Stage Five: Revisiting Stage 3 and discovering Martin Klimas

For the final stage of the investigation I wanted to revisit again the work on surface vibration in Stage 3 but this time look at how to convey surface vibration in a more dynamic and visually artistic way. This stage focuses on the stunning work of Martin Klimas and how he used paint to show surface vibration. There are a number of videos online which give some information as to the most effective methods to use, but this was still a long process of trial and error, firstly in sufficiently vibrating the surface to cause the paint to 'jump' enough and secondly in effectively lighting the paint whilst minimising the background.

CRITICAL LINKS

THE PROCESS

To create the photos seen below I researched and replicated the cymatic techniques used by Martin Klimas: I placed vibrant paints on top of a speaker and played a continuous 20Hz square wave through it (I found 20Hz gave me the best results as opposed to a song like Klimas used).

I photographed in pitch black using a relatively long shutter speed and using a flash gun at the quickest flash setting on top of my camera to expose the images. The video below shows the process.

CONTACT SHEETS

SELECTIONS

INVERTED

By eliminating the distractions of colour in the most dramatic shots, the viewer is invited to focus on the dynamism of the shapes and the energy contained in the movement of the paint.