Glenfiddich mix sound, science and scotch
Aged whisky and mechanical engineering – or even mechanical engineers – aren’t normally two things you’d expect to mix without a trip to A&E. But with Glenfiddich’s latest project – a celebration of its 21 Year Old whisky, a single malt nurtured in Scotland and finished in rum-infused casks from the Caribbean – these two go together very, very well.

It’s all down to TenHertz, a Brighton-based creative laboratory consisting of sound artist Felix Thorn and engineer Jon Sly. Their work consists of fantastic art installations powered by their technical knowledge, including elaborate machines, interactive games and tweet-powered robots. Ostensibly they may not have been the obvious choice for Glenfiddich, but it was the right one.

“We were approached at Christmas and set the challenge,” explains Thorn. “They asked us, ‘would you like to do anything with cymatics?’ – to which we immediately said ‘yes’, and moved ahead with a trip to the distillery in Dufftown.” Cymatics is the term for the phenomena whereby the vibrations from sound waves are used to create intricate patterns in liquids and other materials. Which is impressive in itself – but TenHertz wanted to go one step further.

“We told them we think we can make whisky levitate,” says Sly. “Well, we made sure not to promise it,” adds Thorn. “We said we thought we could. And we did manage it, so we’re ecstatic about that.” The result of months of research and prototyping can be seen in the final film, where Glenfiddich whisky comes to life, dancing and vibrating in ways that you would have thought only CGI could manage.

We told them we think we can make whisky levitate.

Cymatics is currently only partially understood, even at an academic research level, so, despite the pair’s expertise, the project was not without its challenges – especially given that it was to take place not in a lab, but in a warehouse with a live orchestra and Caribbean vocalist Calma Carmona.

“People spend their lives studying cymatics and we feel like we just scratched the surface,” explains Thorn, whilst describing the completed installation. “But we definitely feel like we developed the idea, most notably with the levitation machine.” Projects looking at this type of technology are currently being carried out by several highly advanced universities, but TenHertz put a lot of research into our own one that would work with the Glenfiddich 21 whisky. Plus, it also functions properly on film, which was another extreme challenge.

“Basically we saw people who had made stuff levitate on the internet, but we’d read it couldn't be done with the equipment we had available to us,” says Sly. “But I’m an engineer and we got in touch with a physicist, and we sat down and worked it out. We created some prototypes and kept on refining them. And then, finally, there was this breakthrough moment – we saw, just for a split second, a little dot hovering in one of these prototypes. After more refining, we suddenly had this floating disc dancing around in front of us and we were thrilled, jumping up and down like complete idiots.”

“There was definitely some apprehension with how everything would come together,” adds Thorn. “But in terms of the manufacture and production it was a 12 month long process.” Then, after that process finished, there was the challenge of actually filming the experiment with 70 people, an orchestra, cymatics devices and a smoke machine. “We were shouting at people for no-one to move or cough or anything on set,” says Sly. “It was quite entertaining.”

The result is not only an impressive feat of engineering, but also a very good-looking sculpture. The project – first inspired by a trip to the Glenfiddich distillery – ended up being a microcosm in sculptural form, built from the same copper and American white oak that’s used for the casks of the whisky.

Calma Carmona’s soulful lyrics and Co-Operative Orchestra Scotland’s symphonies were isolated into specific frequencies, before being fed through each of TenHertz’s components, creating an eye-catching visual experiment that celebrates the effects of live music on the whisky that’s raised in Scotland and given a Caribbean twist. Take a look at the video, and make sure you watch until the end – you’ll see a single drop of the 21-year-old single malt suspended in mid-air; a feat never seen before outside the lab.