https://benedictseymour.com Benedict Seymour Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:09:06 +0000 https://benedictseymour.com en https://benedictseymour.com/Homepage Thu, 04 Aug 2022 15:07:21 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/Homepage Benedict Seymour Civil war &nbsp;April 2025 → Boom, labubu &nbsp; &nbsp; 28 November 2025 → The game of freedom<img width="640" height="360" width_o="640" height_o="360" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/93d5edc57d8b595af2da9edf333c48a01eb40ef26d54db4f15570b4d7b70a23c/The-Game-of-Freedom-_-Oil-Spill-Preview-low.gif" data-mid="160316954" border="0" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/93d5edc57d8b595af2da9edf333c48a01eb40ef26d54db4f15570b4d7b70a23c/The-Game-of-Freedom-_-Oil-Spill-Preview-low.gif" /> with Veronica Diesen (RIP), 2025 → In lovely blue with Xiaojuan Zhang, November&nbsp;2022 → I am sitting in a Zoom February 2021 → Second waveJuly 2020→ &nbsp; One nation under a grave with Veronica Diesen,&nbsp; January&nbsp;2020 → Blackout June 2020&nbsp;→ Opportunities 2018&nbsp;→ You make me feel so (1917) with 트G* (TransGeneration), 2017 → Dead the ends 2017 → Can dialectics break Gravity? with Matthew Noel-Tod, 2014&nbsp;→ Bang! Dir: Matthew Noel-Tod 2012, Script: B. Seymour → Olympicfield 2009 → The London Particularwith David Panos, 2004 → The Occupationwith David Panos,&nbsp;2001 → → https://benedictseymour.com/Film Mon, 08 Aug 2022 12:59:54 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/Film ce ci n’est pas unFilm &nbsp; https://benedictseymour.com/Civil-War-2020-5 Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:09:06 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/Civil-War-2020-5 CIVIL WAR 2020-25 This video is constructed from Zoom recordings at an artist’s residency in Cyprus that took place between the first and second lockdowns in 2020. I induced feedback in Zoom by setting up a meeting with two inputs – laptop and phone – recording the results.* In the edit I combined this with audio documentation of an argument about Covid in a group tai chi session a day or two later. In 2025 I added an AI generated ‘reconstruction’ of the verbal exchange. Shot between the George Floyd Uprising and the Capitol siege, Civil War seems to catch the pandemic’s weird state of exception. Everything is heightened but also derealised. A sense of polarisation, confusion, urgency and dread. Heightened existential awareness meets diminished (ir)responsibility. The possibility of documentary, consensual reality, truth or even simple self-preservation through collective protocol (to mask or not to mask?) – everything is in question, even tai chi itself. *I refined the technique in 2021 for the video&nbsp;I am sitting in a Zoom&nbsp; https://benedictseymour.com/Boom-labubu Fri, 28 Nov 2025 13:45:51 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/Boom-labubu Boom, labubu!28 November 2025 If every labubu is a unique surprise... Boom, labubu!&nbsp; Verse 1 Charli was a teacher in UK HE &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; but one day they XCX’d her.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Got herself a job in a factory working 996 far across the sea. Working 996 in the factory&nbsp; making cute labubus for you and me Verse 2 One day Dua joined her, new girl on the line &nbsp;&nbsp; packing dolls in boxes one at a time. &nbsp;&nbsp; “Wouldn’t it be cool,” she says with a wink “if things could really&nbsp;boom – just not how they think?” Chorus 1 “Boom boom, labubu! &nbsp; baby, bye bye! &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Boom boom labubu.&nbsp; I think we could try?”&nbsp; Verse 3 Way back west &amp; deep in decline &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Trump is on top but Bibi’s on the line: “Yes, yes King Don, we’ll stop it, be cool Just send us some more …aid So we can blow up this school?” “Sure thing, Bibi, baby well what can I say, you know we’ve got your back have a beautiful day. Wait a minute – I’ve just had a thought I’m going to send a little somethingjust to show our support!” [to aide: ‘Send Mr Netanyahu… the best labubu they got!)”] Chorus 2 “Boom boom, labubu! Bibi – buy buy! Gonna smile so hard I think he might cry” Verse 4 / break Charli looks at Dua: “What you trying to say? You know I love to&nbsp;Vroom Vroom &nbsp; but we can’t drive away. We’re not Thelma &amp; Luigi or Bonnie