Digital Humanities Oxford Summer School · STC / EEBO-TCP catalogue

The Sonic Register

Three small instruments for listening to a catalogue of early printed books — each takes the same CSV export (date, place, page-count, subject terms) and turns one dimension of it into sound.

Built with Highcharts and the Web Audio API — no frameworks, nothing leaves your browser. Upload your own export in the same shape as the sample (columns: Date, Pages, Place, Terms, among others), or load the bundled sample of 199 STC/EEBO records to try each tool straight away.

I

Timeline & Tone

Every year in the catalogue becomes a note. Pitch tracks either the number of editions or the total pages printed that year — press play and hear four centuries of the press rise and fall.

Open the timeline →
II

Distance from Home

Places of publication plotted on a map of Britain. A chronological playback sounds each year again, but now volume falls away with distance from a reference point you set — Oxford by default.

Open the map →
III

Subject Cloud

Subject terms, split on their semicolons, sized by frequency. Click a term and hear its associated titles played back as a short arpeggiated phrase.

Open the cloud →