Playing textual analysis as music

Textual analysis tools are now readily available and accessible to all but there are often difficulties in securing clear and useful analytical results, since the levels of abstraction employed in the tools is often mismatched to the level of interest of the researcher. Many tools provide low-level statistical analyses, with extensive data output, but leave the task of assimilating the significance of the results up to the investigator. In this setting, we have begun investigating a novel approach to data projection that may assist in a variety of assimilation contexts. We have developed a prototype software tool that takes the data output from an existing textual analysis program and maps the results to a musical 'interpretation'. This allows listeners to hear the textual characteristics of a particular document or to compare characteristics across several documents according to the musical projection of the data analyses.