Chapeau, Philip Vermeulen, this is the best sound & vision installation dealing with specific vibration phenomena I have ever seen (or wanted to see when I was too late, like a famous Dokumenta exhibition in the 1980s). His piece is a 7-minute condensation of all the interesting effects we can hear and see. Blending visual illusion, wave effects, phase differences, moiré, etc.

I have seen and heard quite a few installations centred on vibrational phenomena, and have sometimes worked with them myself. Visually, we are familiar with well-known patterns such as those created by Chladni and Lissajous, as well as moiré effects, and in music, polyrhythms such as those found in African music, phase differences as in Steve Reich’s music, and of course the more subtle work with overtones (or sine waves in electronic music). But what I have now seen surpasses them all. This installation by Philip Vermeulen is based on 2 x 2 rotating elastic bands, each about 10 metres long. It brings a great deal of stuff together:

• first, the combination of image and sound: the visualisation of simple and somewhat more complex wave phenomena and the audible dimension of these same vibrating sources
• second, the actual, direct connection between visual moiré and auditory interference effects and phase differences
• third, the gradual changes in smaller increments, and the abrupt transition to new phases
• fourth, quite delightfully, the deliberate intertwining of the two moving bands, making it seem as though things are going wrong
• fifth, and perhaps most importantly, the dramatic, almost terrifying tangibility of the swaying ribbons when they gain speed; for they whistle and whoosh like the wind and sometimes howl like a violent storm
• added to that is the consideration of what would happen if the whole thing were to snap, for there is clearly enormous pressure on the process and you can feel the wind blowing in the small room
• then there are the beautiful more-than-stereo effects of the whooshing sounds, which you can perceive at different distances from the ribbons when sitting in the centre (sometimes in several places at once)
• moreover (and then I’ll stop), the duration of the piece and the fact that it is an actual composition makes that your eyes and ears keep wanting to shift between picking out details and zooming out again; you want to experience the whole development of those 7+ minutes all over again.

Photographs really cannot render what you experience, so here are some of those moments. If you have a chance, I urge you to go and see and hear it! More about Vermeulen:

Artist YT channel

Artist website.

Exhibition Silence in the Storm, Museum Voorlinden, Netherlands.