Can Skates Pants from Terry Hempfling on Vimeo.
TERRY SPEAKING RACHEL TYPING
[But here’s the real conversation.]
I was a dishwasher in a cafeteria.
[What was your first job growing up? Where?]
[What do you do…]
At Antioch College. [Do you hate that question?]
Antioch. College. [What do you make?]
[How old were you?]
I was 15. [Get one for yourself while you’re at it!]
Yes.
I hated it. [aminuteinasafencedinnerupturedwinextuppencilipsonofa]
2 weeks. [How long did you work there?]
Yes. [Just 2 weeks!?]
I quit. [Did you quit or did you get fired?]
(bang, muffled bang) [Just because you hated it? Did something happen?]
I got a new job. I liked it better.
(indiscernible) [yelloldelegawntainedarshurts]
...at a comic book store.
[That sounds like a lot more fun for a 15-year-old.]
I liked it.
[Were you a clerk?]
In college.
[Are you employed?]
[Are you living within 30 minutes of a temp agency?]
[Do you do a little bit of this?]
[Don’t forget to hit save before you send!]
I was a waitress.
[Where?]
The sunrise cafe.
[In what city?]
It’s a village. [Or town?]
[Oh, village.]
[Yellow Springs?]
[Ohio?]
Yes.
(9 staccato auto-shop sounds)
Yeah. [askinganimateshirtsleevesteadykeptempturnpikeepiclove]
(slow, rhythmic bang begins,
continuing for 30 seconds)
John.
[No breaks]
Yes.
(slow, rhythmic bang begins again,
continuing for 20 seconds,
slowly fading)
[Did you make good money as a waitress?]
[Is that why you kept doing it?]
I liked it.
(slow, rhythmic bang begins again)
[You kept doing it because you liked it or]
Both. [because you made good money?]
(slow, rhythmic banging gets louder)
Because my dad told me
I should learn how to do it if I wanted
to be a dancer when I grew up.
(rhythmic banging softens [If you wanted to be a dancer, you should be a]
mechanical fluttering sound begins
interjecting rhythmic banging)
Yes. [waitress]
Yes. [Are you still a waitress?]
[Really? Are you lying?]
(1 cough)
No.
[Where are you a waitress right now?]
Right now?
Right now I’m in a trash can. (laughter)
[Well that’s true.]
(mechanical fluttering and
rhythmic banging end; fluttering
and high-heeled walking)
[But I happen to know you are living in Minnesota right now and I don’t know of you waitressing anywhere.]
(1 giggle)
I identify as a waitress. (laughter)
[You haven’t waited tables for at least 5 months.]
But I waited tables for 20 years
before that.
[What’s your Saturday job? Tell us about that.]
I’m a wedding DJ (giggling)
(Yeah-ha!)
[Where do you DJ?]
At weddings.
(2 giggles)
[In the Twin Cities?]
In the Twin Cities and…
...within… [Are you a good worker?]
...150 miles of the Twin Cities.
[Are you committed 100%?]
I keep losing my mic.
[Do you want Erica to bring some tape to you?]
(murmurs)
Yeah. Yes.
(continuous loud grinding noise) [Hey Erica, can you do that?]
Yes. [Can you still hear me?]
[I’ll keep asking you questions if that’s OK.]
Yes.
[When and how did you become a wedding DJ?]
Craigslist!
[Are you committed 24/7?]
(breathless) Yes.
[Do you love it?]
It’s OK.
I’m learning a lot about country…
music.
[wheresyourattentionsliptwistrainstoplow)
Contemporary… [wheresyour]
...country music. [attentionsliptwistrainstoplowwheresyourattentionslip
twistplow]
[What’s the furthest you’ve driven for a]
[2 weeks]
[wedding so far?]
(indiscernible) Rachel.
[Can you hear me now? Hello?]
(baby fussing)
No.
Rachel Jendrzejewski and Terry Hempfling establish conversations and hack the routine of conversations at the same time. They exchange and layer movement and speech; break spoken language and make new demands of it; and engage in physical endurance and multitasking exercises with people and environments. This spring, collaborators from diverse academic disciplines (communication, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and philosophy) will take part in these conversations, while Terry and Rachel challenge relationships to meaning making—their own and their interlocutors’.
Join the conversation with Jendrzejewski and Hempfling on April 10.