and Clyde. If we break out of here, we’ve got nowhere to hide”&nbsp; “Wait a minute, Charli, there’s some thing you should see. Things aren’t quite as bad as they seem to be. If every labubu is a unique surprise maybe we can break out without going outside?” Chorus 3 “Boom, labubu! Bibi, bye bye Boom boom, labubu! &nbsp;&nbsp; but she’s on our side” [Xí’s on our side] Verse 5 Back in Washington Seems all is not well Trump is scowling Like his gift went to hell “Get me that labubu company, nobody gets to take out my buddy Bibi!” But guess who’s down at Pop Mart for a visit today? “He looks like a labubu but from farther away?” “He’s not quite a labubu, More like Winnie the Pooh!” “Nihao Mr President, how the f*ck do you do?” Chorus 4 “Boom boom, labubu! Bibi,&nbsp; bai bai!”“习救我们？ 还是必須自救?”&nbsp;“Xí jiu women ao bi xu zijiu?” “Is she gonna save us or must we all try?” “Ming ming bai bai!” [It’s very clear] +++ PROJECT: BOOM, LABUBU! <img width="2915" height="912" width_o="2915" height_o="912" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1c99c1d0a5ecc8079eb51a4dd9256c9cb6eb06393dc56fc33931883ee79aa46a/Pop-Art-logo.jpg" data-mid="251387970" border="0" data-scale="83" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1c99c1d0a5ecc8079eb51a4dd9256c9cb6eb06393dc56fc33931883ee79aa46a/Pop-Art-logo.jpg" /> Exploring the proposition that (pace Helen Macfarlane, Marx’s first English language translator of Capital) ‘a hideous labubu is haunting Europe – the proletariat’, Boom, Labubu explores refunctioning of the commodity and the détournement of soft power as a way to talk about genocide when it’s been made illegal to speak out.&nbsp;The song as presented is a hypothetical and minimal iteration of the project’s maximal programme, which was to provide Dua Lipa and Charli xcx with material for a new collab that could shift the Overton Window a little for opposition to Zionist subsumption of western (and not so western) culture, in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and emancipation of Chinese and UK workers. Released in time for Christmas, Boom, Labubu! was premiered at Chinese art schools and media/visual communications departments in screenings, lectures and workshops in Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Jinan between Christmas Eve 2025 and June 2026. CAA Hangzhou School of Communication &amp; Design, 24 December 2025 <img width="1286" height="1132" width_o="1286" height_o="1132" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1cc6617f752ada1c1c9e4ecbc690b3c2364eb9bb6e57c0cb79ee0e0bb1ad7f3e/CAA-1.png" data-mid="251388040" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1cc6617f752ada1c1c9e4ecbc690b3c2364eb9bb6e57c0cb79ee0e0bb1ad7f3e/CAA-1.png" /> A talk and screening of Boom, Labubu!&nbsp;and related music-video works exploring the détournement of cultural capital, soft power, and the potential for international workers collaboration amid different kinds of capitalist crisis.&nbsp; <img width="5712" height="4284" width_o="5712" height_o="4284" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/86dae9a508fac3be6336117137b07b3b192bbfd1dc577db93695c5abd77934a3/CAA1a.jpeg" data-mid="251434396" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/86dae9a508fac3be6336117137b07b3b192bbfd1dc577db93695c5abd77934a3/CAA1a.jpeg" />Revolutionary defeatism as cultural strategy in a world of wars&nbsp; <img width="5712" height="4284" width_o="5712" height_o="4284" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cc9860dc54e3f3d4aafffe69e2f8f7f65ef585d91c3ac4540b69aa0547e3da03/CAA-3.jpeg" data-mid="251434393" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cc9860dc54e3f3d4aafffe69e2f8f7f65ef585d91c3ac4540b69aa0547e3da03/CAA-3.jpeg" />Revisiting some of my earlier films: putting money on screen in Dead the Ends <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/057d1c90ba0edc4bd8a5692e6d79d24fe20bbce7888707bb1c387d3812f06b86/CAA-6.jpeg" data-mid="251434395" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/057d1c90ba0edc4bd8a5692e6d79d24fe20bbce7888707bb1c387d3812f06b86/CAA-6.jpeg" />Jiang Jun, Dean of CCA, talks about zero budget film making, Chris Marker’s La jetée and Dimanche a Pekin and Boom, labubu! <img width="1707" height="1280" width_o="1707" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/21d9e8c6031694b81661f3315bd3ebadf80e34c9d67580e7d1999488805f1800/CAA-2.jpeg" data-mid="251434392" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/21d9e8c6031694b81661f3315bd3ebadf80e34c9d67580e7d1999488805f1800/CAA-2.jpeg" />With