Passage III

Good Vibrations

In his studio in Dusseldorf, Germany, paint is what photographer Martin Klimas carefully pours onto a rubber membrane placed on top of an audio speaker. The paint collects in a puddle of colors; rich oranges and powder blues, hot pinks and electric yellows. Klimas attaches his camera to a tripod and positions the camera so it is level with the paint puddle. He then sets a sound trigger (a device that automatically snaps a photo when a given sound level is reached) on his camera. Finally, he inserts Daft Punk's Homework CD into a stereo, cranks up the volume to ten, and pushes Play.

The result is what Klimas calls a "sonic sculpture." The vibrations produced by Daft Punk's dance anthem "Around the World" has caused the paint to rise and fall, to string and swirl, to splatter and stretch. It is this image that Klimas's camera captures—sound visually rendered by the effects of the vibrations on the paint. Although Klimas's photographs only capture an instant of the paint erupting in arcs of color, each of the photographs is unique to a given song. "I leave the creation of the picture to the sound itself," Klimas says.

Klimas's idea for his sonic sculptures were sparked by the experiments, of Swiss scientist, Hans Jenny. In the 1960s, Jenny's study on the effects of sound vibrations on various materials. For example, Jenny discovered that low sonic tones caused powdery substances to form into uniform lines, while deeper tones caused the same powder to form into more nuanced patterns. (42) Klimas relies on similar principles, only with a more compelling component: music. Klimas has photographed sonic sculptures of classical music by Wagner and Bach; jazz by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane; and psychedelic rock by Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. While be acknowledges that all forms of music can generate sonic sculptures. Klimas says, "I typically select something dynamic and percussive." That would certainly impress Jenny. After all, to create his art, Klimas needs his paint to get up and dance.