Call for applications: Creative Design Lab 2020 in Namibia

The two-month project seeks to bring local creatives together for a session of relearning, exchanging, discussing and developing a new approach to the live arts performance sector in Namibia.

Creative Design Lab will result in a Black Box Theatre installation at the NTN in Windhoek, which will be open to the public in November, depending on the COVID-19 restrictions in the country. The final production of a Black Box Theatre installation will combine the skills of performance artists and technicians to create something spectacular to all senses.

Applicants should download the application here and send it via email at culture-windhoek@goethe.de.

The form should be submitted along with all necessary documents and files as a single zip file containing individual files in doc, docx or PDF format. Only emailed submission will be evaluated.

The submission deadline is 2 September.

Application guidelines

• All applicants should be above the age of 18 years.
• All applicants should have some level of experience in their respective field.
• Applications are not open for completely inexperienced performers and technical creatives.
• All applicants should be open to alternate methods of devising.
• All applicants must reside in Windhoek.
• All submissions should be individually based. Group/ensemble submissions will not be evaluated.

All technical creatives must:

• Have foundational technical knowledge and be familiar with basic IT concepts.
• Have respective technical operating skills for interior and exterior landscapes.
• Be aware of health and safety aspects.
• Ability to work under pressure to tight deadlines

All theatre performers must:

• Have foundational theatre and performance knowledge and concepts.
• Be aware of health and safety aspects.
• Have improvisational skills and be open with experimental theatre methods.

The following are descriptions of the roles in the project:

Experimental theatre performer

• A theatre performer that is well versed in non-conventional performance techniques and is open to working in a different range of theatre-making methods.

Sound designer

• A sound creative who is capable and skilled in creating complex live or studio soundscapes, soundtracks and effects that can be easily integrated into live performances and installations.
• Should be able to develop the sound concept for a project and a sound map or storyboard from the project description.
• Sound artists, producers and beatmakers who can create abstract and manipulate sound materials, and who have technical skills, can apply.
• Must have a technical understanding of studio and live sound technology.

AV designer and videographer

• An audio-visual creative who can create, develop, install and implement audio-visual systems into live performance and installation works.
• Must have a technical understanding of AV and IT systems.
• Must be able to arrange and edit audio into video.
• Must have camera operating and video editing skills.

Light designer

• A lighting creative who can install and operate complex lighting and special electrical effects into live performance and installation.
• Must be able to develop a light plot and handle lighting equipment.

“The performing arts sector in Namibia has been granted with a variant pool of artistic expressions and events," NTN artistic director Nelago Shilongoh said. "However, there still remains a significant gap in performance art and interdisciplinary artistic practices. This project further aims to contribute to filling that gap, and is structured not only for skills exchange among the creatives to be involved but also for them to rethink about what they know and breathe something new into the sector.”

Goethe-Institut Namibia cultural programmes head Michelle Namases said: “Globally, artists are challenged to be more innovative and explore live art and the digital spaces, but very often not much is possible due to a lack of not only financial but also interdisciplinary support. Theatre, as many other forms of art, is changing and so we hope to produce an artistic production to maintain the relationship between theatre and various audiences by presenting something not done in Namibia before.”

View the original call here.