Studio Blog

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Hello, I just migrated everything over to http://mearaoreilly.tumblr.com/, so I won't be posting to this blog anymore. Please follow me there instead! Meara.

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Last year I collaborated with Snibbe Interactive and Björk on concert visuals for her Biophilia tour. Cymatic patterns were choreographed and synced to the basslines of songs. The video was designed to be projected on the floor so as to give the appearance that Björk stands on a large cymatic device. In some cases, the projections occurred on backdrop screens. You can read more about the project here.

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

Special Thanks to: Isaiah Saxon Sean Hellfritsch Saul Griffith Ray Gruenig Tucker Gilman Joshua Kit-Clayton Andrew Benson Curver Thoroddson Damian Taylor

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Illusion Songs

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.

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Not for the faint of heart, but this “trans-nasal fiberoptic stroboscopy” of vocal chords during singing is actually quite beautiful.

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I'll be debuting a prototype of my Chladni Singing exhibit for the Exploratorium at tomorrow evening's After Dark program.

Nov. 3rd 2011, 6-10 pm

3601 Lyon st

San Francisco CA 

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Georg Von Békésy's mechanical model of the cochlea.  Click through the picture for an explanation.

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Musiques Rituelles Pour Cloches et Gongs, by Alain Kremski.  For two more tracks, click here and here.

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The Hang is a unique and beautiful sounding instrument developed in Switzerland in 2000. They are extremely rare and hard to get a hold of.  Here's how to build a $27 version of one using a propane tank.  Original instructions here.

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Harry Partch's Cloud Chamber Music.

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I recently discovered Josephson microphones.  These Santa Cruz-based engineers are doing groundbreaking design work. Pictured here is the anechoic chamber used for testing the sensitivity of each mic.  Click through the photo for a link to a fascinating Wired article on their process.

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A collection of antique bone-conduction hearing devices.

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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.

But an interesting question is why the amplification has to be done electronically. Why not mechanically?"

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There's an exciting new school opening up in San Francisco this Fall called Brightworks.  I'm designing a sound ceremony for the opening of their brand new space next Friday, April 29th.  Doors are at 4pm, ceremony starts at 5:30pm.

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I've been working on building a new glass chladni plate. The other day I was drilling a hole in the center of a sheet of glass with a small carbide bit when it unexpectedly shattered. If you look closely, you can see that the shards of glass are not only continuing to fall apart, they are actually popping apart with force! Any ideas about why this is happening?