During the 2009 TED interview, Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics, Grant demonstrates the science and art of Cymatics. Cymatics is a process for making sound waves visible. It is useful for analyzing complex sounds (like dolphin calls), it also makes complex and beautiful designs.
Grant, a creative technologist, focuses on the idea of exploring nature by trying to find hidden data. He says that it seems there is latent potential everywhere, all around us. Everything gives out some kind of data, whether it's sound or smell or vibration.
A Quick History of Cymatics
Cymatics is the process of visualizing sound by vibrating a medium such as sand or water.
Da Vinci, Galileo and the English scientist Robert Hook as well as Ernest Chladni systematically observed resonance. It was Ernest Chladni who created an experiment using a metal plate. He covered it with sand and then bowingit created what is now called Chladni patterns.
In the 70s, Hans Jenny coined the term Cymatics. In the present day Grant collaborates with a fellow scientist/artist called John Stewart Reed. Together they recreate the Chladni experiments. In the example shown in the TED interview, Stewart Reed has connected a metal sheet to a sound driver. This is being fed by a frequency generator. As the frequencies increase, so do the complexities of the patterns that appear on the plate.
Why Cymatics is Important
Grant says that for him Cymatics is like a magical tool. This kind of experimentation is fascinating for both artists and scientists alike because the visual images give access to a what was hitherto unseen. This technique provides viewers with a kind of looking glass to a hidden world. Grant claims there are numerous ways to utilize the new material emerging. By harnessing the power of the technique experimenters can unveil the substance of things not seen, Grant says.
The cymascope has been used to scientifically observe cymatic patterns. The list of uses for the technique grows daily according to Grant. He talks of the example of Oceanography, where a lexicon of dolphin language is being discovered by visualizing the sonar beams that dolphins emit. It seems that by using this technique we will someday gain a deeper understanding of how dolphins communicate.
Cymatics Healing and Education
If readers watch the TED talk they will be able to see an installation developed with school children. The hands of the children are tracked. In this way the installation follows them allowing them to control and position cymatic patterns and the reflections caused by them. So viewers can see the cross over between science and art. These investigations provide experimenters with beautiful art happenings.
Further providing evidence for the idea that the cymatic techniques can provide beautiful art forms, Grant goes on to show Beethoven’s ninth symphony playing through a cymatic device and Pink Floyd’s Machine playing in real time during the interview.
The Future of Cymatics
There is still so much to explore claims Grant. He goes on to talk about such things as explorations of archetypal forms of nature. The link between Cymatics and fractal investigations also becomes obvious when he turns to conversations about snowflakes and starfish.
It maybe that progress will be slower than we would hope, according to Grant. This, he says, is because there are not many people working in the field. But it is fascinating to think that sound does have form. He goes on to claim, we've seen that it can affect matter and cause from within matter
Grant closes his presentation by inviting the audience to take a leap and think about the universe forming. He goes on to theorize about whether Cymatics itself could have an influence on the formation of the universe?
He further claims that Cymatics is accessible to everybody and anybody. He advocates a global community of people artists and scientists who would like to share their pattern for exploring nature cymatically. As a way of empowering this he closes the discussion by providing a gallery of what he calls eye candy, for those who would like to explore the potential of cymatic investigations.
Resource
- TED Ideas Worth Spreading. Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics. TED Global. 2009.
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