Matt Saunders ‘Cymatronic Devices’

Matt Saunders, Sound Designer, Audio Engineer and Colourscape Technical wizard created a pair of devices inspired by the work of Ernst Chladni (1756–1827), Megan [Margaret] Watts Hughes (1842-1907) and Hans Jenny (1904-1972). They all developed methods of seeing the how a continuous sound can move small particles of matter to their nodal points (points on no vibration) on a surface. Different and precise frequencies will move the material to make different shapes. In Matts case he mounted a metal builders plastering hawk on the centre of the speaker cone. We had a fun afternoon experimenting with the device working out what the frequencies were for this particular shape and dimension. Sine waves proved to be the best to move the sand, the lower the sound the simpler the shape, the higher more complex but required a stronger volume/intensity of sound. Matt programmed the frequencies on a computer and created a box to place the cymatronic devices into during the performance. Candida learnt how to colour sand from a Tibetan Monk (the same way for their sand Mandalas) and on the day of the performance Matt invited audience members to plave the coloured sand on the plates and see/hear what happened.