DIT 2026: Paula Varjack – The LABUBU EFFECT
- Year
- 2026
- Partners
Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts x Marlborough Productions
- Deadline for applications
Monday 23 February 2026
- Apply
Application Form
Download a Word doc version
Download a Large Text version
Performing retail, hype and the cult of the collectable
What
This three-day workshop invites eight artists to investigate contemporary cultures of consumerism – from hype drops and independent boutiques, to resale markets and ‘cute’ collectable unboxing TikToks – as sites of live performance.
Together we’ll ask:
- What can artists observe from the aesthetics and atmospheres of retail environments?
- How do online spaces (and the algorithms within them) inform our desires and create hype?
- How can we disrupt or reflect these spaces through small, uncanny interventions?
Through field observation, site specific experiments, discussion and hybrid (IRL/online) micro performances, participating artists/practitioners will map how consumerism influences and creates desire, and experiment with ways to perform and disrupt it.
We will learn by inhabiting, misusing and mirroring the retail rituals that surround us online, and in person. This will be a collective space for dialogue, experiment, play and investigation.
We are living in a time of extreme financial precarity and increasingly rapid micro-trends. Together we will explore how one informs the other, and how consumerism becomes an act of coping, comforting and creating a (false) sense of belonging.
Where
Activities will take place in person in Brighton.
As well as a venue near the high street, shopping centre and/or department store (exact locations to be confirmed), we will also meet in the studios at Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.
When
Friday 3 – Sunday 5 July 2026
Within the hours of 10am-6pm with a lunch break included. Timings to be confirmed.
Who
This DIT project seeks eight participating arts/practitioners with interest in exploring consumerism as a point of investigation for performance.
What to expect
Throughout this DIT project participating artist/practitioners can expect to:
- Engage with field observation in a number of different retail environments across Brighton.
- Engage in exercises exploring site specific and ‘invisible’ performance.
- Work in pairs, individually and as a small group.
- Create performance experiments on social media and online shopping platforms.
- Create hybrid (IRL & online) micro performances.
- Discuss and reflect on observations, share feedback on performance explorations.
- Activities are not fully set yet, and will be developed closer to the project dates.
As per the nature of Paula’s work, some activities will involve generating material quickly and responsively.
Access
- As part of the activity we will be moving through public spaces with varying levels of sensory demand.
- Some activity will take place in busy or narrow retail spaces.
- Some activity will take place at Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. You can read their webpage on access here.
A small access budget has been reserved to support the group. Artists’ access needs will be requested after selection, and the budget will be used to adjust activity to fit with the needs of the group where possible. We may not be able to cover each individual’s access requirements, this will depend on the final group and costs. If you would like to discuss this before applying, please email [email protected].
Travel & Accommodation
Practitioners based outside of Brighton are welcome to apply but participating artists/practitioners will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation.
About the Artist
Paula Varjack (she/they) is an artist working in performance, video and participation, often employing cabaret-infused theatre that blends direct address, video/sound design and movement. Situated at the crossroads of pop culture and social investigation, their practice combines rigorous research with playful experimentation, that seeks to reveal how power operates through the cultural phenomena we often take for granted. Interviews and workshops are often at the core of her R&D process. Collaborative projects include digital performance iMelania (as Varjack-Lowry with Chuck Blue Lowry in 2021) and more currently the ensemble performance Nine Sixteenths, on a UK tour this spring, supported by Developed with Complicite and co-commissioned by Brixton House and Cambridge Junction, demonstrating her commitment to amplify marginalised voices through innovative forms.
Paula Varjack. Image Ben Gregory
How to apply
- Application Form: Each DIT has a different online application form, depending on the needs of the project. You can find the link to the online Application Form, Word and audio versions at the top of this page.
- Alternative formats: We accept written, video, and audio applications. For video or audio applications, please answer the questions listed in the Application Form within a recording of 5 minutes. Send the file to [email protected].
- Access: We cannot provide or pay for access support to help with writing or preparing the application. Should you need support accessing or submitting the application, please contact us using the phone or email details below and we will be happy to help.
- Further questions/support: Please see the FAQs, email [email protected] or call us on 020 8985 2124.
Banner image credit:
Image by Ben Gregory
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