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This is my first experiment with playing a cymatics plate with black powder on white.
The plate is steel, the surface is white enamel and I am sprinkling powdered graphite on the surface before playing it.
Notice how the graphite moves – it looks pretty magical, since you can’t see the grains moving like salt or sand does, it reminds me of black clouds or the way silt moves under water.
I am pretty happy with how this turned out, now the trick is going to be preserving the surface…
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the link Jodina, i see you having some trouble in achieve a fluid sound with your plaque.
I recomend you to find a way to elevate your support, because you are so close to the floor that you don’t have enough space to play the violin arch all along.
Maybe a cymbal support could be useful.
Take care and keep the good job
bye
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 11:21 am
Thank you for the idea to use a cymbal support, Marcelo, I really appreciate you taking the time to write! I will check it out, and see what happens. Have you used a particular type of support for cymatics experiments?
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I agree with Marcelo that you must contrive a really solid support so that the acoustic energy is transferred efficiently from the interaction with the bow. Most graphite powder is more powder-like than particulate-like and Chladni plates work best with particulate matter. In the past I’ve achieved very good results using fine ’sharp’ sand, sieved to about 200 microns, using a professional sieve. (Sharp sand contains lots of angular quartz and feels sharp when rubbed between fingers.You can buy it at any construction supply outlet.) If you also acquire a 500 micron sieve you can color die both grades differently, using proprietary dies used for material (cloth). For example you could die the 200 micron sand red and the 500 micron sand blue. You will find that the heavier sand will naturally lag behind the lighter, creating pretty fringing effects. I advise staying clear of powders, such as graphite or flour as they tend to cling to the surface and are not easily mobilized. Have fun with color! John Stuart Reid
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 11:18 am
Thank you, John… I really appreciate the advice. I have been wanting to do more with 2 colors together, and receiving specific instructions and sources for the materials is extemely helpful. (Especially from someone who has such a venerable history working with cymatics!) Thanks again, I will try your suggestions.
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Jodina,
In response to your email. I started experimenting with cymatics about 3 years ago. We built 3 different stations. We powered them with Transducers (Clark Synthesis Gold and Silver) and ran frequencies from a frequency generator thru an amplifier to the transducers.
I wish I could say that I have documented each experiment with pictures and records but we were just fooling around. I am getting a little more serious and by joining, I am looking for what is being done and for what purpose.
My own purposes are to find the frequencies that most closely respond to the platonic solids as I am using different models of them to create energy fields to stimulate physiological responses as well as mental and psychological responses.
We are have a lot of success in our experiments and I feel that the right sounds could take us to still more and greater results.
Thank you, Dane
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 3:25 am
That is really interesting! Thank you for writing and telling me about your work. I am actually reading about Kepler and the platonic solids right now, in a book called “The Golden Ratio” about the number phi. How would you find what frequencies respond to the platonic solids…let me know how you are doing that – I would like to keep track of your progress. –Jodina
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If you’re wondering how to fix the image…have you tried using a spray foxative that artists use for pastels??
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Thanks for the suggestion Wendy. That is exactly what I use to fix these designs, so you are right on with that idea. It works. Thanks for commenting!
–Jodina
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Hehe… I meant to type ‘fixative’, not foxative.
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Hi, I am a Java programmer and I would like to experiment with creating some software for cymatics.
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
April 13th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Can you send me some examples of work, and your ideas around cymatics software? I would like to talk about it some more! Thanks for writing.
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Why are Cymatic plates always square. pentagrams or octagonal plates would be more condusive. These shapes are more readily found in nature. Also would love to see you guys using fine iron filings and a magnetic field on the plate, the ‘play off between magnetic fileds and cymatics wave forms would make very interesting viewing. Using an amplified speaker system would love to see Mercury being stressed by deep low fequencies too.
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
April 30th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Mark,
Thanks for the notes! Cymatic plates of various shapes have been used by Hans Jenny in his research, if you look up his book “Cymatics” on Amazon you will be able to see some triangular and other shapes of plates. If you have access to a metal shop that can cut pentagram or octagonal shapes, try it out, I would love to see your results with that.
There has been some works done with magnetic filings as well; in fact there is a display at the Chicago Museum of Science with balls of iron filings that dance to music. It’s very cool. I hope to do an experiment with mercury soon. Great ideas, keep them coming!
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Estimada Jodina,
Congratulation for the journal and all the activities that you are doing with cimatics.
I am a university teacher at the Faculty of medecine and odontology, and I have being alway doing some activities in wich I asociated arte and healthe, so i am very interested in cimatics, and the aplication in health. Now I am planing and event Art and Science in wich I would like to show the cymatics fenomenen in away that i can show very artistics images. For the moment i am building a sonoscope. Thank you very much to all of you that are shearing the ideas and work.
marcos
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Thank you for writing, Marcos. I would be glad to help you with advice
on how to create the type of cymatics display you would like for the
Art and Science event. Please keep me updated on your progress
with that and send any questions you may have.
