cymatics

cymatics. new to me as a term but old to me as an idea. when vibrations pass through materials they leave wave formations. think of banging your fist on a table sprinkled with flower. not tried it? wonder why i have? well never mind that, just try it. or how about putting buzzing objects next to an aquarium? not tried that either? what ARE you doing with your life?!!

the other day i was scouring the internet looking for something or other and i came across a link that led to a link that led to a link and there i was looking at a book about “cymatics”. the images were so lovely - i love circular images and mandalas and spirals and vortices and the like. so i found out that cymatics was really pioneered by Swiss medical doctor and natural scientist, Hans Jenny (1904-1972). For 14 years he conducted experiments animating inert powders, pastes, and liquids 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.

but of course it goes deeper! it seems that before jenny there was a guy called chladni who for whatever reason decided to draw a bow across a violin placed above plates of sand . . . . here are what are now known as “chladni figures”:

here's a pic of vibrations realigning lycopodium powder into pretty shapes:

here’s a couple of pictures taken by a guy who ran a small motor on a table next to his cup of coffee:

This cup of coffee was on a surface vibrated at approximately 20Hz by a an electric motor driving an unbalanced flywheel.
this and other cymatic based ideas can be found here:
http://www.rmcybernetics.com/projects/DIY_Devices/homemade_cymatics_display.htm