MAPPING IN THE EMERGENCY: DESIGNING A HYPERLOCAL AND SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS SONIFIED MAP OF COVID-19 IN SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK

In this paper, we describe a hyperlocal ArcGIS- and sonificationbased COVID-19 web-mapping tool that seeks to ameliorate some of socio-technical problems associated with epidemiological mapping and the field’s frequent usage of visual and haptic data display. This socio-technical problems can be seen in current, wellknown and frequently cited epidemiological mapping tools, such as the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, which face functional and formal design challenges when compared to the hyper-phenomenal scope of the ongoing pandemic. As a review of our current project scope, we describe the stakes of the pandemic and pose questions related to the aforementioned design challenges that tools deploying data display may face. Taken as a whole, our project aims to offer a response to some of these design challenges by offering user choice and control, n-dimensional data display via sonification, and the integration so socio-political data into epidemiological layers to better represent Suffolk County’s lived experience with COVID-19.