Benjamin Bennett: Sitting and Smiling
Jasmine Palacios
Published on 9/28/18 - YouTube
This is an article about a YouTube channel by Benjamin Bennett and his odd fascination with "sitting and smiling."
What is Sitting and Smiling?
Sitting and Smiling is a series of videos on Benjamin Bennett’s YouTube channel that consist of Bennett doing nothing but sitting and smiling for approximately four hours each time. The first three videos were created four years ago, and since, there have been 292 videos posted to the channel.
At first glance the series can appear eerie and cryptic to most. Several people have attempted to find the truth or reason behind these strange videos. While searching for interviews with Benjamin, I stumbled upon an article by Mark Frauenfelder that was written last year. In this article, he shares information from Benjamin’s Patreon page where he writes about his videos and his music: "My goal is to continue and increase the frequency of Sitting and Smiling, increase the quality of Sitting and Smiling, and to create new work."
"My goal is to continue and increase the frequency of Sitting and Smiling, increase the quality of Sitting and Smiling, and to create new work." - Benjamin Bennett
Ok, but why?
hat’s a good question. So why does Benjamin make these videos? It isn’t that strange. You see, Benjamin Bennett’s bizarre YouTube series isn’t just something made to creep people out. Scaring people may not be the intention at all.
Sitting and Smiling is actually a display of an art form known as endurance or “duration" art. This art form comprises completing an action over a long period of time. I was able to find out about this through a channel dedicated to odd situations. His channel is called ScareTheater, and we will be in part using his research. ScareTheater investigated this art form and came to different conclusions. Go check it out, it’s really cool, I promise.
Endurance or "Duration" Art
It's difficult to explain endurance art. Like other forms of art, it can be difficult to understand why people choose to do it. As stated before, endurance art is an action that is performed over an unusually long amount of time. I was able to find some origin on the art form through Junkee: In May, rock band The National collaborated with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson on an installation at New York’s MoMA called ‘A Whole Lot of Sorrow’, which involved them performing their song ‘Sorrow’ for six hours. In July, Jay ‘no hyphen’ Z performed his song ‘Picasso Baby’ for six hours at New York’s Pace Gallery, alongside performance artist Marina Abramović.
Linda Mary Montano with Tehching Hsieh. Art/Life: One Year Performance 1983–1984 (Rope Piece), 1983–84 (still); performance documentation. From DailyServing
In May, rock band The National collaborated with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson on an installation at New York’s MoMA called ‘A Whole Lot of Sorrow’, which involved them performing their song ‘Sorrow’ for six hours. In July, Jay ‘no hyphen’ Z performed his song ‘Picasso Baby’ for six hours at New York’s Pace Gallery, alongside performance artist Marina Abramović.
There doesn’t seem to be a reason as to why people choose to create duration art, but a main goal during performance seems to be to lengthen the duration of their performance.
Other Works by Benjamin Bennett
So now that we have learned his motives and the truth of the series, let’s talk a little more about Bennett. When analyzing different videos and articles about Benjamin Bennett, I came to find that he is… a normal guy. Bennett doesn’t necessarily seem to be strange. He seems like he is over-all a stable, kind person. There are however, some other things he does that are perhaps a bit off. In addition to Sitting and Smiling Benjamin also creates and performs a type of music that I can only categorize as "experimental."
As far as I know these are the only things Benjamin really focuses on doing, but he may create new works soon.
Bennett and a friend recording music
Other Information About the Series
Benjamin has gone through some weird stuff while filming, let me explain.
In the 5th episode of Sitting and Smiling, Benjamin’s house is broken into at around the three hour mark. This must have been a more terrifying experience for the robber who opened the door slightly and saw Benjamin doing what he does best, sitting and smiling.
There are many problems that come with sitting and smiling for four hours on camera and this is just one, but I am certain there are far more that can be found within his hundreds of videos. Here is the link to the channel if you'd like to see the oddity for yourself.