(ITA): October – December 2010
About Serena
My foundation studies are an interdisciplinary BA in graphic and product design at Bolzano/Bozen, a small trilingual university in South Tyrol (German-speaking region in the Northern Italy). In 2007 I was awarded a 6-months Erasmus scholarship which enabled me to focus on typography and book design at Ecal University in Lausanne, Switzerland. I also interned at Giulio Iacchetti’s product design studio in Milan which introduced me to the world of manufacturing and industrial production.
2010 I was awarded a Leonardo scholarship which allowed me to move to the UK and work as assistant for Heather and Ivan Morison, helping with the studio management as well as working on the conception and development of several big sculpture and mixed-media projects. In 2011 I moved back to Italy where I’ve started assisting artist/photographer Walter Niedermayr in both his studio activities as well as a teaching assistant for the Fine Art Photography class at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bolzano/Bozen.
By the end of 2011 I took part to a 4-months-long performance workshop performance led by Italo Zuffi at Careof, Milan, which ended up in a group show. I am currently developing a personal research on the buffer zones between performing art, the current findings of neurosciences, industrial production, autobiographical experience, visual and sensorial perception, future and uncertainty studies.
The internship
I first got to know Blast Theory while interning as assistant for Heather and Ivan Morison in 2010. Their studio was a rented unit at 20 Wellington Road so I was lucky enough to get to know Blast Theory before my internship actually began.
At Blast Theory everyone was in charge of different tasks and priorities, everyone had different skills and points of view, everyone was involved in parallel projects at various stages. The first thing that impressed me was the way this chaos was smoothly managed, giving time for focusing on the quality of the projects, fostering the mutual exchange and getting everyone at Blast Theory involved. Drive for innovation, business entrepreneurship, a visionary mindset, a sense for the contemporary, curiosity and passion are combined with a clear communication of intents, constant confrontation and self-evaluation, determination and ethics. I was given trust, responsibility and help: I could attend meetings, take charge of smaller tasks as well as working as part of the team on exciting major projects such as illustrating the cityscape for the interactive sound archive of Riders Have Spoken and working on the marketing and analysis of Ivy4evr.
The highlights: fixing the sink’s tap with a jubilee clip and transparent plastic tube from a fish shop, advertising the pilot episode of Ivy4Evr an sms-drama talking with some thousands of teenies in front of Top Shop in Oxford Street and reading the real time text exchanges during the pilot-episode week, the final presentation of the dossier for Channel 4, taking part in the intensive strategic days for the 3-year-plan of the company and attending the Blast Theory Christmas Party.
There are so many precious things I gained from this experience and I’m so thankful for having being given this unique opportunity to work and get to know these amazing people. I strongly recommend this to everyone who’s interested in the human in his practice while also working with state-of-the-art technology and truly enjoying a working life where sharing, challenging and developing are at the core of it.