Research Projects

Sinead O'Donnell Carey

Current PhD Student

Examining Social Historiography and the Treatment of Noncompliant Individuals Latent in Irish Mental Healthcare Spaces and Places Through Digital Performative Interventions

Research Project Summary:

IT Sligo is adjacent to a number of mental healthcare facilities with a portion of these being purchased as the future art and design campus for Yeats Academy of Arts, Design and Architecture. The research will investigate the IT Sligo art block buildings, the mental health care facility behind IT Sligo known as the Clock Tower, the former ‘asylum’, St Columba’s (The Clayton Hotel), Sligo Gaol, St John’s Hospital and Hazelwood House as sites for devised live performance with digital media, information art while utilising historical archives and verbatim witness testimonies. The aim of this research is to find successful performative methods of representing the social history of buildings in IT Sligo’s surrounding areas along with specific buildings that will be utilised in the future of IT Sligo’s campus.

Bio:

Sinéad O’Donnell-Carey is a theatre maker and visual artist from Dublin living in Donegal, Ireland. Trained in theatre design, Sinéad has explores digital media technology for theatre and performance art, combining visual and information art practices with the body in the space.

Sinéad has an MA in Film & theatre from NUI Galway and BA in Performing Arts and Theatre Design from IT Sligo. She was on the committee for the Irish Prague Quadrennial team 2019 and exhibited her work in the Irish Student and Graduate section of the PQ. Sinéad was the Yeats Design Resident in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin for 2017 to 2018. Her performance art piece ‘Thick Skin’ was performed at the Research in Real Time conference at the O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance at NUI Galway in May 2017.

Presentations

Durgandriod Resistance Conference Galway April 2020 (postponed) – Video Art presentation

Thick Skin Research in Real-Time Conference Galway May 2017 – Live art and Digital Media presentation

Collaborations

Cuid/The Ante Room at the Prague Quadrenial 2019 – Sinéad collaborated with IT Sligo  and IADT graduate students on a digital media installation at the international exhibition in Prague(to be disseminated in a future paper).

 Irish Food, A Play written by Jp McMahon, The Rustic Stone, Dublin, part of the Dublin Fringe Festival 2019 and Anair Restaurant, Galway, Westport Festival, 2020 (postponed) – Sinéad developed and designed a site responsive, postdramatic performance combining nostalgic food experience with theatre (to be disseminated in a future paper).