Geometry of Music

 "Music is the arithmetic of sounds
as optics is the geometry of light."

- Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)

Secrets of the Universe

 "If you want to find the secrets of the universe,
think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.
...
In crystal, we have a pure evidence of
the existence of a formative life principle,
and though we cannot understand
the life of a crystal, it is
nonetheless a living being.
...
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena,
it will make more progress in one decade
than in all the previous centuries
of its existence."

- Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943)

Cymatic Urphänomen

"She [nature] is the sole artist, creating extreme contrast out of the simplest material, the greatest perfection seemingly without effort, the most definite clarity always veiled with a touch of softness. Each of her works has its own being, each of her phenomena its separate idea, and yet all create a single whole."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
 The Metamorphosis of Plants

"The notion of the Urphanomen is an invaluable illustration of the concrete nature of Goethe's way of thinking which dwells in the phenomenon. The primal phenomenon is not to be thought of as a generalization from observations, produced by abstracting from different instances something that is common to them. If this were the case, one would arrive at an abstracted unity with the dead quality of a lowest common denominator. For Goethe, the primal phenomenon was a concrete instance - what he called 'an instance worth a thousand, bearing all within itself.' In a moment of intuitive perception, the universal is seen within the particular, so that the particular instance is seen as a living manifestation of the universal. What is merely particular in one perspective is simultaneously universal in another way of seeing. In other words, the particular becomes symbolic of the universal."

- Henri Bortoft (1938 - 2012)

The Wholeness of Nature

Photographer's note. To help contextualize the relevance of the quotes, I need to point out that the image above contains three (out of a total of about 24) "snapshot" views of a single unfolding cymatic process. Not only does the triptych show only a tiny fraction of what my eye saw through the viewfinder, but the apparent sharpness of the images also belies the frenetic swirling and rhythmic thrashing of the water because my relatively slow 1/40th sec to 1/60th sec exposures smear over finely detailed patterns. But, while we may be unable to "see" the cymatic Urphanomen in its full splendor (and, even if we could, perhaps would understand as little as does Philip K Dick's "electric ant" after it tries seeing all of reality at once), "each of her works has its own being, each of her phenomena its separate idea, and yet all create a single whole." 

Perfect Imperfection

 "Wabi sabi is a state of the heart.
It is a deep in-breath and a slow exhale.
It is felt in a moment of real appreciation
—a perfect moment in an imperfect world."

- Beth Kempton (1977 - )
Wabi Sabi

As Long as Autumn Lasts

 "As long as autumn lasts,
I shall not have hands,
canvas and colors enough
to paint the beautiful
things I see.

- Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890)