Good vibrations: Art explores the science of sound

Berlin – Responding to a prompt to investigate ‘space and art,’ media artists Sven Meyer and Kim Pörksen created Sonic Water, an installation that creates hypnotic photographic images based on patterns that appear when water comes into contact with sound waves.

Sonic Water is currently on display at the ‘Olympus OM-D: Photography Playground’ show in Berlin. The artists describe the project as a ‘laboratory for water sound images’ and a ‘cymatics installation.’

Cymatics, the study of visible sound and vibrations, has a long history in scientific inquiry as well as in art. But artists have rarely invited visitors to step into the role of scientist and create their own cymatics patterns, as they do in this show. Visitors use their own cameras and can manipulate sound signals to create distinctive patterns, which resemble anything from ripples to snowflakes to the complex biological symmetry of a jellyfish or dividing cells.

More designers are using the properties of sound to create striking objects, as seen in our Sonic Landscapes Design Direction.