Chladni Plate Visualisation

Abstract

The creation of images made out of sound is an ancient discovery from many civilisations, called Cymatics. Cymatics can be referred to as the science of visualising audio frequencies through the Chladni plate. Over the past several years, many scientists, artists and designers have tried to visually and physically represent sound. Physicalising sound was through using liquids and particles as a medium with sound energy to deform and reform the medium aesthetically, creating a unique texture. In the visual arts of computer graphics, the texture is the perceived surface quality showing details of the surface model and colour. The use of texture in computer graphics for modelling and gaming industries is still growing, opening new possibilities for new complex textures yet simple to apply. The paper explores methods of integrating art and science, showing the practices of contemporary Chladni visualisation from an artist's perspective in 3D modelling. The paper also introduces the technique of using computer graphics to compare procedural textures with Chladni's plate representing visual aspects of our novel approach.