Sitting and Smiling Analysis

weirded out by this yet yes this is literally the entire video just this guy sitting down in front of a camera and smiling and no this is not being looped or anything like that sitting and smiling as YouTube serious I was created by Benjamin Bennett since 2014 he's been live-streaming himself sitting in front of a camera and smiling for four hours straight that's it as of now he's uploaded two hundred and seven video ism doing this and I still continuing to do more because if I'll strange and somewhat creepy this appears to be is cause some people's attention something it's a form of art some think it's meditation while others think he may be mentally ill regardless of Bennett's intentions throughout these videos he's shown an extreme amount of patience and determination and his fifth video at one point there's a worm or a centipede or something crawling on a shirt pocket and then later a fly lands on his forehead but he doesn't even flinch his continues on to finishing the four hours in addition in the middle of the same video someone ended up breaking into his house to rob it always hear the robbery in the video is someone opening the door and saying hello but in the description of the video explains the robbery more in depth apparently someone had broken one of the locks on a store to get into it the house throwing the video but ended up leaving after seeing him just sitting there and smiling I personally thought this part of the video Estates at first because I feel like someone would have abandoned the four-hour sitting thing if a robbery happened but now I'm actually pretty sure this is real and I'll explain why later in addition to his YouTube channel but it also has a website where he literally just post all of his YouTube videos and also a Facebook page I feel the Facebook page also shows how much integrity this guy has by the email conversation he had with a producer from tosh point-o I'm sure most of you are familiar with tosh point-o if not it has a show on Comedy Central where a guy named Daniel Tosh talks about viral videos anyway a producer of the show offered to fly Ben out to Los Angeles to have him on the show and then pay him for his time as well Bennet declined the offer and after the producer kept on repeatedly sending him messages Bennet said a final response saying he wouldn't be on the show because in his words is based on a brand of humor that is tasteless exploitative and chock full of sexist racist classist and homophobic sentiment on October 22nd he put this on into his Facebook page telling people that he would be performing live in Brooklyn for some event called trauma salon trauma salon is a monthly event is open to performers musicians and artists the event exists essentially to allow artists have a place to process or create trauma another sign that kind of vague but it pretty much sounds like some type of performance art event I was able to find Bennett's performance from October 22nd on YouTube all it was was him standing in front of the microphone and breathing into it while occasionally just talking about what was happening and kind of just thinking aloud then at the end just like he was done and walked offstage really that's about it this wasn't his first time performing at the trauma salon I thought another video on YouTube that should another performance of his from November of 2014 in this performance he actually has a few buddies up on stage with him Bennett is the guy on the right their performance just consists of them making some music well not exactly music it's more like this maybe when it's not artistic enough for something but I just don't get it this isn't the only music that Bennett has been involved with he also has an account on Bandcamp we can purchase some of the other music he has created the music here isn't really that much different from what you saw on their performance it's just kind of noise I guess this falls under the genre of experimental music or something at this point I think Benjamin Bennet's intentions become a little bit more clear he's a performance artist and is sitting and smiling series seems to just be another piece of art that he has created according to vice.com this falls into the category of durational art which is more about the endurance of the performer than the actual art piece itself one famous durational artist was a man named touching see some of his work in clipped him locking self in a cage disallowing himself to read write speak watch TV or anything for a whole year another project of his was him living on the streets for an entire year without ever going into a single building and in another he tethered himself to another artist for an entire year it was not allowed to touch her now some people this might be pointless but it is really impressive that anyone will be able to do something that requires this much patience and dedication simon advice.com actually got a chance to interview Bennett over the phone I'll only be talking about a few parts of the interview so if you want to read the whole interview let's head over to the article link in the description Bennett says that there really isn't any purpose in this whole thing he just felt the internet was lacking something like this when he was questioned about this being performance art he did confirm that it was even talked about some of its influences touching see being one of them the way that been apparent for sitting in smiling sessions is by getting a drink of water and going to the bathroom however in one of his videos he forgot to go to the bathroom beforehand you can actually see him pee himself in the middle of the video the interviewer also asked Bennett about the video that's one broke into his house Bennett pretty much just retold the event of what happened and said the reason he was so determined not to move even during a house robbery was because he knew that whatever would happen in that video would make for a great video the video was just more important to him now before I thought this part of the video was staged or something but after the interview I'm convinced that this actually happened I mean the guy pissed himself for the sake of not messing up a video so does seem reasonable that even a house robber which is too unlikely to be violent anyway wouldn't be able to make this guy stop so that pretty much explains it although these videos can give off a pretty unnerving vibe I've seen out of context they're just part of a performance art project whether you like the performance or not you have to admit it is pretty impressive that he just sat in front of a camera for so long thank you for watching and I'll see you on the flipside you

Channel: ScareTheater

Views: 1,059,329

Rating: 4.9146976 out of 5

Keywords: sitting, and, smiling, analysis, analyze, analyzing, analyses, explain, explained, explanation, weird, strange, odd, YouTube, you, tube, video, videos, meditate, meditating, meditation, creepy, scary, pee, piss, peeing, pissing, interview, Benjamin, Ben, Bennett, performance, art, artist, Trauma, Salon

Id: SCqb2BmkMtw

Length: 7min 0sec (420 seconds)

Published: Tue May 24 2016