Experimental validation of Helmholtz resonator arrays as zero-energy acoustic treatment for net-zero energy buildings
Next Research (Elsevier) · 2026 · Karbasbaf, M.M., Ezaan, G.
Strings to Stars
Resonance, traced from the soundhole of a hand-built lute, through the ornamented niches of a Persian palace, to the wave phenomena now under investigation inside a distant nebula, at every scale, read as a single, continuous instrument.
Selected Covers
Book Design
Editorial Redesign
Canonical Texts
Eight Covers,
One Practice
Eight covers from a self-initiated practice in book design: new treatments for Persian epic and Sufi allegory, Islamic philosophy, European letters, and modern historiography. They are studies, not commissions, and are not affiliated with any publisher. Select a cover to open the complete wrap, or the front panel alone.
Self-initiated design studies. The texts and any third-party imagery remain the property of their respective rights holders.
The Scholar
Craft
as Method
Resonance
Across Scales
Years of hands-on work with musical instruments, investigating, building, and preserving them, led to the creation of the Golden Method, a mathematical approach for optimizing soundhole design. That practical experience revealed the acoustic wisdom already embedded in centuries-old craftsmanship, and became the experiential foundation for everything that followed.
Research later expanded into Persian architectural heritage, where related wave-analysis principles were shown to operate, through different physical mechanisms and at different frequency ranges, within ornamental elements long assumed to be purely decorative. Current work asks whether that same analytical language can be extended toward the electromagnetic and plasma wave phenomena of astrophysical environments.
Read the full narrative →Working Principle
The universe is not a die, but a dulcimer. M. M. Karbasbaf
Selected Record
Scholarly
Publications
From Ornamentation to Acoustics: A Quantitative Analysis of Tong Bori Elements in Persian Architectural Heritage
Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (Elsevier) · 2025 · Karbasbaf, M.M., Ezaan, G.
Historical Evolution and Acoustic Significance of Sound Holes in Lutes
Applied Acoustics (Elsevier) · 2024 · Karbasbaf, M.M., Ezaan, G.
A Geometrical Method for Sound-Hole Size and Location Enhancement in Lute Family Musical Instruments: The Golden Method
Arts · 2017 · Jafari, S., Karbasbaf, M.M.
Investigating the Role of Resonance in Herbig-Haro (HH) Objects Embedded Within Gaseous Nebulae
Karbasbaf, M.M.
In Preparation