Projects
No Silence, No Saints
No Silence, No Saints
A provocation fusion of technology, radical queer performance, and live music, this production reimagines theatrical storytelling and contemporary theatre—amplifying trans* voices through an exploration of desire, and the politics of visibility.
No Silence, No Saints is a multi-sensory interrogation of power, pleasure and patriarchy—a space where performer, audience, and technology are linked together through intricate mechanisms and devices of excitation and incitement. This bold new work weaves original music production created with collaborators through the development process, participatory performance, and radical queer artistry to amplify the voices of trans* artists and sex workers - offering a theatre experience like no other.
At its core, the work is an act of transformation—of bodies, space, and perception, embracing play as a tool of resistance and education. It dismantles patriarchal systems of repression, questioning how identity is constructed, controlled, and commodified. Challenging the erasure of trans* narratives and complexities of trans* sex work- reclaiming the stage as a site of play, disruption, and storytelling that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. Exposing and dismantling stigma while embracing empowerment it delves into the layered realities of survival, and the secrets shared behind silk curtains.
Developed through residencies at Fferme Dwyran in North Wales, Islington Mill, Glasgow, and the University of Salford, this production is a living experiment in collaborative, intersectional performance-making. Through projection and laser mapping, motion-sensitive visuals, experimental prosthetics, and sound-reactive lighting new space and narratives develop into captivating visual worlds that shift and evolve in real time.
Through vivid and erotic playful drama the performance and development process confronts the fetishisation, objectification, and rising de-humanisation of trans* bodies in politics, media and everyday experience. Exposing what desire, fear and instinct reveals of the truths of human connection.
Premiering its work-in-progress form at Fat Out Fest, this project is a declaration: Our voices are not echoes—they are the origin. No one can shape our truths but us, for only we know the depths of our survival and the power of our becoming.
Experiment
£20,000
Aims of the Project
With the funding I hope to host three to four residencies, for ease and for budget one will take place in my studio in glasgow – this will be to work on the script and music production. I hope to work with Kasra Jalilipour on the script and groove on the production. I have been in touch with both to arrange meetings.
A large portion of the funding’s budget is set aside to test and experiment with the listed technology. I met an ideal collaborator in Glasgow who works with laser & projection mapping and other interactive technologies. We will work together in Glasgow then she will come to the residency at Salford university pre-show to install and work with me.
The residency in Wales I will go alone to focus on the script and narrative of the show. I have been researching and speaking with peers in advanced of this. I budget a portion of the fund to explore light and sound reactive LED’s which can be used in prosthetics. The residency at Islington Mill I will use to make more music for the show, meet with Kasra for dramaturgy feedback.
Ultimately this funding will allow me to develop a show I want to tour with and start on a mixtape/original score I hope to release with a label and explore how technology can be used in tandem with contemporary performances and sociological theory to build connection, educate, entertain and amaze. Bringing to light imperative cultural issues one booty drop at a time.
Meet the artist
Dæmon Clelland
Lead artist
they/he/she
TS DÆMON (FKA Shrek 666) is one of Scotland’s most innovative queer artists. Their work spans live art, SFX, music production, drag, visual arts, intimacy industries, and community organising.
A Glasgow School of Art graduate, they are currently developing an immersive, interactive theatre production while pursuing a master’s in social sciences, specialising in gender theory, policy, and restorative justice.
Through technology, sound, the body, and trans* (be)comings, they interrogate masculinity, embodiment, desire, and patriarchal systems of representation. Blurring distinctions of fact, fetish, fiction, and fantasy, they craft radical sensorial experiences that challenge dominant narratives and reimagine new possibilities.
