Sonic Design and Spatial Features

Abstract

This chapter seeks to contextualise and demonstrate how the core features of sonic design can encompass multidimensional features of space. The Schaefferian sound object is the basis for sonic design, a multidimensional unit which can contain multiple significations and features at the same time. This unit can be described by its main features and be broken down into sub-features and sub-sub-features. Rich and varied attributes from acoustics and psychoacoustics are used to see the sound object not merely in a musical but also in a spatial perspective. My proposed spatial “extension” to sonic design follows a proposal for how the typomorphology classification system can be seen in the light of spatial features.