DAYNA
McLEOD

I am a middle-ageing queer performance-based artist. My work often uses humour and capitalizes on exploiting the body’s social and material conditions. I am a Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture research-creation postdoctoral fellow. I earned a PhD from the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University. My written work has been published in Canadian Theatre Review, Ciel Variable, Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, and NOMOREPOTLUCKS. I have received support from Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Faculty of Education, McGill University, PHI Centre, Centaur Theatre, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Concordia University, and Media@McGill. My video and performance work has been presented at the Impakt Festival in Utrecht Netherlands, the Mardi Gras Festival in Darlinghurst Australia, MIX Brasil Festival Of Sexual Diversity in São Paulo Brazil, the Modern Art Museum in Warsaw Poland, Le Centre d’art contemporain in Paris, the Tang Teaching Museum in Saratoga Springs, the PHI Centre and OFFTA in Montreal, and the Summerworks Theatre Festival in Toronto.

In a few words, explain what drew you to this project.

I’ve always had sleep disruptions like nightmares, sleepwalking, and night terrors, but didn’t realize their extent and frequency until I started recording myself sleeping in the summer of 2019. I am drawn to this project as I continue to work with my subconscious self as collaborator, subject, and productive participant to explore the intimacy of surveillance technologies and non-sexualized representations of queer coupling and middle-aging queerness.

Q & A

What is something you cannot sleep without?

Pajama bottoms

What is your favourite tv show to fall asleep to?

“Light” murder dramas (The Mentalist, Elementary, Psych)

Do you have any favourites/recommendations for cultural works that address sleep in some way?