Sound and Cymatics

The sound recording experience I had, was quite the positive one. When we first showed up at Kenan hall on a Friday night, I don't think anyone in my group had a clear idea of what we really wanted to record, or any sort of creative direction that we wanted to take this project. It was James who suggested that we go out into the courtyard (complete with that weird shaped brick structure, I have no clue what it is) and try to bounce some sounds off it. James and I had a pretty good time stomping and jumping and clapping and running around like idiots making some of the first sounds of the night, and the echos produced by the courtyard were astounding. I'm still impressed with how well our sound effects turned out. From there we went inside and explored and tried to create further sound effects with just normal objects, such as tapping on glass, footsteps, making the faux leather couches squeak (quite the pleasant noise), and just experimenting with whatever we could find. Probably the most fun was going into the sound booth in the lab and doing the voice based sounds. It was completely goofy, but I was impressed with how they turned out. For a project that we honestly put very little planning into, once the three of us got together, the creativity kicked in, and we fortunately got quite a few sounds recorded. And they turned out great! 

Regarding synesthesia, I don't think I'm any less intelligent by saying this is still a topic that is difficult for me to wrap my head around. I've read about it before over the summer in Andre's class, and I didn't really give it the attention that it deserved. Perhaps synesthesia is a gift, an expansion of what the human mind is possible of. Perhaps it is a curse, I've never met anyone who has claimed this extra-sensory experience. To me depending on what senses were being blended could be quite a disturbing experience, especially if I couldn't consciously control what I'm perceiving, like being able to zone out or focus on one thing of my choosing. Tasting colors, or feeling the texture of sounds all seem pretty alien to a (seemingly) average person such as myself. This is a topic that I wish we could know more about, but I have no idea how we can go about doing such things. For now, it remains a mystery to me and many others I'm assuming. Perhaps it's a miracle. I really can't tell how I feel about it from the outside looking in. 

As abstract as synesthesia is, I feel cymatics may be something slightly easier to wrap my head around. I think this is honestly really friggin' cool. Cymatics may be a way to study the invisible around us, that in reality affects everything. The study of this science is still in it's infancy of course, but the fact that sound waves influence the natural world is no surprise. To see these waves and vibrations visually represented though is quite striking. Wild and exotic shapes created by things we cannot even see. As an artist is concerned, this stuff is pretty wild. What this study will bring us is unknown, but from what little I've seen so far, I'm quite impressed. Who knows what the study of cymatics will bring us in the future?