#Voice Flowers

[innervoiceart]

Once upon a time in 1885, Welsh singer, songwriter, scientist, and philanthropist Margaret Watts Hughes accidentally invented a method of turning her voice into images.

Hughes explained her invention, the eidophone, and her image-making process in an article for Century Magazine in 1891:

"In 1885, while seeking means to indicate readily the intensities of vocal sounds, I first met with these [voice] figures, and, owing to their variety both in form and production, they have since absorbed much of my attention. The apparatus I have employed I call the eidophone. This is very simple. It consists merely of an elastic membrane, such as thoroughly flexible soft sheet-rubber, tightly stretched over the mouth of a receiver of any form, into which receiver the voice is introduced by a wide-mouthed tube of convenient shape. In some cases the receiver may be dispensed with, and the membrane be stretched across the open end of the tube itself.

My first experiments were made with sand, lycopodium powder, or the two substances mixed. I then tried for the production of voice-figures, flooding the disk of the eidophone with a thin layer of liquid ; e.g. water or milk. Upon singing notes of suitable pitch through the tube, not too forcibly, beautiful crispations appear upon the surface of the liquid, which vary with every change of tone. A note sung too forcibly causes the liquid to rise in, a shower of spray, the movements of which are too rapid to be readily followed by the eye. To facilitate observation denser liquids may be used. By using such liquids as colored glycerin particularly beautiful effects may be obtained. Subsequently I found that by employing moistened powder of different consistencies yet another description of figures appears. The earliest result of my experiments in this material shows centers of motion from which radiations diverge."

By varying the sound of her voice and the materials and methods used to capture it, different patterns emerged.

If we dig a bit deeper into the process, we find greater complexity. Sophie B. Herrick did just that in Visible Sound – Comment [Century Magazine 42, 40 (1891)]:

These voice-flowers are not the simple visual forms corresponding with the vibrations of the air set in motion by the voice. The waves generated in the closed bowl of the eidophone are reflected again and again from the sides of the vessel. The volume of air inclosed has its own rate of vibration; the stretched membrane has also its own rate, which in turn is modified by the character and thickness of the paste spread upon it. Added to these are molecular forces of cohesion and adhesion between the particles of paste, and again between the paste and the membrane. The form which grows into shape is the resultant of all these complicated forces, and, in some instances, new elements of change have been added. A glass plate is placed on top of the vibrating membrane and moved over it. We have a new body introduced with its proper rate of vibration, besides a mechanical motion further to complicate the problem.

According to an article in MIT’s The Net Advance of Physics Weblog, Hughes’ “flower-like forms” were rediscovered in the 1960s by Swiss researcher Hans Jenny, who went on to coin the term cymatics to describe acoustic effects of sound wave phenomena. However it appears as if Jenny was only familiar with the black and white reproductions of Hughes works as published in her Century article.

The larger color works were thought to be lost(!) but were found in 2016 by the staff of the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, located in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, while digging through their archives. Taken as a whole, Hughes’ work has a foot in two camps —as part of the history and study of the physics of sound, and as part of the history of art. These works were displayed as such during her lifetime.

One can imagine that the Surrealists would have been quite taken with these voice-figures, automatism sans hands, and I find them quite beautiful and striking as works of visual art that do not fit the tidy androcentric narrative of history, art or otherwise (see Hilma af Klint for a similarly jarring example).

https://twitteringmachines.com/the-voice-made-visible-margaret-watts-hughes-and-her-eidophone/

https://medium.com/swlh/margaret-watts-hughes-and-the-shape-of-the-human-voice-d9f1a023c0c1

[tr4shyk1tty]

"already it's only been ou-" YES ALREADY I NEED NEW WALLACE CONTENT ASAP.

[corallapis]

Yeah, but you've got a granddaughter? Like, now? Like, today? Back in our time — my time. Ah! Where is she? I don't know. How can you not know?

[askdrakgo]

"He really needs to get better control over that weed of his."

[opera-ghost]

it's immensely funny to me how andrew lloyd webber read this passage from the book and was like yeah the journey down to the phantom's lair is this really breathtaking magical gondola ride where christine is just captivated by the strange and fantastical beauty of it all (see below)

when in the novel they're both like in a rowboat in the dark with christine scared out of her mind and confused as hell while erik is paddling like he's out for an extreme day of fishing and just staring christine down for the entire duration of the journey without blinking once . like mind you his eyes quite literally GLOW in the DARK and he's just fucking staring into her soul and silently rowing and probably not even breathing like

[dreamyeuphoricll]

Happy mother's day 🥰❤️

Yor at the very top 🥹

[whateverisbeautiful]

The

Only

Time

I

Feel

Safe

Is

When

I’m

With

You

[toastervox]

[bakudekublogblog]

i'm sorry i dont think we're talking enough about the bkdk music video. they wrote a whole song full of yearning lyrics and holding hands and longing to be at each other's sides and miscommunicating but still wanting to be together, and then they put child actors in bkdk colors and hand them playing super heroes and holding hands. like bkdks were just given that. an official bkdk song and music video. hello????

[flowerbloom-arts]

I made a version of the Long Quiet but it's just me, and also... What if the Long Quiet changed clothes along with the Princess... (Used my 2 favorite princesses as Proof Of Concept, if you want more you can request other princesses :P)

[terabyte-teddybear]

dream team blinkies! made with blinkie cafe (had to shorten your on cody’s so it would fit haha)

[paramasqueradeva]

Chara, You ENDED that thing! l Twin Runes Epi 54 [ Deltarune/Undertale Comic Dub ]

Comic By: @akanemnon

[kiwimeephu]

basketbot doodle btw i love basketbot . Some extra stuff but still applies to the basketbot label I LOVE THESE TWO

[hooked-on-elvis]

[enitsirk]

Confessions

[anonymergremlin]

Gemini: "Pal... I don't think... They can see them anymore"

P: *holds a flower infront of his mutated lover y/n, even tho they are blind now*

Y/N: ... *Takes the flower and smells at it before gently rubbing their thumb over the petals* ... *Starts sobbing* "M-my... My favorite... Is it .. still so beautiful?"

P: *nods*

Gemini: "He seems to think so... I mean... It still blooming in your favorite color" *sees P gently grabbing their greyish face with the blue veins covering most of their face* "Pal?"

P: *gently kisses their blind eyes and holds them even tho they are so much lager now*

Gemini: "... I guess he is saying... They are still beautiful. But so are you. Y/N".

No matter what they do.

You are still his most precious flower.