NEW SOUND ART YOU CAN SEE
When you think of “sound artists,” you probably are thinking about musicians, or perhaps composers. But Sven Meyer & Kim Poerksen, of Sonic Water, make sound art a different way, with cymatics, a process of visualizing sound by observing sound waves vibrate through a medium, such as water. “Sound does have form and cymatics enables you to comprehend that it not only affects but causes form in matter,” they explain. “In fact, we think sound had a fundamental influence on the formation of the universe itself.”
Sonic Water recently on exhibition at the Olympus OMD Photography Playground, in Berlin, made it simple and sweet. In one part of their installation you could see their work and how they achieve it. You could try it yourself in the other, using your own camera and your own sound, using your voice or your iPhone.
It’s fascinating to see how simple it really is: a bottlecap filled with water sits atop an audio speaker membrane. A camera with a macro lens records the water as it dances and grooves to the music. The vibrations create unique water-sound-images revealing a range of patterns, from chaotic to mandala-like waves. It is all projected onto a large screen.
Cymatics is not a new discovery. The science behind them dates back to Galileo, when he first observed vibrations as they made patterns in the filings created by his chisel when he scraped a metal plate. The term, “cymatics,” was first coined by Hans Jenny, a Swiss medical doctor and Anthroposophist, in the 1960’s.
It’s cool to take it further by experimenting with different music compositions to see what they look like --- what patterns they create. Some might look like flowers, some like starfish. Some might evoke patterns of turtle shells, cell division, or the golden ratio, all depending on the individual frequency impulse. Sonic Water’s experiments are especially engaging now because they play not only for, but with the observer/listener.
Watch sound dance here:
SONIC WATER from elfenmaschine on Vimeo.
