Of Many Worlds
Of Many Worlds is a creative exploration into cymatics (Jenny, 1967), where light and fluid, make sound vibrations visible. Using macro photography draws the viewer into new tiny worlds, capturing beauty and detail that is hidden from the naked eye. The title is inspired by a 17th Century Poem by Margaret Cavendish, Of Many Worlds in this World, which suggests the possibility of new tiny worlds within our own world (Rumens, 2012). An appropriate theme for this exploration into this universe of macro worlds and cymatic images.
Presented as a slide show of images, the transition of images reveals new colours and shapes emerging organically. Built on minimal material, the music uses the same compositional principals with overlapping sounds, and textures. The choice of synthesiser sounds evokes an other worldly atmosphere through the Alchemy (Logic Pro User Guide, n.d.) synthesiser.
Project Research
This is a project that grew from the restrictions of lockdown. My initial ideas relating to music and musicians, creating links with sound and image, Without access to people outside my household my research turned to how artists were using sound to create images. This generated a list of ideas to investigate (some of these are bookmarked for later exploration), including Chladni patterns generated by exciting a metal plate (Taylor, 1989), and the work of Hans Jenny (1967) who used the term cymatics to describe how the vibrations of sound affect powders such as sand and liquids.
Testing
With limited instructions available about how to set up your own cymatics rig at home, the project required experimentation. The final set up uses a loud speaker with the cover removed placed on its back powered by an amplifier. A thin plastic lid is attached to the speaker cone. The container with fluid is placed on this (see image cymatic rig set up). Sound is generated through a tone generator app on a phone or laptop. Two ring lights are used, one white, and one RGB light.
Finding the setting where the vibrations created meaningful patterns and shape is a balance of the amplitude, size of container, frequency, and viscosity of the liquid. This provides seemingly endless challenges and opportunities. Even if the settings were not right for a symmetrical pattern, striking shapes and textures emerged.
The placement of lighting at the correct height is crucial for observing the patterns created by the water. An overhead tripod was essential for the camera and achieving consistency. Different colours for the fluid were achieved through using different liquids, and food colouring. Though these images can be captured with a standard lens, or even an phone camera, a macro lens with 1:1 magnification allowed more detail to be captured.
Different patterns required specific camera settings. For example, many of the symmetrical patterns worked well with a slow shutter speed. The more random patterns were more effective with a fast shutter speed. A cyclical reflective approach with planning, practical work, reflection and learning was an essential part of the process.
A file naming convention identifying the date, frequency, and fluid was essential to be able to track the hundreds of photos that were taken as part of the testing stage of this project. Also invaluable was my project notebook in Evernote, for recording ideas, progress, and links to resources.
Presentation
One of the attractions of this project was to create a multimedia piece of art, that could be easily shared online. Something that is very relevant at the time of writing when a conventional exhibition would be out of the question. However, I do look forward to being able to see view this screened on a large projector at work in a performance space.
The intended audience is broad. It could appeal to people with an interest in cymatics, the science of sound, photography, art, and music. It has been shared on social media and created interest with other artists and potential future collaborations.
Equipment
The equipment used is listed below
- Canon 5D Mark III
- Canon EF 100mm f2.8L
- Newer RGB Ring light, standard small white ring light
- Overhead tripod
- Denon Amplifier
- Loud speaker
- Tone generator (app)
- Macbook Pro
- Various circular containers of different sizes (dariole moulds, bottle tops, jar lids etc)
- Fluids (water, rubbing alcohol, coffee)
- Colour additives (food colouring, glitter)
- Post production, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier Pro, Logic Pro X
Skills and practice
The project required a range of skills including macro photography, lighting, and using the camera in manual mode. Autofocus was not very successful, manual focus and zooming in on the image to focus produced better results. A tripod was essential for consistency.
An integral part of these images is the lighting, which highlights the patterns in the water and also provides reflections. The height of the light is crucial in getting the right effect. The images with more than one colour in the reflections are created with a second RGB ring light.
Post production
Post production took place in Adobe Lightroom, followed by Photoshop to crop the image to the edge of the container with the fluid. A square black background was created as a template for consistency of presentation. Minor adjustments to the balance of highlights, shadow, whites and blacks were made to ensure consistency, and the texture increased for clarity.
Key decisions in creating the video were the length of images, transition times, and the order of images. An influence was Lapis, a short film by James Whitney (1966) a computer aided animation creating mandalas. From the early stages I knew that I wanted to come full circle and return to the initial image so the video could be used for an installation and loop continuously if required.
Initially a temp track was used as a guide to mood of the images with the Music composed once I had a draft version of the video. However, it was always intended as an integral part of this project and ideas for the style were forming throughout the video assembly process. The dynamic shape, harmonic tension and resolution shadow the presentation of the images.
Conclusion
This project is the final assignment in the Foundations in Photography course. It has taken nearly two years to complete the course and I am aware as to how much the course has developed my photographic practice. It is now much closer to my other creative work as a composer with research and practice informed by the work of other artists working in a range of genres. Throughout this project I kept an online notebook logging ideas and progress, a practice adopted during the course.
My original aims for the course were to explore the creative use of light, increase my knowledge of the work of other photographers, develop Photoshop skills, and tell a story or express a concept through images. In my self my reflection for part 4 (Gourlay, 2020), my aims had developed, for example, to look at how other art forms influence photography, and identified the use of mixed media and abstract art as interests. Key elements I aimed to include in my work included the creative use of lighting, patterns and shapes, light and shadow, and exploration of colour. This development is reflected in my final assignment, something that I would not have envisaged creating two years ago when I started this course
References
GOURLAY, K. 2020. Research point – Self reflection [Online]. Available: https://wordpress.com/post/karenfip.home.blog/901 [Accessed 17 Dec 2020].
JENNY, H. 1967. Cymatics, Basilius Presse.
LOGIC PRO USER GUIDE. n.d. Logic Pro Alchemy overview [Online]. Available: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/logicpro/lgsi2618652a/mac [Accessed 8 Dec 2020].
RUMENS, C. 2012. Poem of the week: Of Many Worlds in This World by Margaret Lucas Cavendish [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/02/poem-many-worlds-margaret-cavendish [Accessed 12 December 2020].
TAYLOR, C. 1989. Demonstrating Resonance with Chladni Figures – Christmas Lectures with Charles Taylor [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLNFrxgMJ6E [Accessed 13 November 2020].
WHITNEY, J. 1966. Lapis [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzniaKxMr2g [Accessed 11 Dec 2020].
Karen Gourlay: Foundations in Photography 