MUSIC MOVES YOU MORE THAN YOU KNOW…

Music moves us. It’s a scientific fact. It moves the air and matter around us. And it moves us biochemically. We explore the beauty of music through the eyes and ears of notable neurologist Oliver Sacks, artist Martin Klimas and more cymatics artists below.

Cymatics is the study of sound and vibration made visible by the liquid or powder it moves, typically on the surface of a diaphragm or membrane attached to a speaker. They reveal beautiful, often symmetrical patterns.

The patterns differ, depending on the geometry of the membrane, the substance, and the driving frequency.

German photographer Martin Klimas shows the impact of music as it moves paint, thrusting it into the air to the beat. He arranges multicolored pools of paint on top of speaker diaphragms, then cranks up the volume.

The vibrations set jets of color upward to create beautiful temporary splash patterns, as Klimas captures them in his brilliant photos.

Inspired by research conducted by physician and scientist Hans Jenny, the father of cymatics, in his Study of Wave Phenomena. Klimas wanted to see the visual effects of sound vibrations on a variety of materials. Different tones produce different patterns in the materials. The deeper the tones, the more complex the patterns.

Klimas spent six months, taking over 1,000 shots as he explored the question: “What does music look like?”

He rigged a sensor that detects spikes in noise, then automatically triggers the camera to take a shot at the precise moment his paint spurts up into the air.

Experimenting with jazz and rock, to elicit different patterns, Klimas focused on highly dynamic, percussive pieces, from Pink Floyd, to Daft Punk, to James Brown, to Ornette Coleman.

Klimas describes himself as “Jackson Pollock entering the third dimension.” His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide.

There’s also scientific evidence that music moves us emotionally and  biochemically.

Notable neurologist Oliver Sacks was especially intrigued by the powers of music. Sacks, who died last year, was just honored at the opening event of World Science Festival 2016 this week:  “Awakening the Mind: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Oliver Sacks.”

Sacks dove deep into the neuroscience of music in his book, Musicophilia.

The book offers compelling stories about people whose lives were remarkably impacted by music, including his patients, musicians he knew, as well as people he learned about through his secondary research.

Studies have revealed that music occupies more areas of our brain than language does!  

“Music is part of being human,” Sacks tells us.

Music can trigger memories. It can lift us from depression. It can even animate Parkinson’s disease patients who otherwise cannot move. It can calm people with autism and Alzheimer’s disease.

“It really is a very odd business that all of us, to varying degrees, have music in our heads.”

Most of us get songs stuck in our heads. Most of us get goosebumps at certain musical prompts. Sacks tells us why. He also shares fascinating cases, such as a 42-year old man who was struck by lightning, literally, and thus inspired to become a pianist.

Oliver Sacks also holds a special place in our hearts because of how he regarded beauty -- on every level. Sacks’ friend, science journalist Robert Krulwich spoke about it in his performance in Awakening the Minds:

“He... had a talent for serendipity and for beauty. It’s beauty. He had a talent for beauty that I’ve rarely run into. There’s beauty all over in the world, even in the most troubled places. But it takes a special kind of person to see the beauty there, and then ... write it down, and somehow in translation, it becomes more beautiful. And that’s the essence of it for me. It’s that he found the beauty, and rendered it even more beautiful.”

Maria Popova, of Brainpickings, shares: “His intellectual elegance bowled me over, and I felt a strange kinship with many of his peculiarities, from the youthful affair with iron — although the 300-pound squats of my bodybuilding days paled before his 600 pounds, which set a state record and earned him the moniker Dr. Squat — to our shared love of Beethoven and Mendelssohn.” Popova writes powerfully about Sacks’ impacts on the world as well as on her personally.

Check out these brilliant programs, featuring Oliver Sacks, produced by the World Science Festival. See more works by Martin Klimas. And learn more about cymatics and see more images at the Cymatics Organization website.

Read more about Beautiful Minds in Beautiful Discoveries Come to Prepared Minds, Beautiful Discoveries Come to Prepared Minds, The Art of Observing How the Universe Works Now, Exquisite Edible Geometry Observations Now,  Magic = Science + Art No and New Tools Give Us New Views of Our Beautiful Universe.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Martin Klimas. Music with Changing Parts, created in response to music by Philip Glass.
2. Image: by Gabriel Kelemen.
3. Image: Courtesy of MACROmedia Publishing. Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena & Vibration, by Hans Jenny.
4. Image: by Martin Klimas. Pharaoh’s Dance, created in response to Bitches Brew, by Miles Davis.
5. Image: by Martin Klimas. Sex Machine, created in response to music by James Brown.
6. Image: by Peter Drach (aka PeteDragomir). Sonic Splash! The Storm, created in response to music by Big Country.
7. Image: by Martin Klimas. Around the World, created in response to music by Daft Punk.
8. Image: by Martin Klimas. Sirius 69, created in response to music by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
9. Image: by Martin Klimas. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, created in response to music by J.S. Bach.
10. Image: by Martin Klimas. Martin Klimas Making of…
11. Image: by Robert Hodgin. Cymatic Ferrofluid.
12. Image: by Jordi Torrents. Water under 12.5 Hz vibration.
13. Image: by Robert Hodgin. Cymatic Ferrofluid.
14. Image: by Bill Hayes. Courtesy of Oliver Sacks. Oliver Sacks.
15. Image: Courtesy of Oliver Sacks. Oliver Sacks.
16. Image: by Peter Drach (aka PeteDragomir). Sonic Splash! Wellenfronten.
17. Image: by Jordi Torrents. Water under 11 Hz vibration.
18. Image: by BN App - Download now!
19. Image: by Atsushi Tadokoro. openFrameworks, LiquidFun + ofxBox2d.