LAKSHMI
Padmanabhan
I am Assistant Professor in Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University. I am co-editor of “Performing Refusal/Refusing to Perform,” a special issue of Women & Performance. My teaching and research focus on world cinema and experimental film, postcolonial theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. My current book project addresses the ways in which feminist documentary artists from South Asia experiment with cinematic form in order to imagine a radical postcolonial ethics. My academic writing has been published in journals including Camera Obscura, New Review of Film & Television, and Art History, and I have contributed reviews and criticism to venues including Seen, Public Books, and Post45. I have programmed film and video at venues including BRIC Arts, AS220, and Magic Lantern Cinema.
In a few words, explain what drew you to this project.
I’m broadly interested in forms of postcolonial queer and feminist world-making in the midst of our ongoing catastrophes. In my own writing, I’ve focused on artists whose practice pays attention to the shared vulnerability and intimacy that develops when we lie down together and fall asleep. At the same time, I’m also thinking through the political questions raised by this basic intimate act, including issues of homelessness, laws against loitering, and the policing of bodies occupying public space in ways deemed unproductive and unlawful for the state. I’m excited to think more expansively about these questions through the interdisciplinary approaches raised by everyone affiliated with this project.
Website:
Q & A
How would you describe your relationship to sleep?
Fraught.
Why do you find sleep a compelling site for research?
It cuts across several levels of embodiment, from phenomenological to historical and structural.
Are you an early bird or night owl?
Early bird.
What is the strangest place you have ever fallen asleep?
In a public park in Bangalore, as part of Blank Noise’s meet to sleep campaign
Do you keep a dream journal? Any tips for someone who would like to start one?
I do, it’s made a huge difference to managing my nightmares—I write it down as soon as I wake up and it helps me ground myself.
Do you have any favourites/recommendations for cultural works that address sleep in some way?
Jose Munoz’s essay, “Watching Tony Sleep,” and a lot of films by Tsai Ming-Liang
What is your favourite [song/podcast/video/audio book/tv show] to fall asleep to?
Moby Dick