Gallery

Cymatics Standing Wave

ProMax

Cymatics is the study of visible sound. On a Chladni plate — a blackened metal disc dusted with fine pale sand — a resonant frequency drives the grains away from the vibrating antinodes until they settle along the still nodal lines, crystallising a pure tone into a symmetric mandala of rings, stars and lattices. This system takes that photograph literally: dry desaturated sand-gray figures standing in high contrast on a dark, granular plate. Everything is centered, radial and mathematically calm — geometry precipitated out of a wave.

Learn more about the Cymatics Standing Wave style

  • OriginGlobal — 18th-century German acoustics; modern physics education and sound art
  • PeriodChladni figures 1787; 'cymatics' coined by Hans Jenny in the 1960s; science-demo revival c.2010
  • DesignerErnst Chladni · Hans Jenny · Robert Hooke
  • Movementsacoustics · wave physics · science-demonstration

Web examples

3

Slide examples

3