cymatic mandalas

[mike_c]

Here's something I've been playing around with the last couple weeks. They're cymatic "mandalas," generated by photographing colored lights reflected from the surface of vibrating water, on which pure, low frequency tones produce standing waves. The water was in a black petri dish centered inside a speaker cone, and photographed from above. It's so cool seeing these figures emerge as I ramp up the volume. These were generated with frequencies in the 20 Hz to 30 Hz range-- I forgot to record them. Each image is monocolor and captures only the reflections visible during each exposure, so multiple exposures of the same standing wave reflections were layered in Photoshop to produce the complete figures.

[SheltieLover]

1. Have you seen Dr. Matsuri Emoto's work with water?

Beautiful stuff!


https://masaru-emoto.net/en/crystal/

[mike_c]

2. no, I haven't

But now I have. Thanks! Those are cool (no pun intended). There's a Russian photographer whose name I can't remember who hacked a Canon point-and-shoot camera to capture similar photos of single snow crystals (also water ice crystal accretions, of course). IIRC he worked on his balcony during storms!

These figures are in 75mm petri dishes painted black, so no macro necessary.

[SheltieLover]

4. Dr. Emoto did some fabulous research

He worked with water from a wide variety of sources, sometimes praying over the water, sometimes taping words to a bottle with the water in it, then re-photographing it.

Astounding!

And consider the implications of living in harmony with Nature. We are, after all, 70% water.

Have you seen Hans Jenny's work with Cymatics?

https://www.cymaticsource.com/videos

TY for sharing.

[LearnedHand]

3. They've done this with sand and soundwaves

Chladni plates. Same principle, although not as stunning as your photos.

[SheltieLover]

5. Hans Jenny also did superb research with cymatics.

Pls see above post for link.

[LearnedHand]

10. His work is beautiful and I love physics as metaphor

Some of the stuff on that site seems a little woo-woo to me, but to each their own. I love that physics creates these otherworldly patterns in sand and water all on its own.

[mike_c]

7. yeah, that was originally done with violin bows, if I'm not mistaken

Bowing the metal plate generates a tone (now done with amplifiers and speakers, of course). That set off what's now the pseudo-science wooey core of cymatics, i.e. speculation about the properties of "fundamental frequencies" or "universal tones."

I'm just here for the pretty pictures!

[LearnedHand]

9. Yes exactly

I’ve used Chladni patterns in pottery pieces, so I’m like you in loving the beautiful shapes. Since all matter in the universe is sort of just vibrating particles, I’m blown away but not surprised that order arises out of chaos at the macro level as well.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. Wow!

Reminds me of my old Spirograph I had as a kid.

[CrispyQ]

8. I don't completley understand the process, but these are beautiful!

Would love to see a video. Thanks for sharing!

[HeartsCanHope]

11. Absolutely stunning! Thank you so much for sharing!