External auditory representations of programs: Past, present, and future - an aesthetic perspective

Abstract

This paper provides a summary of previous work done in the area of external auditory representations of programs (known as program auralisation). A brief historical review is given followed by a short summary of the characteristics of the main program auralisation systems that have been reported in the literature. As program auralisation systems tend to use musical representations they are necessarily affected by artistic considerations. The influence of art theory and practice on the design of computer systems and artefacts (known as aesthetic computing [1, 2]) has grown to the extent that there is now a growing field devoted to its study. Therefore, it is instructive to explore the design of program auralisation systems in the light of aesthetic computing ideas. The remainder of this paper then, discusses the main principles of aesthetic computing in relation to program auralisation, and finishes with some views on how aesthetic computing can influence the future development of program auralisation systems.