Resonance cryptograph

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe says Architecture is frozen music. Albert Einstein believes the key to unlocking the universe is through the hidden geometry and mathematics.  This design seeks to unlock the geometry of Sound making sound visible through 3-dimensional volume and lights.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe says Architecture is frozen music. Albert Einstein believes the key to unlocking the universe is through the hidden geometry and mathematics.

Sound is a hidden code when it unlocks allows us to perceive it as a set of geometrical patterns. The mechanic of sound is translated visually through frequency and amplitude represents itself with beautiful geometries as code from the universe. My design recreates Sound’s geometries into a physical symbolic Sanctuary for users to retreat their senses in the desert,to unravel meaning behind the symbol of Sound by deconstructing it and re-dressing it with physical form, making Sound visible.

 This design seeks to unlock the geometry of Sound making sound visible through 3-dimensional volume and lights.

 

The structure measures 13.77 feet in length &12.8 feet in height. The material for the structure would be paneled by birch plywood(4ft. x 2ft. panel).2-D dimensional geometry is translated into 3-Dimensional form by folding and joining edges.The sanctuary is made up of three mirroring layers, stacking vertically. The construction of the structure is to explore double curvature design with single curvature paneling and assembly. The ground storey encourages private space for reflection; individual sitting and resting area are carved inwards towards the air-well  ,in contrast, the upper storey is the communal area within the enclosure where users can access from a ladder. Pocket of windows are generated by the stacking and mirroring of sound vibration patterns.  Users enters into the enclosure and view the desert from within.

Live feeding of Sound and the changing LED lights

In the night, live feeding of sound is captured when in contact with the surfaces of the sanctuary. With a contact microphone attaches onto the surface, it captures the sound amplitude when a user touches or tap as sound travels through the surface as a medium. The device(computer coding with Arduino) then translates the amplitude variation (loudness) into changing colours of LED lights. The lights are attached on the rim of the panels.

Process

Studies of Sound patterns through water

Harmonograph

Eigen vector

Cymatic Development

Throughout this studio group we have explored natural, mathematical and physical anomalies and tried to find the hidden data within it. Everything that exists gives out some sort of sound or vibration and the process of visualising this is called Cymatics. In it’s elementary form it is is often the process of vibrating a medium such as sand or water in order the generate shapes.

The history of Cymatics originates from research into resonance by Da Vinici, Galileo and Robert Hook and then Ernest Chladini – Cladidi experimented with using a metal plate and sand to show the standing wave – or Chladini Patterns – a plate creates.

There are a multitude of other mediums that can be used to visualise sound or even generate sound from visual.

Cymatics is in it’s early days of exploration, it is a looking glass into a hidden world previously unseen and the list of scientific applications growing each day. Consider that sound has a form which you can see and that it can affect matter and cause a form within matter – now imagine the architectural applications possible.

Three-Dimensional Mid-Air Acoustic Manipulation

Lying somewhere between science and art, University of Tokyo scientists Yoichi Ochiai,  Takayuki Hoshi and Jun Rekimoto use precision acoustics to bring the beauty of sound waves to life in three dimensions.

More information here from the University of Tokyo, Nagoya Institute of Technology

Polystyrene beads self organising in mid air

Tremor Vitae Animation

This is the animation that I developed for my Digirep Module at the University. The story is about an old robot that is brought to life with vibrations. The initial set is of course the Burning man Festival.
Mostly everything is done in Cinema 4D and after effects.

Buena Vista!

Tremor Vitae animation by Maria Valente

Cymatics, Hans Jenny

Cymatics reveal the geometrical patterns created by vibrating a liquid or a solid with sound waves. In summary it makes sound visible. When a surface is subject to vibrations it distorts in a non uniform way with areas of greater and lesser distorsions.
What Hans Jenny as the founder of Cymatics, pointed out is the resemblance between the shapes and patterns we see around us in physical reality and the shapes and patterns he generated in his investgations.

Jenny was convinced that biological evolution is a result of vibrations, and that their nature determined the ultimate outcome. He speculated that every cell had its own frequency and that a number of cells with the same frequency created a new frequency which was in harmony with the original, which in its turn possibly formed an organ that also created a new frequency in harmony with the two preceding ones.

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In the image we see a solid shape created in a vibrating environment. A kaolin paste is heated, it liquefies and is then poured onto a vibrating diaphragm. Wave fields are created during the cooling process. Standing, travelling and interfering waves appear. Once the paste solidifies periodicity is inherent in them, it represents a state of flux. It is steady but has a constant movement within the shape. Within the form everything is in a state of circulation. Periodicity generates and sustains everything.