Ernst Chladni (1756-1827) illustrated his book Entdeckungen fiber die Theorie des Klangs, (1787), the first comprehensive treatment of scientific acoustics, with a large number of the sound-figures that are produced when a plate covered with a fine powder is vibrated with a violin bow.
the origin of the Indian Yantras is also thought to derive from soundpatterns such as these "Everything that we see and feel in the universe, from thought or idea
to matter, is sound in a particular concentration."
(Ajit Mookerjee, Tantra-Kunst, Basle edition, 1967/68)
Novalis, impressed by Chladni's experiments, observed:
"Might the letters originally have been acoustic figures, letters a priori?"
(Novalis, Das Allgemeine Brouillon, 1798/99) Ernst Chladni, Entdeckungen fiber die Theorie des Klanges, 1787
In the weightlessness on
@Space_Station I placed a sphere of water with an air bubble on a speaker cone, then drove it with acoustical waves from the speaker.
This created a series of standing nodes and anti-nodes that responded to the frequency and amplitude. A zero gravity Lava Lamp!
Will post what happens when I drove this with some of my favorite rock and roll! From Expedition 31, 2012.