CHLADNI SCHEME

Description: When this film is projected, a portion of each image is reproduced as optical sound. The film is a composition, an arrangement, but not one that is strictly from visual to aural, or the other way around, but for both of these senses at the same time. If you were to cross the nerves of the eye and the ear with one another, the eye would hear lightning as a loud crashing boom and the ear would see thunder as a bright flash of light in the darkness.
Statement: Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni drew a violin bow across the edge of a piece of metal whose surface was lightly covered with sand and visually demonstrated modes of vibration. A Super16mm film camera records images on the area of the film normally allocated to the soundtrack. If a Super16mm film is played in a regular 16mm projector, the images just off-screen to the right are reproduced as sounds, also demonstrating modes of vibration, but in an inverted scheme.