IVO PITTS
Seeing Sound, 2025-26


Named after the Greek word ‘κῦμα’ (kŷma), meaning wave, the field of Cymatics was discovered in 1680 by the English polymath Robert Hooke when running his boe along the edge of a metal plate topped with a dusting of flour that formed an intriciate arrangement of peaks and troughs that traced the energy as it travelled through the plate.

Simple yet remarkable, this discovery marks one of the earliest experiments revealing the vast extent of veiled mechanics that shape and inform our lives and our relationship between the environenmts we find ourselves within.

Reflecting on the quiet siginificance of Hooke’s experiment I set out to observe sound myself using water instead of flour to visualise a range of frequencies between 12 to 50hz. From dense and entangled to delicate illusive each captured moment varies in appearance but each equally wonderful in their varying states of uncertainty.




Details:
Photopolymer Gravure on fibre based paper
Image Size - 600 x 600mm
Number of prints in series - 24