Cara-Ann Simpson is a sound installation artist based in Melbourne Australia. Cara-Ann’s work explores perceptions of sound in society, interaction and new technologies.Cara-Ann regularly collaborates with engineers, technology experts, artists and scientists.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts First Class Honours from the University of Southern Queensland in 2008, and received the University of Southern Queensland Faculty of Art – Visual Arts medal in 2007. Simpson was the recipient of the Hobday and Hingston Bursary from the Queensland Art Gallery in 2007 for being the most promising undergraduate student from a Queensland tertiary art course. Cara-Ann also received the Asia-Pacific Golden Key International Honours Society Visual & Performing Arts Sculpture Award (2008), and was short- listed in the Wilson HTM National Art Prize (2009), and Agendo (2009).
In 2010, Simpson received an ArtStart grant from the Australia Council for the Arts to attend the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo (ICME2010) where she presented a paper with collaborator Eva Cheng (research engineer) on an interactive sound installation. The Janet Holmes á Court Artists’ Grant Scheme supported the development of this installation.
In 2011, Simpson received a New Work (Media Arts) Music Board Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts and an International Program: Cultural Exchange Grant from Arts Victoria. She presented at Subtle Technologies Festival & Symposium in Toronto, Canada, and the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. Cara-Ann received a Young Artists' Grant, City of Melbourne to support the exhibition of Geo Sound Helmets at Kings ARI in Melbourne, Australia.
In 2012, Simpson has had an International solo exhibition, Resonations #1: cyclic glass, at Noxious Sector Projects in Seattle, WA, USA, and was interviewed by Camila Galaz on Radio Valerie's "Let's Art," available on mixcloud.
She is currently researching the integration of augmented reality gaming in urban spaces, the impacts of environmental sound in cultural spaces,
Resonations #1: cyclic glass This project was exhibited at Noxious Sector Projects in Seattle, WA, USA in February 2012.
Geodesic Sound Helmets is a series of interactive and immersive personal sound environments. This project is being produced in collaboration with Ben Landau (industrial designer, Melbourne), Eva Cheng (DSP & research engineer, Melbourne) and James Laird (technical advisor & engineer, Sydney). Geodesic Sound Helmets is supported by the City of Melbourne. Geodesic Sound Helmets was presented as a prototype (including presentation, poster & demo) at the Subtle Technologies Symposium & Festival in Toronto, Canada in June 2011.
Fremy's Salt: Free Radical Deterioration
This series is based around the creation of Fremy’s Salt and its effects on magnetic tape and contact microphones. Fremy’s Salt is a long-lived free radical chemical compound often used for electron paramagnetic resonance imagery.
