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Video12 Nov 2014Music & performanceRigs & DIY

The music video that taught the internet the word cymatics

Nigel Stanford's 2014 film pairs a track with real Chladni plates, a Rubens' tube, ferrofluid and a Tesla coil, and has been watched tens of millions of times.

Watch on YouTube ↗Nigel John Stanford · Nigel Stanford · 6 min

Nigel Stanford is a New Zealand composer. In 2014 he released a six-minute music video in which every visual is a physical experiment driven by the sound you hear: sand on a vibrating Chladni plate, flame heights along a Rubens' tube, ferrofluid pulled into spikes by a magnet, and a Tesla coil. The description states plainly that all the experiments are real, and a separate behind-the-scenes clip shows how the plate was rigged.

What the video does well is make the link between pitch and pattern obvious: the plate patterns change as the notes change, which is the core idea of cymatics in one shot. What it does not do is explain any of it. There is no narration and the rig details are left to the companion clips, so treat it as a demonstration reel rather than a lesson.

At the time of writing the YouTube page shows about 54 million views, which makes this the single most-watched piece of cymatics footage we know of. If you want to explain to someone what our studio does, this is still the fastest way.

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