Historical Background / Bibliography

Meshed into one:

Historical Background / Bibliography:
This project derives heavily from the study of cymatics, a phrase coined by Hans Jenny, which is the study of wave phenomena. First noticed by Gallileo Gallilei, and later by Robert Hooke and Ernst Chlandi, these phenomena exibited beautiful patterns and structures, all derived from the natural vibrational modes/nodes of different substances. The work of Hans Jenny was most inspiring to me to start this project. Here’s a quick blurb about him:

From WikiPedia:

Life and Career
(Hans) Jenny was born in Basel, Switzerland. After completing his doctorate, he taught science at the Rudolph Steiner School in Zürich for four years before beginning his medical practice.

In 1967, Jenny published the first volume of Cymatics: The Study of Wave Phenomena. The second volume came out in 1972, the year he died. This book was a written and photographic documentation of the effects of sound vibrations on fluids, powders, and liquid paste. He concluded, “This is not an unregulated chaos; it is a dynamic but ordered pattern.”

Jenny made use of crystal oscillators and an invention of his own by the name of the tonoscope to set plates and membranes vibrating. With the tonoscope, quartz sand is spread onto a black drum membrane which is 60cm in diameter. The membrane is set into vibrations by singing rather loudly through a cardboard pipe. The sand now produces complex symmetrical forms. Low tones result in rather simple and clear pictures, while higher tones form more complex structures.

Legacy

Jenny’s work influenced Alvin Lucier and, along with cymatics work by Ernst Chladni, helped lead to his composition Queen of the South. Jenny’s work was also followed up by Center for Advanced Visual Study (CAVS) founder Gyorgy Kepes at MIT. [1] His work in this area included an acoustically vibrated piece of sheet metal in which small holes had been drilled in a grid. Small flames of gas burned through these holes and thermodynamic patterns were made visible by this setup. Also, the DVD special edition of The Hafler Trio’s work Exactly As I Say includes a DVD containing material “based on and extended from techniques suggested by Prof. Hans Jenny”.

Based on Jenny’s work, photographer Alexander Lauterwasser captures imagery of water surfaces set into motion by sound sources ranging from pure sine waves to music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and even overtone singing.

His experimentation was a fusion of both science and art, which is extremely compelling to me. He also, as WikiPedia states, inspired other artists, like Lucier and Lauterwasser. Lauterwasser’s photography work inspired me to try my own hand at creating wave patterns in water.

The first step, realized last quarter, was to build a device capable of creating this type of vibrational movement. This was acheived, and the goal now is to make multiple units, and create a compelling narrative/performance with them. Here are some videos of Hans Jenny’s experiments:

Part1:

Part2:

Part3:

In addition, here is a video of the type of internal interaction I am considering building into my piece. Not the interaction of the audience with the devices (touching) but the type of interaction and flow between them.

Volume:

Bibliography:

Books:
Jenny, Hans (1967). Kymatik. ISBN 1888138076

Web:
WikiPedia: Cymatics, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics
Wikipedia: Hans Jenny, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Jenny_(cymatics)
WikiPedia: Ernst Chlandi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Chladni
CymaticsSource, http://www.cymaticsource.com/ (WARNING: This site embodies a bunch of hippie-new age ideas that I don’t necessarily agree with. Take this one with a grain of salt.)

Films/Video
Hans Jenny, Cymatics: Bringing Matter To Life With Sound, Part 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=05Io6lop3mk, Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ahJYUVDY5ek, Part 3:http://youtube.com/watch?v=I4jUMWFKPTY

YouTube Search: Cymatics, http://youtube.com/results?search_query=cymatics&search_type=