The only post production I've done is to mask around it in white.
If you don't believe me look for the bits of dirt floating in the water ;)

Keen to visualise interesting sounds, instruments and music so please do get in touch.

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The frames of the video can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evangrant/sets/72157632039436099/

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John explains and demonstrates cymatics using harmonicism and a range of custom built instruments.

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Understanding Cymatics as the basical process of creating dynamical patterns within any physical medium by simply vibrating it, of course this can also be done within multiple geometrical dimensions. The self-coined term CymaSonics means at least to create spatially audible patterns in a way of geometrical-controlled musical sound projection, resulting in an ultimate type of immersive fractal-morphing sound fields.... It is to put the underlying principles of Numbers, Harmonics, Cymatics, Lissaious forms, Wave propagation or Field Theory etc. into one scientific framework to build a visionary artistical instrument for visual controlled spatial sound design.

Thanks to the co-creative collaboration with Stefan Berke, who inspired the project with his many skills, it became possible to work on an international showcase. In March 2010 we created a software to pull together some of the most elementary cymatical abstracts into an immersive fulldome audio-animated demonstration movie clip titled "CymaSonics - Matrix Optimizer 1.0.1" - recently presented at the Fulldome Festival Jena 2010

The clip was screened again at the Fulldome UK 2010 in Plymouth July 10th.

Actually we're working on some 'objective' algorithms to convert video into sound and on a first modular CymaSonics work bench for real-time image and  sound creation - the CymatriXplorer gives a first interactive impression of the interface design.

More about cymatrical image and sound design .... you'll find on cymatrix.org

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Using computer visualization software, Mark Fischer transforms mysterious underwater calls of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) into "wavelets": visual readings of the sounds' volume, harmonics, frequencies and rhythms. The result are stunning ripples of printed color or animated soundscapes, revealing the wide sonic range of frequencies and patterns within each communication.

"A sound as loud as a Blue whale makes can span half the world's oceans, which means two whales could [theoretically] send a signal around the globe in just over seven hours", explains Mark Fischer. These stunning visual renderings and the scope of what they represent give us valuable access to information about cetacean communication which would be impossible if presented in a different format.

"What motivated me to try this form of analysis is simple. The range of frequencies involved in cetacean sounds is extraordinary, from a low of 5-9Hz in the large mysticetes [baleen whales] up to 150 kHz in some of the odontocetes [toothed whales]. Standard, off-the-shelf spectral analysis software simply buckles under these demands." By slowly processing these enormous data files, Mark Fischer manages to reveal dark sonic landscapes which seem to echo the rippled undersea forms which generate them. Graphing frequencies which far exceed the capacity of human hearing, Fischer's wavelets provide rare glimpses of the wonders our ears are missing.

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But what was the legacy of his studies of music and mathematics? He is responsible for the blueprints of 12-tone scales that have dominated western music, and are now spreading globally to become the principle means of making music. But the struggle to make these scales function perplexed scientists, musicians and mathematicians for thousands of years. Why? Because they don’t work. The intervals of nature are not compatible with neat, mathematical arrangements of notes. For this reason, you cannot tune a fretted instrument. To understand why, we need to know what he discovered.

Pythagoras found that the frequencies of the most harmonic intervals – those that are most pleasing to the ear – are defined by simple mathematical relationships as follows:

Note C G F E
Ratio 1:1 1:2 2:3 3:4

Here we have the building blocks of mathematics – 1,2,3,4. Struck by the simplicity of his discovery, he went on to suggest that the sweetest musical scales would be composed of intervals that were themselves simple. So he embarked on the construction of the first scales. What is a scale? It’s a sequence of notes that runs through an octave – from a C to a C, or a G to a G etc. Why should there be twelve notes in our palette? Pythagoras was keen on triangles, and is particularly well known for one type of triangle – the ‘3,4,5’ triangle, which has twelve steps:

Who knows if this is the reason there were twelve? The whole story is apocryphal – nobody really knows if Pythagoras was a man or a group. If he was a man, the historians struggle to pin him down and simultaneously refer to him all over the ancient world. He taught in secret. He wrote nothing down. He exists as a story. Regardless of how he came to develop the Pythagorean scale, this is our starting point, and this is how instruments became tuned. But there’s a problem here, and the problem is best understood by taking into the account the circle of fifths. The circle of fifths is the assumption that if you ascend through the notes in intervals of a fifth – C to G, G to D, D to A etc…. you will eventually get back to C – the octave. Not so. These perfect mathematical intervals cannot be bound in anything as tight or neat as a circle.

But what do we mean by ‘perfect’? We mean ‘natural’ – overtones. If you blow a pipe that is tuned to G, you will hear mostly G, but tucked in underneath the fundamental tone, the overtones are also sounding. The most significant of these is usually the fifth. So when you blow a G, there’s some D in there too. If you blow the pipe really hard, you can bring the overtone to dominance and hear mostly D. The interval between this fundamental note and the overtone of the fifth is called the perfect fifth. It’s natural. Virtually every culture on earth has discovered it from nature. It’s there, waiting to be found. And the ratio of the frequencies of the fundamental to the fifth is (as described in the table above): 2:3. Nice small numbers.

