Corona Voicemails

At the start of the pandemic, artist, filmmaker, and game developer David OReilly posted a request on social media and set up a voice-mailbox where messages could be left. People responded with lots of anonymous reflections about life in lockdown, and he sculpted these into collages that form the basis for short animations. Their titles reflect their main subject matter, but also hint at a darker undertone: Quarantine Dreams, Sudden Black Hole, Staying Home, and The End of Stories. The animations will be on view at various locations during IDFA.

The hypnotic images—constantly revolving cascades of patterns and objects—look like they’re from some kind of digital kaleidoscope. OReilly created these beautiful and complex images using a self-developed visual synthesizer called Eye—he describes it as “an instrument designed to perform animation live.” OReilly used it to respond instantly to the voices of the speakers while they revealed their innermost feelings.