Cymatics of Life

Water has no fixed form, yet set in motion by different frequencies it reveals distinctive patterns. The wall is a dish of water computed in real time: a wave equation integrated on the GPU, driven the way a loudspeaker shakes a tray of water (Faraday forcing), then photographed with physically based optics of refracted caustics, soft-box reflections and absorption inside the water.

Visitors scan the QR code beside the wall and answer five questions: how much water a day uses, which sound of water is most calming, the first image that water brings to mind, the first touch of water in the morning, and the one thing they most want to do for water after leaving. Each answer moves one axis of the water, volume, texture, colour, detail and boundary, and together they become a frequency of one’s own. The Water Ripple Mandala appears first on the phone, then flows onto the twelve-metre wall.

Every half hour the wall runs one complete cycle: from the first vibration, light breaks on the surface, fish take shape and swim past, the view pulls back into a whole sea being drawn along, folds into a vortex and fades to black and white. At the moment only black and white remain, light is taken apart, and the colours of the whole world rise again out of the smallest dispersion.

Cymatics is the physics that makes sound visible. In 1787 the German physicist Ernst Chladni drew a bow across a metal plate sprinkled with sand, and the grains arranged themselves into symmetrical, precise geometry. In 1967 the Swiss scientist Hans Jenny named the phenomenon and, sweeping an oscillator through frequencies, watched the figures on one medium grow into new forms one after another. The lower the frequency, the simpler the figure, gathering into rings and crosses; the higher it goes, the finer the pattern splits, approaching a mandala-like lattice. Vibration decides the shape, and the shape remembers the vibration.

Sound is vibration. When it enters a dish of water, the water answers with the few ways it can move with the least effort; what those ways look like in space is the figure we see. This work replaces sound with people as the source of the driving, and lets the whole wall become the vibrating body itself.

Q1 How much water does your day use? A one bottle of mineral water · B about one shower · C enough to fill a bathtub · D more than I can count — sets the volume: depth, light and absorption of the water.

Q2 Which sound of water calms you most? A soft rain outside the window · B waves breaking on the shore · C a stream running through a forest · D bubbles in a kettle about to boil — sets the texture: four ways of stirring water, raindrops, waves meeting head-on, a many-centred stream, bubbles rising at random.

Q3 When you think of water, what image comes first? A the river or sea near home · B a downpour you have long remembered · C the most ordinary moment in a kitchen or bathroom · D a glass of water someone hands you — sets the colour: four lighting rigs, cold blue, deep sea, black-and-white studio, violet night with a warm edge.

Q4 When you wake, what is your first touch of water? A brushing teeth, washing the face · B the first glass of water · C making coffee or tea · D straight into the shower — sets the detail: surface tension and the density of the pattern, from plain to intricate.

Q5 After you leave the exhibition, what would you most like to do for water? A turn off the tap, treasure every second · B give water another life by reusing it · C eat lighter, with fewer high-water-footprint foods · D not decided yet, just take this feeling home — sets the boundary: waves that stay close, or travel out into the world.