The world around us is a true symphony, and understanding its various sound components helps us better grasp our environment. Mylène Pardoën, a soundscape archaeologist, has highlighted a fascinating classification of sounds into three layers: geophony, biophony, and anthropophony. These concepts help dissect how sounds interact in a given space.
1. Geophony: The Sound of Inanimate Nature
Geophony encompasses all the sounds produced by inanimate natural elements: the wind rustling through trees, the rain hitting the ground, or the distant rumble of thunder. These are sounds that originate from the Earth itself, without the intervention of living beings. They form a kind of perpetual background sound that affects our perception of calm or tumult, depending on weather conditions. Mylène Pardoën emphasizes that geophony is an omnipresent backdrop in all natural spaces.
2. Biophony: The Echo of Life
Biophony refers to the collection of sounds emitted by living organisms, particularly animals and plants. The singing of birds, the buzzing of bees, or the croaking of frogs are common examples. These sounds testify to the biodiversity of a place, and their analysis helps assess the health of ecosystems. The richer an environment is in biophony, the more balanced it is considered to be. According to Pardoën, biophony offers a dynamic and natural soundscape that humans often perceive unconsciously.
3. Anthropophony: The Sound of Humans
Finally, anthropophony encompasses all the sounds produced by human activities, whether it's speech, city noises, music, or industrial sounds. In urban areas, this sound layer becomes dominant and tends to drown out geophony and biophony, which can impact both our well-being and that of surrounding species. Pardoën's research highlights the growing omnipresence of this sound layer, which influences our perception of space.
Conclusion
These three sound layers, though distinct, intertwine in our daily lives, creating unique soundscapes depending on location and era. By becoming aware of their existence, we can better understand the impact of human activity on our sound environment. Have you ever taken the time to listen and identify these different layers in your own environment?
