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Cymatics, the study of ‘wave phenomena’, or sound vibrations and their harmonically resonant properties in matter is an area of scientific research which has enjoyed a few brief and spasmodic periods of interest, but often with quasi-scientific and quasi-mystical and spiritual leanings. Whether or not one wants to pursue the relationship of wave phenomena to crop circles, cosmic music, theology and spirituality healing powers, etc etc, the fact remains that cymatics presents a very concrete example of the inextricably material and embodied relationship between the sonic and the visual, between audio and video and the ability of sound to affect and even form physical structures. For this reason it is a very interesting phenomena / research area from the point of view of cross-signal processing, synaethesia and data-visualisation techniques in art and new media. Indeed Robin Fox’s Oscilloscope works and Carsten Nicolai’s audiovisual works with milk employ this very technique of emergent harmonic patterns formed in matter by excitation by sonic vibration.
Cymatics, the study of wave phenomena, is a science pioneered by Swiss medical doctor and natural scientist, Hans Jenny (1904-1972). For 14 years he conducted experiments animating inert powders, pastes, and liquids into life-like, flowing forms, which mirrored patterns found throughout nature, art and architecture. What’s more, all of these patterns were created using simple sine wave vibrations (pure tones) within the audible range. So what you see is a physical representation of vibration, or how sound manifests into form through the medium of various materials. (cymaticsource.com)
Also interesting from a research point of view is this article published in 1982 which sets out to explore the dynamic relationships between sound waves, matter, visual patterns of cymatics in terms of their potential for audiovisual ‘interactive and new media’ environments:
“One of my guiding principles is to create a total sonic and visual music based on archetypal dynamic structures that transcend the cultural deformations of perception. Archetypal dynamic structures result from timeless natural processes that involve the patterns, relationship, interaction and transformations of energy. One such example is the solar system as we refer to it in the planetary, international, social and atomic contexts. Magnetic polarity is another example of a natural energy field. Another is the structure of weather patterns, a model which I have used for the composition of a number of my own interactive environments.
I am sensing on the horizon a truly new field of composition, a field being fostered by the emerging instruments of the electronic arts of sound and light – computers, synthesizers, laser graphics systems, holography and videographics systems. This new field of composition is based on creating totally integrated, nontrivial sound/light compositions from a complex multidimensionally organised wave set – a wave set that will simultaneously speak to the ear and signal to the eye with the life force.”
Cymatic Music: Towards a Metatheory of Harmonic Phenomena: My Interactive Compositions and Environments
# Ronald A. Pellegrino
# Leonardo, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring, 1983), pp. 120-123
Looking into the author’s history of work, one might have expected his work to have moved further into more current ‘new media’ practices, but there seems to be a recurring theme of limited scope with the study of Cymatics. It appears to be mostly unable to escape the novel other than by way of reference to the mystical – perhaps the relationship between the frequencies and the patterns thus formed are too directly correlative, perhaps surprisingly not dynamic enough in their ability to connect with, and generate new, fields of potential? Perhaps they are too easily captured by a popular cultural pockets of desire for a contemporary quasi-scientific mysticism? I wonder why though, surely there is more to be done here with the relationship between energy waves, sonic and visual patterns and the physicality of matter and bodies themselves?
I am looking into the author himself and I find it is I. The author of that last paragraph above must not have experienced much of the work I’ve been doing for the past 40 years or so. In a nutshell, all of it is based one way or another on the principle of cymatics. My latest project, EMERGENT MUSIC AND VISUAL MUSIC: INSIDE STUDIES, involves a book, a set of DVDs, and a set of soon to be released nine or ten CDs of music, all of which are filled with examples of pieces and thoughts that rise up out of cymatic explorations. I’ve been a lover of emerging technology in the arts all my adult life but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the mysterious. In fact, the mysterious is an unending source of inspiration. Even electricity remains a mystery. No mysteries, no need for science and then life becomes purely academic and boring at best. The acts of embracing and exploring the mystical give life meaning for exploratory artists and that includes leading scientists worthy of the name. Art without mystery is pure mechanics, perfect for the pedants and academics but heartless and lifeless for artists.