In yesterday’s post we mentioned the waves of the sea crashing, but, for today, let's move onto a completely different type of waves – the wave vibrations as those studied by German physicist, musician and musical instrument maker Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (1756 – 1827).
Unanimously considered as the father of acoustics, he is known for his researches on vibrating plates, but also his studies about meteorites.
Chladni was interested in science, but his father was a lawyer and wanted his son to continue his career. Chladni therefore obtained a law degree from the University of Leipzig in 1782, but, after his father died, he resumed his studies in physics.
In the late 1700s he started his first experiments with acoustics and came up with a technique to show the different modes of vibration on a rigid surface to demonstrate and visualise the patterns of standing wave vibrations.
Chladni sprinkled fine sand on a metal plate and, drawing a violin bow along the edges, he produced vibrations. The sand reacted, settling at nodal points (also known as "nodes"), that is areas of zero movement, producing in this way intricately complex patterns.
Different modes of vibration produce different and unique patterns: for example bowing harder and faster on the same place produces a much higher tone and creates a more detailed pattern.
In this case the sand produces more intricate motifs with more nodes and smaller open spaces.
The complexity depends therefore on the frequency of the vibration, while the shape of the patterns is dictated by the shape of the plate.
This phenomenon was mentioned by Leonardo da Vinci in his notebooks and discussed by Galileo Galilei in his work "Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo" (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, 1632).
Robert Hooke did a few experiments in the late 1600s running a violin bow along the edge of a plate covered with flour, but Chladni’s main inspiration for his studies were the electrical figures of Lichtenberg, who made the experiment of scattering an electrified powder over an electrified resin cake; the arrangement of the powder revealing the electric condition of the surface.
Chladni published his studies in 1787 in "Entdeckungen über die Theorie des Klanges" (Discoveries in the Theory of Sound) that comprised 11 plates and a total of 166 figures.
The patterns resulting from these experiments are called "Chladni figures" and they represent the first step towards visualizing sound.
Chladni often held lectures and became a travelling scientist: people were attracted by his experiments as the figures that formed on the plates looked visually pleasing and aesthetically sophisticated.
Nowadays these figures can be produced by a virtual imaging program rather than an actual vibrating plate and there's even an app that can help you generating such figures, making the geometry of piano sounds and music visible.
Chladni figures remain immensely inspiring: as you may remember from a previous post, Iris van Herpen explored cymatics (a word meaning "matters pertaining to waves") in her A/W 2016 collection moving from the work of Hans Jenny that is in turn based on Ernst Chladni's 1787 studies.
Chladni's figures could be take further to create jewels, graphic motifs and prints for both clothes and accessories, and the best thing would be to try and come up with your own patterns playing around with a bow, a plate, some sand or salt. Musicians have been doing such experiments for quite a few years now, so it's your turn now to take the discourse further in fashion as well.
Rispondi