Hitting different notes on a keyboard turns on one, two or all of the magnets on in time with the music. As different audio frequencies played on a keyboard resonate through the plate, the sand moves into patterns. After many tests with the plate shapes, amounts of sand and different sounds – resulting in a few blown speakers – a square plate and four frequencies (657Hz, 1565Hz, 932Hz, 3592Hz) were chosen for the best-defined shapes. Water flowing from the pipe appears to momentarily freeze in a spiral when an audio frequency that matches the camera frame rate of 25hz passes through it. A petri dish filled with vodka is taped to a speaker that plays audio frequencies of 50Hz and 100Hz to form standing waves in the liquid. «Post production, we spent a lot of time in after effects cleaning things up,» said Stanford. Related story: Electronic components «bleed» in Christophe Thockler’s music video for Lusine
Directed by Shahir Daud, the video shows Stanford undertaking several experiments that represent each sound in the track with a different visualisation. «It was an unusual project because it was created backwards – the music was written last.»
«I looked for interesting science experiments that showed how sound waves affect things, figured out what looked good, and then wrote the musical parts for each experiment,» Stanford said. Different audio frequencies – 409Hz, 490Hz and 564Hz – form pressure waves in the gas, creating high and low flame shapes that burst from holes along the top of the tube. «The main idea was to create a video where every sound had a corresponding visual element,» Stanford told Dezeen. Music: this video by New Zealand musician Nigel Stanford shows a series of experiments that demonstrate how sound waves affect different types of matter. Hooked up to a drum kit, a speaker has a hose pipe taped to the front. The first is the Chladni Plate, a thin metal surface that is covered with sand and attached to the top of a speaker.
