KEIRA J. SIMMONS
Need a minute?
QR-based sound installation, creator, 2021
Need a minute? is a series of 6 short sound pieces written for quiet places throughout the Wheatsheaf Hotel. Posters around the pub each ask a question, a challenge, and invite patrons to take a moment to reflect on their state of mind, follow a QR code and listen. Each sound piece is comprised of layered, textural vocal and synth drones, based around one note in the C whole tone scale, creating a sense of blurry rest. Beginning with a recording of an empty Wheaty in pre-covid times, the pieces begin by placing listeners in their embodied location, then moving them to various abstract watery spaces. Need a minute to find an answer? Listen in, maybe you’ll find it here.
Exhibited at the Wheatsheaf Hotel May 6 - May 31 2021.
Jack & Jill & The Beanstalk: An Environmental Tale
Community Musical Theatre, Sound Designer, 2020
Full sound design and operation of community theatre production Jack and Jill (and the Beanstalk). This piece was performed during the Adelaide Fringe 2020, at the Waldorf School Mt Barker, and toured to other schools. Over a weeklong creative development I collaborated with director Jo-anne Sarre, composer Gillian Britton, projection designer Jess Foster, and lighting designer Jayden Cowell to create a beautiful, magical world for children and adults to be immersed in. Listen to a sample of the sound design here:
Anthropology of the Future
Short Film, Sound Designer/Composer, 2018
A series of 6 chapters that explores the future of humanity through the embodiment of the future in evolving creatures. As set sound recordist and sound designer/composer for this project I composed imaginative soundscapes and sound worlds for each vignette, creating a dreamlike speculation of the future through the eyes of hybrid creatures.
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Direction: Alexis Gambis (France/USA).
Life Cycle
Short animated film, Sound Designer/Composer, 2017
Collaboration with visual artist and filmmaker Harshini J. Karunaratne specifically for Tokyo Big Sight. It was submitted to the second edition of the Tokyo International Projection Mapping Awards (TIPMA), and received the Jury Award by the panel of judges.
A meditation on the passing of time through the metaphor of cherry blossoms. Read more at https://harshinijk.com/portfolio_page/life-cycle-tipma/.
Barely Breathing
Video Installation, Sound Designer, 2017
Terrifying and lonely deep-dive into the experience of an anxiety attack. In this sound design I used psychoacoustics to induce (light) feelings of anxiety in listeners, raising their heartbeats and quickening their breath with along with the actress. This was my first complete sound design for a short film.
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Direction: Atlas Lee-Reid (USA)
#florence
Experimental Video Installation, Sound Designer, 2016
Sound design for Harshini J. Karunaratne's multi-channel video installation exhibited at the La Pietra Dialogues in Florence, Italy. #florence explores the value of image making on social media through the tourist gaze. The sound design is slow and alarming, to accompany slowly changing, glitch-filled video. My first installation sound design. Read more at: