This dissertation examines sonic art works that demonstrate the characteristic ways that sound is affected by its surroundings. Called "contextual representation" herein, this activity is found in soundscape composition and glitch music, as well as Alvin Lucier's music compositions and the sound installations of Robin Minard, Max Neuhaus, and Bill Fontana. This dissertation introduces the basic concepts and terminology necessary to discuss contextual representation as a single category and examines the boundaries of this category, justifying the placement of various works within or outside the category. Additionally, this dissertation describes the works of contextual representation listed above. This dissertation introduces four compositional aspects common to these works---stasis, nonsense, non action, and juxtaposition---and explains how they are used to demonstrate a context's characteristics. Finally, this dissertation describes and analyzes four of my sonic art works, which provide a practical demonstration of the concepts introduced here.