Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/21/the-sitting-and-smiling-gu.html
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… I’m sorry, I don’t understand why we’re all paying attention to a guy who, either in sincerity or out of deliberate irony, films a quiet meditative act, then posts it on the internet so everyone can see how quiet and peaceful he’s being. I’m not sure exactly what his purpose is, but nothing I’ve come up with the sort of behavior I feel I want to encourage. I also feel like someone rambling with no clear purpose about their thoughts on stuff is less a service we actually need on the internet, and more of something it’s fucking impossible to avoid as is.
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What’s wrong with someone practicing their art on the internet? Is someone forcing you to watch it?
It’s a dangerous precedent when we start looking at art as “something we need” rather than “something we want”. That’s how government agencies start deciding what is and isn’t creative expression.
Whether or not you consider it valuable art, it doesn’t cause harm or otherwise do a disservice to society merely for existing, IMHO, and that’s sort of the point. We’ve lost something when we start saying “All things must contribute to society in a meaningful and useful way”, given 1) the subjectivity of such definitions, 2) the ease at which such definitions could be used to censor criticism via art, and 3) the loss of the option to do something “just because I thought it would be fun”, when doing so harms no others.
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I for one like what this guy is doing. I enjoy the heck out of meditation, and I like that he’s showing it can be enjoyable and not a chore.
I also do a lot of stream-of-consciousness rambling, but it’s usually inside of my head. I’ll be curious to check out a snippet of some of his vids to see what he tends to ramble about. Maybe there’s some overlap thematically.
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Art? That seems a stretch.
Ah! No it isn’t. ANYTHING can be art.
Now, is it GOOD art? That you can bicker about.
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Really? If John Cage’s 4:33 can be considered art, why not this?
Would it seriously rock you world if someone out there found this a useful and beautiful artform?
I mean, I know, we all cast aspersions at various art and pastime lovers out there (just ask the furry community or the authors of the vagina monologues what kind of pushback they get from various communities), but I really do take issue with folks getting grumpy about someone doing what they enjoy and wanting to share it with the world, as if that is somehow a bad thing.
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“You should smile more.”
“Is… is this helping? Is this what you wanted? Wait, where are you going? You said you wanted this!”
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I never said he shouldn’t be allowed to do it. I said I don’t like it, and I don’t understand why something like this gets the traction it does. Who wants 300 videos of this? I can understand maybe one video to demonstrate peaceful meditation. 300 videos feels weirdly like trying to grab on to the general shitstorm of internet fame using what should be a peaceful private thing. That feels kinda messed up to me. Now it could be that’s the point of the art. In which case it’s a fairly generic social media satire that I’m a bit sick of.
He is, of course, free to make his art, for whatever purpose he likes. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to criticize it, especially given I’m not actually going over to his Youtube channel and rubbish his art at him but rather stating my opinion of it over here on the comments section of this curation site, where he’ll probably never see it.
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It is absolutely not unreasonable to criticize it! However:
Isn’t, IMHO, criticing the art as much as questioning whether or not it should be permitted to exist in the first place, especially when referring to it as a need vs want situation. You are, of course, free to take that position, but I do take issue with it.
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Need might not have been the best word. I didn’t mean need as in “This is a required service.” I meant need like “I need a cup of coffee.” Obviously not an actual need. But I don’t know why someone would want to hear someone ramble online about their philosophy, given I’m generally subjected to aimless philosophical rambles from people on a semi-regular basis anyway. Actually if people wanted to post all their thoughts like this on the internet where I can ignore them instead of trying to tell them to my face where I have to feign interest out of politeness, that would be fantastic.
Obviously art should be permitted to exist. I’m not sure saying “Why are we encouraging more of this” is the same as saying it shouldn’t be allowed to exist, but rather questioning why we’re sending the message that this is the sort of thing we want.
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I feel a need to take a break yelling at kids to get off of my lawn to say this is the kind of space-wasting crap that kills off free web services…
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Seems like a great way to motivate your meditation practice and encourage others to take it up as well. With all the terrible stuff getting attention on the Internet these days, it seems great to me.
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Sitting still as art has priors:
There’s a documentary about The Artist Is Present, it’s really good:
At the other end of the sitting-as-art spectrum is Vito Acconci, sort of, in a creepy way that makes me want to take a shower:
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I imagine his face muscles must be sore.
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Exactly. I’m barely three hours in, and already my facial muscles are cramping from the empathy pain.
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He probably practices. A lot. And no doubt has top of the line training tools.
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I remember when she did that… my kid and I checked the website she set up for it on a daily basis while it was happening.
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Maybe it’s just that I’m not great at face to face interactions with people, but I think The Artist is Present is an amazingly brave piece.
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