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Cymatics was explored by Hans Jenny (1904 - 1972) who published a book by that title in 1967. Inspired by systems theory, the work of Ernst Chladni, and his medical practice, Jenny began an investigation of periodic phenomena but especially the visual display of sound. He used standing waves, piezoelectric amplifiers, and other methods and materials.
The term cymatics is from the greek "kyma" or "wave".
A simple experiment demonstrating the visualisation of cymatics can be done by sprinkling sand on a metal plate and vibrating the plate, for example by drawing a violin bow along the edge, the sand will then form itself into standing wave patterns such as simple concentric circles.
One of Jenny's more complex experiments include a spherical vibrating water droplet containing fine particles, these particles then formed into a 3-Dimensional star (or dual) tetrahedron shape with surrounding circles as shown below.
The higher the frequencies the more complex the shapes produced, with certain shapes having similarities to traditional mandalas and crop circle designs.
 
Jenny's book influenced Alvin Lucier and, along with Chladni, helped lead to his composition Queen of the South. Jenny's work was also followed up by Center for Advanced Visual Study (CAVS) founder Gyorgy Kepes (http://web.mit.edu/cavs/people/kepes/kepes.html ) at MIT. His work in this area included an acoustically vibrated piece of sheet metal in which small holes had been drilled in a grid. Small flames of gas burned through these holes and thermodynamic patterns were made visible by this setup.
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