Sitting and Smiling
{{Short description|Art performance by Benjamin Bennett}}
{{Infobox television
| image = Still from the video Sitting and Smiling 5.png
| caption = A still from the fifth Sitting and Smiling video, where a burglar entered Bennett's home.
| creator = Benjamin Bennett
| presenter = Benjamin Bennett
| num_episodes = 327
| network = YouTube
| first_aired = {{Start date|2014|07|28}}
| last_aired = present
}}
Sitting and Smiling is an endurance art performance by Benjamin Bennett. In a typical performance, Bennett looks into a video camera recording him while sitting and smiling motionless for four hours.
Bennett uploaded his first Sitting and Smiling video on July 28, 2014. Over the next several years, he uploaded similar videos at a rate of about one per week. Currently, his videos have earned over 31 million views with over 380,000 subscribers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqW54i24PGw1q7IxciRmgTA/about|title = Benjamin Bennett - YouTube|website = YouTube}}{{cite news|last1=Putney|first1=Dean|title=Internet man sits and smiles at camera for hundreds of hours|url=http://boingboing.net/2015/10/07/internet-man-sits-and-smiles-a.html|accessdate=17 February 2017|work=Boing Boing|date=7 October 2015}}
Bennett cites Claire Bishop's 2012 Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship as an inspiration for his art.{{cite news|last1=Suzdaltsev|first1=Jules|title=This Guy Is Filming Himself Sitting and Smiling for Four Hours a Day|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/meet-the-man-whos-filming-himself-sitting-and-smiling-for-four-hours-a-day-121/|access-date=17 February 2017|work=Vice|date=22 January 2015|language=en-us}}
''Walking and Talking''
On February 24, 2019, after reaching 300 Sitting and Smiling videos, Bennett began a new video series entitled Walking and Talking, in which he walks and talks continuously for four hours, or until his camera battery runs out. He speaks extemporaneously and reflexively, describing his subjective experience in real time, with subjects such as philosophy of mind, consciousness, and nonduality arising out of his self-reflection.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwA_wYpXyXg|title=Walking and Talking #85|publisher=Benjamin Bennett|website=YouTube|time=0:00:00|date=26 August 2021|accessdate=31 August 2021}}
Incidents on stream
During the fifth stream, a burglar entered Bennett's home. After opening the door to Bennett's room, the burglar said, "Hello?" and then proceeded to shut the door and leave. This incident stacked attention online, and the video has over 8.4 million views.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmrXakd_r6I|title=Sitting and Smiling #5|publisher=Benjamin Bennett|website=YouTube|time=2:36:30|date=25 November 2014|accessdate=7 September 2024}}
In a separate incident in his 52nd livestream, Bennett clearly urinates himself, with a wet puddle seeping out from under him and gradually evaporating over the remainder of the footage. He never acknowledges this or breaks his composure and continues to sit and smile at the camera.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ5UHyYYoQY|title=Sitting and Smiling #52|publisher=Benjamin Bennett|website=YouTube|time=2:47:00|date=20 February 2015|accessdate=7 September 2024}}
During streams 238{{cite web |last1=Bennett |first1=Benjamin |title=Sitting and Smiling #238 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMLXmAqXcOw |website=YouTube |access-date=7 September 2024 |date=18 October 2016}} and 257,{{cite web |last1=Bennett |first1=Benjamin |title=Sitting and Smiling #257 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPL_MRwi4K8 |website=YouTube |access-date=7 September 2024 |date=6 March 2017}} Bennett spontaneously bursts into tears several times, briefly losing composure.
Critical response
{{Quote box
| width = 30.0em
| quote = "There isn't a purpose. My inbox is full of people asking me why I'm doing this, but I don't think that question applies to this type of activity."
| author = Benjamin Bennett
| source = 2015 interview with Vice Media
}}
One reviewer commented, "One of the strangest aspects of this project is its apparent lack of explanation."{{cite web|last1=Rutherford-Morrison|first1=Lara|title=This Man Sits, Smiles, And Stares At You For Four Hours, Creating A Black Hole Of Existential Angst (Enjoy!) |url=https://www.bustle.com/articles/59607-this-man-sits-smiles-and-stares-at-you-for-four-hours-creating-a-black-hole-of|accessdate=17 February 2017|date=20 January 2015}}
Other reviewers said that the performance was "bizarre",{{cite web|last1=Tickle|first1=Glen|title=Artist Benjamin Bennett Films Himself Sitting and Smiling for Hours at a Time in His Series 'Sitting and Smiling'|url=http://laughingsquid.com/artist-benjamin-bennett-films-himself-sitting-and-smiling-for-hours-at-a-time-in-his-series-sitting-and-smiling/|website=Laughing Squid|accessdate=17 February 2017|date=20 January 2015}} "tip of the creepy iceberg",{{cite web|last1=Parra|first1=Sara|title=Sitting and Smiling is Just the Tip of the Creepy Internet Iceberg |url=http://newmediarockstars.com/2015/01/sitting-and-smiling-is-just-the-tip-of-the-creepy-internet-iceberg/|website=New Media Rockstars|date=19 January 2015}} and "bonkers".{{cite web|last1=Reilly|first1=Nicholas|title=This man is filming himself smiling for four hours a day|url=http://metro.co.uk/2015/01/23/this-man-is-filming-himself-smiling-for-four-hours-a-day-5033965/|website=Metro|date=23 January 2015}}
Timothy Kennett of The Atlantic wrote:
{{blockquote|Sitting and Smiling is, therefore, an extreme version of engagement with the present. It takes concepts like mindfulness (it is perhaps not coincidental that Bennett's cross-legged pose recalls the stance of meditation), attention to the present, and discomfort with the speed and busyness of modern life and pushes them until they are unpleasant, even unbearable. ...By making the videos borderline unwatchable, Bennett suggests that experiencing time in a way that is unmediated, focused, and 'real' is impossible. But, of course, Bennett manages it, smiling the whole time.{{cite web|last1=Kennett|first1=Timothy|title=Art That Makes You Experience the Pain of Passing Time|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/03/slow-tv-and-the-excruciating-present/386665/|website=The Atlantic|accessdate=31 August 2021|date=6 March 2015}}}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website}}
- {{YouTube|c=UCqW54i24PGw1q7IxciRmgTA|Benjamin Bennett}}