Profile
Thelma Ndebele, known as DORMANTYOUTH, is a nonbinary, femme, Black architect and DJ based in South Africa. DORMANTYOUTH's peri-disciplinary practice is rooted in DJ performance as a spatial research method on subcultural worldbuilding and their work consists of a series of aural and visual research outputs on placemaking in urban nightlife. They practice within the cultural sector as the creative director, project lead, and curator of Groove Biennale, an architecture and music festival co-produced alongside Jägermeister Night Embassy. This festival champions electronic music produced independently by young, queer, Black and independent musicians, while attempting to engage Johannesburg’s architectural profession with communities, rituals and functions that exist in the city, beyond the daytime.
DORMANTYOUTH's current relationship to architecture in Johannesburg is through academia. They lecture part time at the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Architecture, and occasionally present their Masters research on queer subcultures and nocturnal Johannesburg at the Graduate School of Architecture.
