Seymour, Benedict. 2021. 'I am sitting in a Zoom: Lecture-Performance'. In: Dysfunctionalities in Art and Conflict. EKATE, Nicosia, Cyprus 13 March 2021. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Abstract or Description

Commissioned for Dysfunctionalities in Contemporary Art at EKATE Cyprus, 13 March 2021 and presented as a video then discussion during the conference, I am sitting in a Zoom is a recursive reflection on a nexus of aesthetico-political and platform-reflexive issues. In the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol siege and the online warfare leading up to (and beyond) it, it attempts a historicisation of the history of feedback in experimental art and (post)neoliberal politics, 'grounding' the issue of cybernetics back in its real movement: de/valorisation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuNoMR0s0EE&ab_channel=ekatecyprus

Original blurb: A Zoom lecture performance, the film revises Alvin Lucier’s 1969 minimalist sound work, I am Sitting in a Room, in the context of pandemic capitalism, far right (attempted) coup, and the cybernetics from below of the George Floyd Uprising. I Am Sitting in a Zoom considers the generative potential of feedback as immanent critique, and a global ‘steersman’* that isn’t white or middle class, while invoking the psychedelic force of sonority in contemporary political articulation.

*Cybernetics studies organization, communication and control in complex systems by focusing on circular (feedback) mechanisms. Cybernetics derives from the Greek word for steersman (kybernetes).

See the article: Short Circuits: Finance, Feedback and Culture in
Mute Magazine, 2011 https://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/short-circuits-finance-feedback-and-culture

Lecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz-cKt_pw1I&ab_channel=GoldsmithsArt

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture)
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Art
Dates:	Date Event 13 March 2021 Completed
Event Location:	EKATE, Nicosia, Cyprus
Date range:	13 March 2021
Dimensions or Duration:	Measurement Type 45 mins Duration
Item ID:	38515
Date Deposited:	03 Mar 2025 10:18
Last Modified:	03 Mar 2025 10:19
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/38515

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