An exploration of Bass and Low Frequency Sounds
“You don’t just hear bass. You feel it.”
Project Overview
Twenty Hertz is a feature-length documentary and immersive thesis project of Will Deloney that investigates the power of low-frequency sound.
The film blends documentary storytelling with tactile sound installations that explore how bass affects the body, the mind, and collective memory. Created at Indiana University Bloomington, it’s part cinema, part sound ritual.
Through interviews with artists, DJs, scientists, and cultural historians, Twenty Hertz dives into:
The evolution of bass in music and sound systems
The tactile and emotional effects of low-frequency sound
The intersection of vibration, spirituality, and healing
The subcultures and sonic rituals of bass-driven music
“Low frequencies don’t just move air. They move people.”
Immersive Installations & Live Activations
Immersive Bass Furniture
In collaboration with Howard Goldkrand, an electronic media artist known for pushing the boundaries of sound and experience, we explored the idea of the techno organic through custom bass-activated furniture, tree stumps and chairs embedded with subwoofers.
These sculptures didn’t just play sound. They let you feel it. Vibrations moved through wood and into the body, turning passive viewers into sensory participants. The furniture became a listening device, resonating like memory.
Live Bass Event Showcase
The Twenty Hertz Party: Bass in Culture, Nature, and Healing
To bring the documentary’s themes into the real world, I produced a one-night immersive event that celebrated bass in all its forms—technological, cultural, spiritual, and natural.
The event included:
Boom Car Showcase
Custom vehicles packed with massive sound systems lined up to demonstrate the full-force, full-body blast of car audio culture.
DJs known for their sub-heavy selections delivered floor-shaking sets designed to activate the senses through deep, layered basslines.
LIVE DJ SETS
Paul Mahern aka Mahan Kalpa Sing is a record producer and certified Kundalini Yoga teacher exploring sounds focusing on the spiritual and healing properties of low-frequency vibration. His work bridges sacred sound and studio precision, showing how bass can be both medicine and meditation.
Bass & Spiritual Healing with Paul Mahern
Zookeepers shared how elephants use infrasound to communicate across miles; proving that low frequencies are not only musical, but biological.
Bass in nature
Geologists gave a demonstration of how earthquakes produce low frequencies, connecting the power of natural disasters to the emotional gravity of sound. In nature, bass is often a warning system—a physical cue of awe, urgency, and fear.
Bass in Earth
Twenty Hertz wasn’t just a film, it was a full-spectrum immersive experience that brought together sound, science, art, and emotion in a unified storytelling ecosystem.
Over the course of the project, I collaborated with:
Scientists and geologists exploring seismic frequencies and infrasound
Yoga teachers and healers using vibration for emotional and physical well-being
Musicians, electrical engineers, DJs, and record producers pushing the limits of low-end sonic design
Visual artists and sound sculptors who turned everyday materials into bass-activated art
Academics and doctors offering insights on how low frequencies affect the body and brain
The result was a layered, interactive story that lived beyond the screen. It invited participants to hear with their skin, remember with their bones, and feel with their full selves.
This project confirmed what I’ve always believed: immersive experiences don’t just require technical mastery; they demand deep, human collaboration across disciplines.
The Result
Research + Influence
This project draws on a range of disciplines:
Musicology & Sound Studies
Psychoacoustics & Sensory Perception
Vibrational Healing & Chakra Theory
History of Amplification and Bass Culture
Each frame of the documentary is designed to immerse, educate, and evoke.
Why It Matters
We live in a world overloaded with high-frequency input screens, alerts, information. Twenty Hertz invites the audience to descend into something deeper and older: the primal beat. It proposes a reconnection with the body through vibration, stillness through sensation, and transcendence through frequency.
