Anatomy of Experience

The physics of sound. 

The anatomy of an experience, 

Deep waves.

In sound design, we often get bogged down in the "what" (the sample), but your thesis focuses on the "when" and the "where." Here is a breakdown of that philosophy from a design perspective:

1. The Attack: The Definition of Identity

The transient is the "truth" of a sound. In psychoacoustics, the human brain identifies what a sound is within the first few milliseconds.

 * The Philosophy: The attack is an action. It is the stick hitting the skin, the finger plucking the string, or the foot hitting the pavement.

 * The Design: If you remove the transient from a piano and a trumpet, they begin to sound remarkably similar. The attack is the signature of intent.

2. The Decay: The Narrative of Change

If the attack is the event, the decay is the consequence.

 * The Philosophy: Sound is entropy in real-time. The decay represents the energy leaving the system.

 * The Design: A long decay suggests size, weight, or resonance; a short decay suggests tension, dampening, or a "dead" object. The way a sound dies tells us more about its physical makeup than how it began.

3. Context & Environment: The Mirror

You mentioned that environment is the space within which it fades. This is where sound design becomes spatial philosophy.

 * The Philosophy: A sound does not exist in a vacuum. The "space" (reverb, delay, atmospheric noise) is the conversation between the object and its world.

 * The Design: * Dry Sound: Isolation, intimacy, or claustrophobia.

   * Wet/Reflective Sound: Connection, scale, or "the ghost" of the event lingering in the rafters.

The Synthesis

Silence is the canvas and the transient is the brushstroke. The "fade" is simply the ink drying into the texture of the paper (the environment).

In modern synthesis, we often use the ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) envelope. "Sustain" is an illusion—in the natural world, everything is technically in a state of decay from the moment the attack ends.

Silence is an impossible infinite.

Time is a vibration.

Everything makes a sound

Nothing can make a sound.

Sometimes the loudest