Have you heard of Cymatics? You may actually be surprised...

What is Cymatics?

Cymatics (from ancient Greek: κῦμα ("wave" or "sound"), is the study of visible sound and vibration. These are usually made visible by vibrating a plate, diaphragm, membrane or liquid. It examines different patterns of vibrations and their effects on matter. The term was coined by Hans Jenny (1904–1972), a Swiss follower of the philosophical school of anthroposophy.

Cymatics came to be understood as an artform in which one can communicate with listeners through sound waves without using words or language, as well as being an effective way to heal oneself and others through meditation and listening to music

Vibrations that create patterns in a medium exist in nature, but those created artificially by a loudspeaker driven by an audio oscillator for example, were first made visible by the Swiss hexapedalist Hans Jenny. He conducted his pioneering work with simple resonant systems in Basel, Switzerland. Jenny found that at high sound pressures there are complex forms of self-organisation due to nonlinearity in the dynamics of the system. The special characteristics of geometric form formation grow from the interplay between standing sound waves and transient phenomena in the air or other media.

Cymatics is essentially the visible representation of sound and vibration. It examines different patterns of vibrations and their effects on matter. It is a subset of modal vibrational phenomena, which are the result of interactions between two or more vibrational modes, and applies itself to exploring such phenomena as they relate to electromagnetic oscillations (i.e., light), strings, plates, and membranes. The term was coined by Hans Jenny in a book entitled 'Die Resonanzfrequenz des Universums' (The Resonance Frequency of the Universe) published in 1968. In this book he explained that certain "resonant frequencies" could be set up in various media when stressed by sound energy sources such as tuning forks or organ pipes playing pure tones. By placing suitable materials into water or some other liquid medium he found that these frequencies produced visible patterns on a plate at the bottom of the container when illuminated from above.

““The more one studies these things, the more one realizes that sound is the creative
principle. It must be regarded as primordial. No single phenomenal category can be
claimed as the aboriginal principle. We cannot say, in the beginning was numbers
or in the beginning was symmetry, etc. They are not themselves
the creative power. This power is inherent in tone, in sound.“”

— Hans Jenny

In popular culture

Cymatics is also used by musicians and artists in their field to create visual representations of sound. For example, the album cover for Pink Floyd's The Wall features a photo of bassist Roger Waters' hands as they play a fretless bass guitar, which has been dubbed "The Great Gig in the Sky."

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Another example is Daft Punk's Discovery, which features an image of two dancers dancing on top of a speaker cone that was placed on top of a plate resonator.

While the science behind sound waves has been around for over 200 years, it's only recently that cymatics have become a popular subject in popular culture. This is largely due to the work of Dr. Hans Jenny and his book "The Study of Vibration". It's also thanks to materials such as sand or water that can literally be molded by the vibrations they are exposed to—a phenomenon known as sonochromatics (sono = sound; chroma = color), which you may know from musical performances where different instruments create different patterns in sand on stage. The images created by this process are breathtakingly beautiful, but there are other applications for cymatic experiments as well, including using them for medical research and art projects!

Conclusion

The use of sound waves to create beautiful and interesting shapes is called cymatics. This field of research offers an insight into how the brain interprets information from our senses, such as hearing or sight. It has been demonstrated that certain frequencies affect your moods and emotions, so it's something you should definitely explore if you're interested in psychology, neuroscience or for self exploration.

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