Welcome to our Sounds Fun section

The beauty of the human voice made visible

Song and chant and thoughts expressed in speech are unique to humankind and differentiate us from the rest of the animal kingdom. In this example the
sheer visual beauty of vowel sounds have been visible for the first time on the CymaScope, demonstrating that when we speak or sing we bathe all those around us in beauty. Here, Vera Gadman, sings a range of vowel sounds and the CymaScope reveals their extraordinary geometric beauty.

Steven Halpern's chant in the Great Pyramid

Chant is a wonderful way of using the voice to create music--sounds that are intrinsically musical but carry no thoughts--a vehicle by which we can gently shift our consciousness into our right brain, where we feel rather than think. Chant has been used for thousands of years in spiritual ceremony by cultures the world over. The ancient Egyptians used chant in their rituals and designed reverberant spaces in which to perform, spaces that would naturally enhance the vocal performance and create a spiritual ambience.

Steven Halpern chanted in the Great Pyramid of Egypt in 1981 and in 2005 we were given the opportunity to make his recording visible, using sand as the disclosing medium. The low-pitched sound at the beginning of the piece is the granite sarcophagus being gently struck, resounding like a drum. This sound created a perfect circle on the CymaScope and can be thought of as a slice through a sphere, that is, the low-pitched sound of the sarcophagus emits almost perfect spheres. Watch also for the perfect pentagon that appears later in the performance, a reflection of the golden mean, an aspect of the chamber's design becoming manifest in the geometry of the sounds reflected from the granite architecture.

Manual Chladni Plate demo

The Chladni Plate is a simple apparatus that demonstrates the cymatic power of sound to create form from formlessness. Originally conceived by English scientist Robert Hooke it was later made famous by German musician and scientist Ernst Chladni. See our Cymatics History section for more details. A simple brass plate is strewn with sand and the edge of the plate is played with a cello bow, creating vibrations in the plate that organize the sand into replicable patterns. The wonder of the demonstration lies in its simplicity, the complete lack of technology needed to create order and beauty from disorder.

Electromechanical Chladni Plate demo

This modern version of the Chladni Plate demonstration uses an electronic oscillator and mechanical transducer to drive a square metal plate that has been strewn with sand. The variety of patterns that form on the plate each have a mathematical relationship with the sounds that created them so in a sense the patterns represent an analog of the sounds made visible. In the case of the Chladni Plate the patterns are also a function of the resonances of the plate so the patterns contain data relating to the originating sounds and the resonances of the plate.

Experimental MusicMadeVisible track by sound artist Stefanie L.Ku: 

This fun cymatic video is one of several experimental videos created by talented sound artist,Stefanie L. Ku, in collaboration with Erik Larson in the USA. One variation of the WaterDrive Module, developed by Erik, consists of twin coaxial water cells and it was this module that Stefanie used for her video.

MusicMadeVisible is a new musical expression in which music and voice are made visible, forming part of a new genre of entertainment and therapy.

www.dioskouroi.org

Cymatic Salads

In a new version of Neuvo Cuisine we show that cymatic salads can be created that are a lot of fun and look wonderfully appetizing. Let your imagination guide your hands to create beautiful cymatic meals. One way to surprise your partner is to have his or her voice made visible (see our Voice Mandala section) then create a cymatic salad that reflects their voice pattern. Give your loved one their Voice Mandala Salad!