska Giri and Amy S Bower. An Accessible Ocean Sanctuary: Exploring Spatial Ocean Data from Gray's Reef NMS Through Tangible and Auditory Displays. Presentation at the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026. Glasgow, Scotland
Emily Amspoker, Solyane Berge, Rhoney Lee, John Bellona, Leslie Smith, Amy Bower, and Jessica Roberts. 2025. Touchable Sound: Exploring Spatial Ocean Data Through Tangible and Auditory Displays. In Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. Accepted