(AUS): August – October 2011
Sandra Carluccio applied for an Internship in July 2010 round and spent 10 weeks with Blast Theory in 2011. As a recent graduate, Blast Theory was able to introduce Sandra to how the company develops and implements creative projects. Sandra was a great addition to the team for a short time and in this photo she has become the ‘face’ of the Ghostwriter commission for Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.
About Sandra
Sandra is an emerging performance artist from Brisbane, Australia who is investigating the potential of participatory performance experiences through the experimentation between urban sites, performance, and low-fi/ubiquitous technologies. In 2010, she completed a Bachelor of Creative Industries with Honours (majoring in Performance Studies) at Queensland University of Technology.
Straight out of her volunteer position with Blast Theory she returned to Australia and received a JUMP mentoring grant to produce a locative media performance under the mentorship of Steve Bull from the p.v.i. collective in Perth. She presented the redevelopment of that work in 2013, called “This is Capital City” at La Boite Theatre Company, which earned her a Brisbane theatre award (Matilda Award) for “Bille Brown Best Emerging Artist”. The work has also been selected to present at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in 2015.
This year she is the Live Artist in Residence at La Boite Theatre Company where she will be creating new works and redeveloping “This is Capital City”. She also works as the curatorial assistant for New York and Indianapolis public art festival, Art in Odd Places. These activities are part of her ArtStart and Early Career Residency grants from the Australia Council for the Arts.
Sandra has also presented work at various venues/festivals including Performance Space (Sydney), PACT Centre For Emerging Artists (Sydney), Art and About (Sydney), You are Here festival (Canberra), Anywhere Theatre Festival and State Library of Queensland’s The Edge (Brisbane), Queensland Theatre Company and Metro Arts (Brisbane).
About the volunteership
I spent 2 and half wonderful months with Blast Theory in 2011. After hearing so much about Blast Theory through my studies it was such a fantastic opportunity to meet the whole team and become part of the company and its workings for a short time. I was set to work testing the logic of performance pieces, scouting routes, overseeing the everyday running of A Machine to See With for the Brighton Digital Festival (which included chatting to a police officer about suspicious car park behaviour), marketing, archiving, sourcing materials, general administrative duties, sitting in and occasional chiming in on creative meetings such as Ghostwriter and the Red Cross commission, meeting other artists, visiting associate companies, getting my hands on video editing, a photo shoot at Exeter, and rummaging through their various books and video materials. Every task I completed while volunteering has informed my future work.
With my time at Blast Theory I was able to have one on one time with everyone, and got some great advice, either about my artistic practice, insight into Blast Theory’s, or being an entrepreneurial artist. The time I had was valuable and has enabled me to return to Australia with stronger skills and experience with my professional practice.