our hosts Jiang Jun and Cai Wenchao Boom, labubu! was put into context with earlier works such as You Make Me Feel (1917) and&nbsp;Crisis in the Credit System <img width="2019" height="1629" width_o="2019" height_o="1629" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6f46ee2a714fa71b6400219ea8316e2aad3d770aa7b85f8eb213d77bae9a34d8/website-boom.png" data-mid="251385734" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6f46ee2a714fa71b6400219ea8316e2aad3d770aa7b85f8eb213d77bae9a34d8/website-boom.png" /> &nbsp;&nbsp; University of Jinan, College of Fine Art and Design 20 April 2025 The college hosted an international academic lecture entitled "Hypothetical Imagery: Reconstructing the Context of Platform Reflexivity". On the morning of April 16th, the academic lecture "Hypothetical Images: Reconstructing the Reflexive Context of Platforms," hosted by the Faculty of Aesthetic Education of Jinan University and organized by the School of Fine Arts and Design, was successfully held in the Fourth Teaching Building. Professor Benedict Smoker, a senior lecturer from Goldsmiths, University of London, was invited as the keynote speaker, and Associate Professor Zhang Xiaojuan from the School of Visual Communication Design of Shandong University of Arts and Design served as the interpreter. More than 100 people, including members of the college's leadership team, relevant faculty members, and undergraduate and graduate students, participated in the learning, exchange, and discussion, jointly exploring the critical and practical paths of image creation in the social media era. At the beginning of the lecture, Sang Shuguang, Assistant Dean of the College, warmly welcomed Professor Benedict Smoker on behalf of the College. He emphasized that in the context of the digital age, the combination of imaging and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence is not only an inevitable trend in the development of disciplines, but also an important path for cultivating interdisciplinary innovative talents. He hoped that teachers and students would seize this opportunity for international exchange to inspire their scientific research and creative inspiration. <img src="https://art.ujn.edu.cn/__local/3/9E/56/32461CE8EFB99F00D01028BA1F4_539C68DC_37D68.png" width="500"> In his keynote speech, Professor Si Mo shared his insights on video creation in the social media era, elaborating on his creative methods and core concepts, and using representative works such as *You Make Me Feel This Way (1917)* and *Boom! Labubu!* as examples. He delved into the creative logic behind his works, discussing real-world issues such as platform capitalization, the UK cost of living crisis, and the current state of higher education. He explained how to use zero-budget visual expression to integrate images, music, and text to construct speculative fictional narratives, thereby reconstructing the mainstream media context and reimagining media forms. Professor Si Mo's use of images, music, and text to construct speculative fictional narratives, and his approach of reconstructing the mainstream media context and reimagining its form, brought new perspectives to the school's faculty and students. During the interactive session, faculty and students actively asked questions, engaging in lively discussions with Professor Si Mo on current hot topics and the challenges of cross-cultural video storytelling. This lecture, grounded in the forefront of art development in the digital age, focused on in-depth reflections on new media imagery and platform culture, providing faculty and students with an international perspective and cutting-edge academic inspiration. This lecture not only effectively broadened the artistic horizons and creative thinking of our faculty and students but also further promoted international academic exchange and interdisciplinary integration within the college, injecting new momentum and expanding new pathways for academic research and talent cultivation in areas such as integrated painting, contemporary art, digital imaging, and art education practice. Written by: Zhai Qingqing; Edited by: Li Xin; Reviewed by: He Guiliang<img