So, if we start at C and ascend through these ‘perfect’ intervals, the natural overtones, we should eventually reach another C – if music can be neatly bundled into a mathematical object. But this doesn’t happen. What we get is a note slightly above C. Not a semitone above, but somewhere in between. A fraction of a note too high. What does this mean? We don’t get a circle of notes that spans the octave; we get an infinite spiral of notes that never repeat themselves! Try making a piano keyboard or a guitar out of an infinite set of never-repeating notes! Imagine the strain on your fingers! This error, the overshoot, was known as the Pythagorean Comma, and it baffled everyone for centuries, until Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier came along and people got used to music being out of tune.

The problem for musicians was this: if you tuned an instrument to the key of G, the error in the tuning would be particularly emphatic for certain intervals. A variety of methods were employed that focussed on making some of the intervals sweet at the expense of some of the others. One particular attempt that focussed on the thirds led to the notorious wolf tones – they howled whenever you used them. Clearly not good enough. But the problem ran deeper. It’s bad enough having howling notes of discord, but what happens if you modulate a piece of music – change the key you’re playing in? The wolf tones stay where they are on the instrument, so the howls come in different places. Changing key from C to A minor and playing similar themes simply couldn’t work.

Eventually, tempered tuning was embraced by classical composers, and made famous (and acceptable) by Bach. In tempered tuning – the tuning we use today – this error is effectively smeared out across the gamut of notes. The natural harmony of every interval is compromised for the sake of flexibility and practicality. Now you can change tune as often as you like and reproduce exactly the same melodies or pleasing variations thereof. Guitars only need one pair of hands. Pianos can accommodate plenty of octaves.

Going back to the mathematical model, what have we done? We’ve taken the natural spiral and squished it into a perfect circle. We’ve sacrificed the mathematical simplicity of the intervals for the bigger picture of a more usable system. How did people react when this revolution happened? Some decried it. The root of the word ‘mode’ in music is the same as that of the word ‘mood’. Before tempering, it was believed that the modes (think: scales) all had different colours and timbres. The key of C was believed to be the key of the God, too pure for human composers to dabble with. Some modes were banned in ancient Greece for encouraging base qualities and bad behaviour. Others were prescribed for bouts of melancholy or despair. When tempering came along, effectively making all the scales identical in mathematical terms, there was a backlash. But the freedom it gave to musicians and the revolution in music it facilitated overcame the objections. And rightly so - the last few hundred years of dizzying musical innovations would never have happened without it.

So, all of our music is out of tune. The natural spiral has been bound. If your ears are exceptional, you will never be able to tune all of your guitar strings perfectly in unison with one another. Why? Because you’re struggling against an inherent error in the instrument. Tune a G chord to sound sweet, and your E will sound a little off. It can’t be tuned to perfection. Live with it. Why? Because it isn’t all bad. Music for pleasure is about discord as much as it is about harmony. It’s about going on a journey away from harmony and finding your way back. It’s about cadence. And besides, what else in life is perfect?

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John Stuart Reid is arguably the current world leader in cymatic research, specifically focused on scientific exploration. He is co inventor of the CymaScope (along with Erik Larson), an instrument that makes sound visible. He is currently exploring applications for this device, whilst collaborating with the authors of this site on a touring interactive cymatic installation...

Click here for his website cymascope

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Technological sound healing devices first appeared in 1928 when German scientist Erwin Schliephake discovered that sound accelerated healing. He created an acoustic device known as the Novasonic that is still available today.

In 1938 another German scientist, Raimar Pohlman, demonstrated ultrasound’s therapeutic properties in a Berlin physiotherapy clinic. By the 1950’s ultrasound had become a widely used sound healing modality. Even to this day the underlying healing mechanism is not fully understood.

British osteopath, Peter Guy Manners, developed an audible sound healing modality during the 1950s that today is called Cymatherapy®.

Cymatherapy International bought the rights for the technology from Manners and now manufactures the Cymatherapy machine in the USA. Their version uses advanced computers to create ultra pure tones, mostly in sets of five. It has 700 ‘codes’ that address a huge range of injuries and ailments.
There are many other sound healing modalities currently entering the market place, including personal therapeutic ultrasound units manufactured in the Far East, many of which find their way into people’s homes.

Click here for the full article.
Source: http://cymascope.com/cyma_research/soundhealing.html

Image credit: Dean Baker/CymaScope.com

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Various discussions are ongoing with autistic research and support centers.
Extensive discussions have taken place on the benefits of integrating interactive technologies with cymatics to allow total sensory immersion and control. A commission for Aldeburgh music saw seeper.com and flat-e.com (the creators of this site) design, develop and build an interactive cymatic installation in cooperation with school children. Discussions with a key autism center in the UK have lead to ongoing development of interactive cymatics in this context.

In addition the CymaScope has been exhibited at several science-based conferences in the USA and the UK and on a number of occasions we have been approached by autism therapists. The general consensus is that the visual feedback provided by a child seeing their own voice patterns will aid their acquisition of language. This hypothesis derives from the experiential aspects of CymaScope demonstrations in which, for example, classical music is made visible in real time. Hearing classical music without seeing it infrequently results in release of tears whereas hearing classical music while seeing it, in real time, frequently results in crying in adults. A brain mechanism, as yet not understood, is occurring in which an emotional response is triggered, we presume involving receipt of data in the visual cortex that is the equivalent of acoustic data being received via the ears and processed in the auditory cortex. These two sets of data apparently merge within the brain and, it is hypothesized, lay down new neural pathways. In the case of autistic children this may result in the acceleration of language development.

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