Sitting and Smiling
"There isn't really a purpose. My inbox is full of people asking me why I'm doing this, but I don't think that question is really applicable to this type of activity."
Benjamin Bennett, 2015 interview with Vice Media[1]
Sitting and Smiling is an endurance art performance by Benjamin Bennett. In a typical performance, Bennett looks into a video camera which is 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 years he uploaded similar videos at a rate of about one per week. Currently, his videos have earned more than 14.3 million views with over 185 thousand subscribers. [2]
Bennett cites Claire Bishop's 2012 Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship as an inspiration for his art.[1]
Incidents on stream
During the fifth installment of his stream, a burglar broke into his house. He kicked down the door into Bennett's house. The thief entered the room he was streaming in and said "Hello?", and quickly left. The incident generated attention online and the video currently has over 3 million views.[3][4]
In a separate incident in his 52nd livestream, Benjamin 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 to the camera.[5]
References
- ^ a b Suzdaltsev, Jules (22 January 2015). "This Guy Is Filming Himself Sitting and Smiling for Four Hours a Day". Vice. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ^ Putney, Dean (7 October 2015). "Internet man sits and smiles at camera for hundreds of hours". Boing Boing. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ^ Sumitra (26 January 2015). "This Guy Is Filming Himself Just Sitting and Smiling for Four Hours a Day". Oddity Central. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ^ "Sitting and Smiling #5". YouTube. Benjamin Bennett. 25 November 2014. Event occurs at 2:36:30. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|website=(help) - ^ "Sitting and Smiling #52". YouTube. Benjamin Bennett. 20 February 2015. Event occurs at 2:47:00. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|website=(help)