width="300" height="45" width_o="300" height_o="45" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/56b7b68e3498136b3a628fd0f76af0678c18c71454f4aa461303623b1bb40a38/University-of-Jinan.png" data-mid="252181879" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/300/i/56b7b68e3498136b3a628fd0f76af0678c18c71454f4aa461303623b1bb40a38/University-of-Jinan.png" /> 英文名称 Southwest University School of Journalism and Communication, Chongqing&nbsp; April 28, 2026 ‘Lecture Review | Benedict Seymour: Hypothetical Imagery—Reflexive&nbsp; Reconstruction in the Platform Context Reconstruction in the Platform Context On the morning of April 28, 2026, the college held an academic lecture entitled "Hypothetical Imagery: Reflexive Reconstruction in the Platform Context" in Lecture Hall 301. Benedict Seymour from Goldsmiths, University of London, was invited as the keynote speaker, and Ms. Zhang Xiaojuan served as the translator. The lecture was moderated by Professor Zhang Hua, and the atmosphere was very lively with active participation from faculty and students. <img src="https://xwcm.swu.edu.cn/__local/3/55/CA/7D445B15D468C7CDB77A28842B6_AD8A4D80_BEEF8.png" width="500"> In his lecture, Professor Si Mo systematically analyzed the new changes in video creation on social media platforms, using the contemporary digital media environment as a starting point. He pointed out that with the continuous strengthening of platform mechanisms, the production, dissemination, and reception of images are gradually being reshaped by algorithmic logic and capital structures. Against this backdrop, images are no longer merely one-dimensional tools of expression, but have become a complex practice embedded in the platform system, capable of both reflection and response&nbsp;.&nbsp;This led&nbsp;him to propose&nbsp;the concept of "&nbsp;platform capitalism&nbsp;. "&nbsp;Professor Si Mo&nbsp;presented several works, including *&nbsp;You Make Me Feel So (1917)&nbsp;* and *&nbsp;Boom, Labubu!&nbsp;*, using examples from his own creative work, and explained in detail his creative ideas and methodologies. In these works, historical images, online materials, and popular culture elements are reassembled, forming new narrative structures through cross-temporal dialogue. He emphasized that this creation is not simply collage or appropriation, but rather an exploration of an expression that lies between fiction and reality, constantly testing the relationship between images and reality. In addition, Professor Si Mo&nbsp;shared various possible paths for contemporary video creation from a practical perspective&nbsp;,&nbsp;suggesting&nbsp;that&nbsp;the integration of music, text, and visual elements&nbsp;can allow&nbsp;works to not only respond to social issues but also maintain an open and flexible form of expression&nbsp;. At the end of the lecture,&nbsp;Professor&nbsp;Si Mo&nbsp;engaged in an interactive discussion with the faculty and students present on issues such as video creation and international exchange. <img src="https://xwcm.swu.edu.cn/__local/C/6C/45/2C9384F886EFD5556417E33692F_8F1FFE8F_2F599D.png" width="500"> This lecture focused on cutting-edge issues in the contemporary media environment and film practice, providing students with a new perspective on understanding the creative logic of the digital age and expanding the academy's ideas for teaching and research in the field of new media art. Text and photos by Ye Cong Initial review: Zhang Hua Reviewed by: Zheng Ting Final review: Long Wei’ Institute of Visual Arts, Sichuan Fine Arts (SFA) University, Chongqing April 28, 2026 <img width="1080" height="1527" width_o="1080" height_o="1527" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f162f58ef7b834e83fb848e10cbe0435e4c5a8ca38113fa7387026c76b4caaca/HYPOTHETICAL.JPEG" data-mid="251434740" border="0" data-scale="82" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f162f58ef7b834e83fb848e10cbe0435e4c5a8ca38113fa7387026c76b4caaca/HYPOTHETICAL.JPEG" /> Lecture Overview Benedict Simmer's lecture explores video creation in the social media age. This lecture will present his recent works, elucidate his creative methods and concepts, and dissect the production process. Simmer's video works encompass the artist's daily life, including explorations of the operation of social media platforms and the elements contributing to the rise of specific social phenomena. He raises questions starting with certain social phenomena in the UK, while also exploring the experimental creative methods and conscious collage and reconfiguration