Seeing Sound!

Post date: 05-Aug-2015 10:35:33

Cymatics is the study of seeing sounds. Sounds may have been visualized as far back as 1000 years ago in Africa when hide drums would accumulate sand revealing geometric patterns when they were played. Today sound frequency visualization experiments are done using all different mediums. The image below is a sound snapshot of Beethoven’s 9th symphony translated into light.

• Artist Nigel Stanford’s music video beautifully displays his work with sound resonance using sand, fire, water, and electricity. These displays are visually stunning and definitely worth a watch!

• Artist Jodina Meehan uses a violin bow to play a handheld cymatics plate. This visual display of sound is used by violin bow makers for testing purposes.

• Two Students at George Mason University experiment with putting fire out using sound waves.

• Evan Grant discusses and demonstrates cymatics in this eye opening TED talk.

• And lastly, here’s a talk that acoustics engineer John Stuart Reid gave about his experiments with resonance inside of the King’s Chamber at Giza in Egypt.