What is sonosphere? Definition and examples
Providing a definition of the word ‘sonosphere’ is complicated by its multiple uses. For instance, rather than being confined solely to the “acoustical”, the sonosphere “embraces a full sweep and barrage of energies, including the magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, geomagnetic, and quantum”.
1. Pauline Oliveros – a composer, performer, and humanitarian known as one of the architects of electronic music – conceived of a sonosphere that was the “sonic envelope of the earth created by all vibrations set in motion”.
Rather than being confined, like the soundscapes of R. Murray Schafer, solely to the “acoustical”, this notion of the sonosphere “embraces a full sweep and barrage of energies, including the magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, geomagnetic, and quantum”. Oliveros also does not draw a distinction between natural and man-made sound, as Bernie Krause does with the categories of anthropophonic and biophonic sounds.
In this theory – laid out “in terms of physical energies, natural and technological factors, and esoteric and New Age beliefs” – the sonosphere “functions in alignment with Earth’s resonating energy and beyond”, with this resonating energy being processed, both consciously and unconsciously, by living creatures.
2. ‘Sonosphere’ (or ‘digital sonosphere’) has also started to gain traction in artistic and academic fields. One definition positions this version of the phrase as representing “a new space for the creation and reception of audio messages”: “an auditory and audible environment that surrounds us like a dynamic and flexible aural interface”, and a individual world of sound consisting of “radio on demand, downloads, blogs and social networks”.
However, in part because of the recency of its emergence, this version of the term has been deemed “ambiguous, context-dependent and redundant in relation to existing terms”.
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