There is a good site for the connection between sound and health here:
http://www.biosonics.com If you go there tell John I sent you
–Jodina
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Greetings,
Just thought I’d share some thoughts and experiences. About 9 yrs ago, I went through what I call an awakening experience and it shook me to my core, changed my life and how I view the world. Without getting into a lot of detail, I experienced the world briefly in a geometric form, all that I looked upon was made of tiny geometric forms (polygons, etc), during this I also heard a high pitched frequency above my head (A 864 hz approx.) and with this came a feeling of intense bliss, love, and connectedness to all things. Everything contained a glow within it beyond the physical form.
From this experience I became interested in sacred geometry and the structure of all things.
I am sharing this because I think it it is directly related to Cymetics, color, frequency, dimensions etc.
I am a singer songwriter and am at the moment playing with recording my songs in A 432 hz and am amazed by how this particular frequency feels when listening to it. I’ve tuned all my guitars to this frequency and have just finished recording a song called ‘Freedom”.
I am also in the process of putting together a music story/show that uses visuals and would like to use some kind of cymatic software to relate the frequency to shapes and colors. I guess another option would be to create a cymatic plate of some sort and video the results and present it in a pre-recorded show. Any ideas?
Great site by the way Jodina, you are helping pave the way to a better understanding of life as we know it, thanks.
Peace,
Brett
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I am currently working multi-genres and found this website by googling something like “seeing sound” or something like that…I am writing poetry, composing experimental elcetronic-music improvisations and making two dimensional visual works on paper with ink and wax crayon…With all my cross currents between sight and sound I was astounded when I saw the word cymatics..I once created patterns with salt in a metal bowl and I created an art installation with grass seed and a vibration unit which made the seeds dance in a cool patterned way…I have video of this and will let the world see it when I get my web-site up and going….more later…thanks
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im kind of curious what patterns the sounds of ancient alphabets make like hebrew futark greek ogham ect
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Hi Jodina,
Since this is an older post, I’m not sure if you’re still monitoring it. But since someone mentioned you trying a cymbal stand, I thought I would chime in as a drummer, and further suggest you try out a hi-hat stand. The height is adjustable, and it’s stable enough to take being smacked with a stick while the attached foot pedal is being stomped on.
Is your free introductory to cymatics still available? I signed up at http://www.cymaticsounder.com/ but never received the link to access the material.
Also, with regard to your course at http://cymaticplate.com/ do you think a platen could be modified to have a small lip so as to contain liquid? I’m curious to try out water with a luminescent hydro-phobic ink, to see if the playing of the plate would cause the patterns to separate the water and ink.
Thanks much =)
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Bryan Collins Reply:
July 30th, 2011 at 5:52 am
Thanks for the suggestion of the hi-hat stand. I’m looking to construct my own stand and that seems perfect. I am also trying to figure out something like this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtiSCBXbHAg but i cant seem to find a url on how to make them. any advice would be welcomed !
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
July 30th, 2011 at 11:11 am
Bryan,
Thanks for writing. If you are constructing your own plate to be played with a violin bow, here are some instructions (in case you don’t have any yet) http://www.cymaticplate.com/go. On the video of the plate being played with electronic frequency, I have made one like that using materials from Pasco Scientific (see this post) and will be putting instructions together soon for how to do it, you’ll see an announcement on the Journal when they are ready (make sure you are a subscriber and you will get a notification in your inbox).
-Jodina
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I recently tried experimenting with cymatics using water as the medium. Gives a very cool effect. You can check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4614901890085&l=7373307182841645555 and I recommend watching it in HD. Love your videos. They are all so interesting. Take care.
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Jodina Meehan Reply:
March 4th, 2013 at 10:49 am
thanks for sharing your video, David, cool work! What setup did you use to capture the light and patterns?
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I feel confident the music industry uses cymatics to check and see if the music and or singing is politically correct. People think the things in front of the mics are spit catchers. My theory is…possibly…but feel sure they are running everything through the Cymatic hardware they have to check everything including patterns/expressions to determine if music would sell or not.
This needs some investigation.
George
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I’m a commercial photographer/filmmaker so naturally I wanted to suggest instead of using a fixative for the plates, that you consider photographing them in hi resolution and then making large sized Giclee prints which if you are selling those are archival by nature. Just a thought.
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Hi there! I, too, am fond of cymatics. I am a graduate student at East Carolina University and am researching visual sound. I intend to use enamels to make the images permanent. If you are interested in the process, please email me.
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