People find inspiration in everything. Although you might look to music or art for inspiration, some people delve into the science of sound. It’s why so many pop culture phenomena rely on cymatics.
This article explains everything you need to know about cymatics to understand why it appears so frequently in popular culture. You may even find yourself inspired to use it in your own life.
What Are Cymatics?
Cymatics is the study of turning vibrations and sounds into visual art. Scientists and creatives will use a material — such as sand or metal — as a background and study how the soundwaves or tremors create patterns.
In 1967, Hans Jenny published his book, “Cymatics: The Study of Wave Phenomena.” He coined the term to describe the impacts of acoustic sound on sound waves. It opened doors for other forms of research that developed his term into real-world applications.
However, cymatics began back in the sixteenth century with Galileo Galilei. He studied the science of vibrations, specifically related to the frequency and pitch of the specific sound playing at any given time.
What Are They Used For?
It may be challenging to picture why sound waves are so important to science. Jenny’s work opened a new field of science, which experts explored to potentially further explain their own areas of expertise.
In 2013, scientists applied the theory of cymatics or sound waves to what they found as a result of the Big Bang. They noted sound produced after the Big Bang, which left patterns within light throughout the universe. By transforming those pockets into sound wave patterns, people can now listen to the echoes that were the first thing that happened in the known universe after the Big Bang.
Cymatics can also transform how people produce art or explain science outside of professional fields. It’s a visual and auditory medium, so it’s often used in popular culture to entertain.
Examples of Cymatics in Popular Culture
There are a few ways cymatics appears in popular culture and why people might implement it in their work.
1. The Finishing Touch
The Glenfiddich team knew the brand’s Glenfiddich 21 whiskey had a unique story. The marketing campaign explained how the flavors were raised in Scotland and roused in the Caribbean. Cymatics became the way to visualize the rising action in their narrative.
In the Glenfiddich commercial, a Caribbean vocal artist and an orchestra from Scotland play a song. As the music plays, quick shots reveal sound waves on the surface of the whiskey. Sound waves even contort the falling liquid into S-shapes and levitate a single drop with the power of science. The resulting eight million views are a testament to the entertaining power of visual sound.
2. Björk’s Tour Projections
In 2011, singer-songwriter Björk began her Biophilia international tour. Before the first show, she partnered with abstract artists to create cymatic projections. They invented projected video clips of vibrating sand and the Big Bang soundwaves in reverse. The images reflected meanings within Björk’s lyrics and brought a new entertaining element to the show.
While people could view pictures and video clips on the TVs above the stage, others with seats higher in the audience watched Björk perform on a stage continually shifting in cymatic images. Creating more visual meaning to live lyrics led to a more entertaining experience, all because scientists began to study sound in centuries past.
3. The Rosslyn Motet
When composer Stuart Mitchell took a closer look at the carvings within Scotland’s Rosslyn Chapel, he wondered if they were specific notches to note cymatic patterns. He transformed the symbols from the chapels’ 14 arches into sound and pushed “The Rosslyn Motet” album in 2006. It was musical art expressing love for science, sound and the exciting potential for a musical conspiracy etched within architecture.
4. The Glitch Mob’s Music Video
Fans of electronic music watched cymatics in action when The Glitch Mob released their music video for “Becoming Harmonious.” The song overlays a black background that shifts in shapes and colors as the song winds through drops, faster beats and ever-changing volume.
5. Mandali Mendrilla’s Kamadhenu Dress
Cymatics also reaches the fashion industry’s sector of popular culture. Designer Mandali Mendrilla created the Kamadhenu Dress — or the third installation of the Wish Tree Dress series — in 2015. Mendrilla intended for the series to inspire people to feel happiness by evoking various sources of the emotion throughout global cultures.
Moodboards brought the dress to life, which featured cymatic imagery as inspiration for how energy affects the human experience. Mendrilla combined the various shapes with mythology about the goddess Kamadhenu in the dress’ final form. After its runway debut, it became an interactive art installation.
6. Jimmy O’Neal’s Cymascope Painting
People know Jimmy O’Neal as an abstract painter, so when he created a mural outside 5 Walnut Wine Bar, many people were surprised. His outlet of creative expression had momentarily changed, but it was because he found inspiration in cymatics.
O’Neal used a wine glass with a singular sip of wine inside to record a sound. He traced his finger around the wine glass rim and created a 511.95 Hertz frequency in a recording. The frequency translated onto a cymascope water dish in the same shapes projected onto the wine bar’s exterior walls.
The public art drew attention to the science of frequency and vibration. Although O’Neal remains a painter, the one-time installation became famous in the worlds of art and advertising. Cymatics continued to expand various popular culture sectors to bring people together with a scientific visual medium.
7. “The Rings of Power” Opening Sequence
Real-world physics might be the last thing you think about when opening one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, but science plays a significant role in one of his show’s opening sequences. When “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” debuted in 2022, fans watched ichor and small chunks of granite morph across their screens in ever-changing ways.
The sequence’s directors found themselves inspired by sound. With a homemade cymascope and an iPhone, they recorded what visual effects happened when they played sounds like rock and roll or Gregorian chants.
Seven months of editing resulted in CG and real-life footage of cymatics transforming into images coincidentally evoking moments in the TV show’s season. The result was a timeless sequence that made the show stand out from other “The Lord of the Rings” media.
