Panel Chair: Jordan Wirfs-Brock (she/her)
Panelists
Auralee Walmer is a researcher, data scientist, artist, and musician. She uses interdisciplinary methods to combine data, art, and sound for the purpose of communication and learning. She is the author of The Data Sonification Toolkit, a resource website for learning about sonification. She will be starting a master’s in music technology at Stanford’s CCRMA in Fall 2026. You can find out more about her projects, art, and sonic endeavors at https://aurawalmer.com/.
Irene de la Torre Arenas (https://irenedelatorrearenas.com/) – Irene de la Torre is a journalist and data visualization designer currently working in the Visual Storytelling team at the Financial Times. Previously, she worked at BBC News, UCB, and the MIT Senseable City Lab, where she also taught data visualization. Her work has received recognition from organizations including the WAN-IFRA European Digital Media Awards and the Data Journalism SIGMA Awards.
Christian Basl is an award-winning journalist at Germany’s WDR, where he currently focuses on media portfolio strategy, data-driven storytelling and AI. Since 2020, he has been exploring the journalistic and artistic potential of data sonification through workshops, performances and installations with the project SoniFriday or his own tool DataSonifyer. Christian studied Political Theory in Frankfurt am Main, which shaped his interest in political and societal transformation.
Berit Kruse is an award-winning data journalist at Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany, where she has been writing and programming for the paper’s data desk since 2020. She studied Business, Psychology and Journalism in Bielefeld and Leipzig before joining one of Germany’s most widely read newspapers. Her work spans data-driven political reporting as well as society-focused data storytelling on topics such as gender dynamics, media algorithms, and pop culture. Alongside her editorial work, Berit explores data sonification as an additional means of storytelling with @sonifriday.