Category: CymaScope

Recommended Read: CYMATICS by Hans Jenny

1/19/2022

Cymatics by Hans Jenny
MACROmedia Press
978-1-88813-807-8

Recommended Read this week is 'Cymatics' by Hans Jenny (1904 - 1972). It is a primer for understanding the history of the field of cymatics (physics of sound), the geometry within sound waves and their creative influence. Probably best to read this first before last week's Recommended Read 'Interference Theory'.

Even our early ancestors knew that sound and its impact on us at a cellular level were highly important. Our depth of our understanding of the science of cymatics grows every day. The significance of sound in the creative process and its influence on us is becoming more mainstream since Jenny's early work. John Stuart Reid's cymascope has contributed significantly to this field.

I have included a couple of YouTube videos at the end of this blog for those of you who are new to the subject. These stunning geometric patterns are like animated mandalas.

This original hardcover edition now seems to be a collectible item and secondhand copies are quite expensive. It is currently reprinting and is due out March 2022 - Floris Books.

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Geometric Art Forms Within Music - the MusicMadeVisible app

1/18/2017

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MusicMadeVisible app Music has always been associated with cymatics, the geometry within sound waves, and there are many examples where cymatic imagery is used as a visual, dynamic art form complementing the originating sounds. It is VERY exciting that John Stuart Reid, inventor of the CymaScope, has launched MusicMadeVisible. It is an app that allows anyone to capture the dynamic geometry of their musical creations, or recorded sounds such nature and even their our own voice! It is a brilliantly accessible way to harness the power of the cymascope and the apps potential for creating art forms is limitless.

Here are examples of the cymatics of two very different types of music - Pink Floyd's 'Welcome to the Machine' and dulcet tones of 'Clair de Lune':

'When Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, in Portland, Oregon, decided to sponsor an art installation they chose a collaborative design by artist, Shelley Socolofsky and John Stuart Reid of CymaScope.com. The theme set by the cathedral was that the piece should connect light and dark and be a "new and experimental art form and media that cannot be hung on walls nor placed on pedestals”. (2015)'

Cymatics, the study of waves in physics, was a term coined by Hans Jenny (1904-1972). Prior to this in 1680 Robert Hook noticed geometric vibrations when running a bow along the edge of glass covered with flour. Early technology used to study the nodal waves was the Chladni Plate, developed by German musician and physicist Ernst Chladni (1756-1827). Now computers facilitate exceptional tools, such as the CymaScope created by John Stuart Reid (see his presentation below).

Sound waves travel from their point origin as a sphere so the images captured by humans are but a thin two-dimensional slice of a three-dimensional 'living' form.

In 'The Hidden Geometry of Life' I cover the nature and purpose of sound as a vehicle for carrying the geometric code. Sound has profound purposes that we are only just starting to understand and apply.

Chladni Plate vibrating to reveal geometric waves

Symmetry in vibrating fluid

Stunningly beautiful geometric patterns lie within the undulating waves of sound emanating from a pinpoint source of origin. Symmetric patterns such as theses are seen in the creations of Nature and are echoed in the sounds we create, such as heartbeat and musical creations. Waves of sound pass through and are absorbed by everything they come into contact with. They impact and travel through our bodies and enter our brains via our ears. All sounds affect us physically, emotionally and psychologically.

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Recommended Read: CYMATICS by Hans Jenny

Recommended Read: INTERFERENCE THEORY by Richard Merrick

Geometric Art Forms Within Music - the MusicMadeVisible app

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