Visualising Sound Waves: Complex Media Art and Chladni Patterns

Ernst Chladni’s 18th-century discovery of the visualization of wave movements in the form of the so-called Chladni’s sound figures still fascinates viewers today. Hans Jenny’s subsequent experiments in the 1960s with electronically generated sounds and different materials, e.g., in liquids, also attracted significant attention and led, among other things, to new forms that sometimes had a psychedelic character, and also influenced various artists. This article examines how and under which conditions, Jenny’s experiments were taken up by Alvin Lucier in the early 1970s for a sound art composition. In addition, two different ways of dealing with Chladni’s sound figures in a contemporary manner in the first half of the 2000s are analyzed – one is oriented towards minimalist aesthetics, while the other belongs to the realm of bio-art with a subversive tendency. To round off the discussion, a perspective of the current possibilities of digital fabrication for the creation of Chladni sound artworks is provided.