MEARA O'REILLY

I have a new project, called Illusion Songs. It’s a curated collection of auditory illusions found in indigenous folk and popular musics as well as scientific demonstrations. As the collection fills out, it will turn into an archive, searchable by terms from both ethnomusicology and cognitive science. In addition to the collection, I will be writing and recording a series of original music compositions for voice and home-made instruments based on the best practices of songs and demonstrations presented here. A unified collection of acoustic ‘covers’ of lab demonstrations for educational purposes will also result. Instruments being built for this include a glass bell ‘gamelan’, and a midi-controlled pipe organ.

For the best listening experience, please wear headphones: the low basslines that the patterns are synced to don't read well on most laptop speakers.

Cymatics for Cosmogony (bassline) from meara o'reilly on Vimeo.

Cymatics for Moon (excerpt with full instrumentation and vocals) from meara o'reilly on Vimeo.

Cymatics for Moon (bassline) from meara o'reilly on Vimeo.

Cymatics for Hollow (bassline) from meara o'reilly on Vimeo.

Produced by: Snibbe Interactive Director of Photography and Editing: Noah Cunningham Assistant Director of Photography: Elia Vargas Project Manager: Sharon Hibbert Production Assistant: Sharon Pieczenik

Exciting new research striving to reinvent microphones based on the mammalian hearing system.

 ”A microphone is a device that converts mechanical waves into electrical ones. It consists of a diaphragm attached to a coil which sits in a magnetic field. When a sound wave hits the diaphragm, it moves the coil, generating a current. This signal is then amplified by conventional electronic methods.