Cymatics:
A Study of Wave Phenomena and
Vibration
Hans Jenny
2003, Newmarket, NH, MACROmedia
Illus. b/w. & col.
295 pp.
ISBN
1-888-13807-6
Reviewed by Robert Pepperell
pepperell@ntlword.com
You may have come across Dr
Hans Jenny's cymatic images,
often rather grainy pictures
of rippling blobs of viscous
matter, swirls and honeycombs,
lattices and whorls, all conjured
from unpromising piles of sand
and dust. This Swiss medical
doctor devoted a large part
of his life to the study of
the phenomena of Cymatics (from
the Greek ta kymatica,
matters pertaining to waves),
which describes the effect of
sound vibrations on matter.
Here sonic vibrations organise
viscous substances into an infinite
variety of patterns, thereby
directly giving visual form
to sound. In the eighteenth
century the so-called "father
of acoustics", E F P Chladni,
had used a violin bow to vibrate
metal plates covered in thin
layers of sand in order to observe
the form the sand took in relation
to certain frequencies. In cataloguing
these "sonorous figures'
he demonstrated the inherently
geometric effect sound can have
on physical matter.
Working in the 1960s, Jenny's
methods used more precise electronic
resonance generators and sophisticated
materials to produce controlled
perturbations that he then photographed,
compiling by the end of his
life an astonishing collection
of images. Jenny published two
volumes on his cymatic research,
and this book reprints those
volumes in full with additional
forewords and index. The work
is not only highly visually
seductive, but philosophically
and scientifically profound.
The commentary by Jenny blends
a clear and concise description
of his methodology with powerful
observations and speculations
on the nature of living matter,
form and energy. His is an essentially
holistic view, seeing patterns
across spatial and temporal
magnitudes, linking the micro
and macrocosmic, and it is indeed
very tempting to agree with
him that from molecular biology
to atomic physics "the
rhythms and vibrations interpenetrate",
the universe is an interwoven
humming mass of resonating energy.
What is so extraordinary about
the geometry of forms produced
by Jenny's techniques is their
visual resonance with forms
produced by other means. Some
images of vibrating mercury
drops, for instance, are almost
identical to those produced
by video feedback (p. 99). There
are wings and flowers, branches
and forks, crystals and webs,
and microscopic pictures that
look like aerial photographs,
all emerging spontaneously from
otherwise shapeless substances.
One gets the sense that all
visible forms in nature might
be generated by some unseen
vibrational force, in the way
that Jenny's heaps of "rotational
sand' swirl around like specks
of cosmic dust forming the two
armed spiral of a miniature
galaxy (p. 33). Jenny has fused
his own synthetic and analytic
achievements with Plato's harmonic
description of nature, the flux
of Heraclitus and Goethe's "spirit'
to create a compelling vision
of coherence and structure.
The impact of his work seems
now largely confined to the
spiritual healing community,
but one gets the sense that
there is something much larger
here at stake and this valuable
book makes an important contribution
to bringing Jenny's work to
a wider audience and a new generation
of researchers.