If you’ve been anywhere near Sydney Harbour in the past fortnight, you will have seen the lights scattered across the buildings of the foreshore, a sure signal that the annual festival of light, music and ideas, Vivid Sydney, is in full swing. An exciting part of this year’s program is Modulations, a satellite festival curated by music industry polymath Stephen Pavlovic of Modular, which this year comprises performances by Grace Jones, Bill Drummond, jazz saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders and a Kooky Motorik Pelvis Party, all alongside Italo Dining and Disco Club. We speak with Mr Pavlovic about this year’s program.

Grace Jones is headlining this year’s Modulations. What can we expect from her shows?
Modulations is fundamentally about creative and multi disciplinary practice, and Grace has a history not only in music, but also fashion and art, and the context of her shows with all the costumes and hats makes her perfect for the DNA of what we’re about. She’s about to commence her world tour, too, so it’s really nice timing. I think you can expect lights, lasers, action, hats… all iconic Grace Jones.

While Modulations sits under the Vivid umbrella, it runs as a sort of satellite festival. What’s your approach to putting it together?
Finding people is the key too it. We don’t want to just put on a bunch of bands and sell tickets, but find people that are incredibly creative beyond that. That’s people like Pet Shop Boys who headlined last year and have worked with amazing directors, fashion designers, artists and creative directors; there’s a sense of creativity to what they do. Finding people like that is important because there’s not a lot of them in the world.

How does this year’s Modulations differ from the last?
The fundamental structure is the same, but instead of Porteno we’re working with Maurice [Terzini] and Fratelli Paradiso on the Italo Dining and Disco Club, which is taking people who again are very creative and interested in music and creating something special. Where last year we worked with the Porteno boys, who are from more of rockabilly culture, these guys are into disco club stuff, and their experience will make something really excellent. But as I said, the format is the same: there’ll be the food, the live music, a talk, some installation stuff.

What kind of experience do you want people to have?
I hope it’s a multi -sensory one. You can go from one end of the building to the other, see a great visual show, have your palate satisfied, see a great installation, and be stimulated on a bunch of different levels rather than just seeing a band in a regular show.

Do you like working outside the regular remit of Modular with projects like this?
I love it. It’s really enjoyable for me. In the day to day of Modular we work with a lot of great graphic designers, artist, photographers, and so to bring some of that to life and be involved beyond the final product of a show is really fulfilling.

Vivid Modulations runs 04-08 June 2015 at Carriageworks.