Scenophony: An undisciplinary approach to the design of immersive sound storytelling

Based on established artistic practices focusing on spatial audio in the context of immersive sound experiences, we bring forth and discuss the concept of scenophony – following Gilles Malatray’s description of the word ‘scénophonie’. Derived from the term scenography, scenophony refers to the practice of the (scenic) space, primarily considering its acoustic situation (phonic) as perceived by the audience. Scenophony is the design and realization of the sound space as a whole: a perception-led creative practice at the intersection of sound design, audio art, musical composition, acoustics, psychoacoustics, audio engineering, and user experience design. The main object of this article is to define the role of scenophony and its involvement in the creation and overall reception of a sonic experience within or as a scenic space, as well as its potential applications and benefits in the context of immersive storytelling. Moreover, we propose a paradigm shift from the common representations used in most current sound spatialization tools, generally assuming a single, ideal, egocentric, sweet-spot-oriented approach – mostly aimed at VR/AR/MR applications – as evidenced by both the graphical (UI) representation of Euclidean space as well as the preferred, often single, audio spatialization technique proposed. The hypothesis is that such egocentric graphical representations of some sound spatialization tools may limit how sound and music are diffused, as well as affect how sonic scenes are designed and listened to. In contrast to such representations, especially in the context of collective and heterogeneous sound experiences, we propose that an allocentric approach to spatial sound design, grounded in the concept of scenophony, offers new ways to create stories through immersive sound.