“Can I getcha some
coffee with that?”
Placing
myself as the central figure in my fieldwork, I set out to address the
political economy of the iconography of the American Diner waitress and how it
produces and reproduces her affective, precarious labour. Through a combination of performance,
lecture and documentary footage I will relate, play, recreate, critique and
affect my audience/customers' understanding of the icon and our labour. I aim to reveal the feedback loop that
exists between the iconography and narrative associated with the affective
labour of waitressing and how that then feeds back into waitress' identity
formation. Through integrating performance and documentary filmmaking into my
research I attempt to affect the narrative of the icon with new sticky ideas,
reveal it's power and find ways of re-appropriating its power back into the
hands of the workers from which it demands.
Heidi Hasbrouck -
BIO
Along with currently being a PhD candidate at
Goldsmiths Centre for Cultural Studies, Heidi Hasbrouck is a practicing
filmmaker, performer and lecturer in London. Heidi moved to London after years of precarious work in the
restaurant industry in the US to pursue an MA in Screen Documentary at
Goldsmiths and somehow never left.
Her research primarily pulls from a feminist Marxist tradition
particularly American, British and Italian feminist critiques of work, feminine
labour, precarious labour, and affective labour. Her research interests also include her background in media
including identity politics, media representations and nostalgia in American
culture.
The next meeting is scheduled to the 11th January 2013 when Amanda McDowell will be presenting.
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