of materials in video creation in the internet age, and the artistic questions that may be triggered, prompting reflection and inquiries. Simmer emphasizes raising questions in the social reality of the internet age and exploring the various possibilities of international collaboration. The artist uses video, music, and text to construct a speculative fictional narrative, reconstructing the context of popular media and reimagining its form. Simmer excels at using zero-budget visual expression combined with musical composition to explore social phenomena and showcase a playful spirit. His works often respond to events happening around him and reinterpret existing media materials. In his recent research and film practice, he has focused on cultural exchange and social interaction between Britain, China, and the Far East. Considering the current state of technological development, Si Mo re-examines the symbiotic relationship between people and society, consistently viewing grassroots workers as fellow forces in social development and indispensable collaborators in the exploration of artistic issues. From the 2017 music video *You Make Me Feel So (1917)* to the 2025 work *Boom, Labubu! 2025*, his filmmaking continues to explore and depict the collaboration and re-creation of Eastern and Western media materials, initiating a new type of narrative and cross-cultural dialogue. Artists and workers can collaborate across national borders to jointly conceive a diverse form of contemporary creation. 02—Speaker Introduction Benedict Seymour Lecturer and artist at Goldsmiths, University of London Benedict Seymour is a senior lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, an artist, videographer, writer, and musician. His main research areas are urbanization, the relationship between urbanization processes and culture, which he expresses through film, writing, and visual media. His work explores everyday social phenomena, cultural development, interpersonal interactions, and the social impacts of economic development.&nbsp;In addition to teaching and research, Seymour has served as editor of the art journal *Silence*, and his academic and video works are screened by organizations such as the British Film Institute. &nbsp; Translation Introduction Zhang Xiaojuan is an Associate Professor at the School of Visual Communication Design, Shandong University of Arts and Design. She has been a visiting scholar at the Royal College of Art (UK) and Northeastern University, Massachusetts. She served as the Director of the China Tour for the American Professional Designers Association's Annual Exhibition of Outstanding Works (2012). She has received numerous awards, including the Shandong University of Arts and Design Teaching Achievement Award, the National Visual Communication Design Forum Outstanding Instructor Award, the International Council of Graphic Design Association Workshop Project Best Award, and the Shandong Provincial Experimental Teaching and Experimental Technology Achievement Award. She has planned and organized several international teaching exchange and cooperation projects.’ <img width="634" height="236" width_o="634" height_o="236" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6fa1affd2b40662f10223338d441954088711e1f2bf6456825ea0363006f43e5/szichuan-fine-arts-inst.jpeg" data-mid="251387938" border="0" data-scale="23" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/634/i/6fa1affd2b40662f10223338d441954088711e1f2bf6456825ea0363006f43e5/szichuan-fine-arts-inst.jpeg" /><img width="2048" height="1316" width_o="2048" height_o="1316" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9ccfc3b521461379d79cb3bfb0284c3da8d85f41bfcc3c6a12f6142b52b2090/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-30-at-23.14.21.jpeg" data-mid="252096676" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e9ccfc3b521461379d79cb3bfb0284c3da8d85f41bfcc3c6a12f6142b52b2090/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-30-at-23.14.21.jpeg" /> +++ LEARNING FROM LABUBUSchool of Communication &amp; Design, CAA, Hangzhou 21-25 April 2006 <img width="1043" height="1458" width_o="1043" height_o="1458" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8a2d9cc368e1a6544376b09ee78c567b243d44849a3b5d02e4dbe05cbc8c508d/learning-from-labubu.jpg" data-mid="251388020" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8a2d9cc368e1a6544376b09ee78c567b243d44849a3b5d02e4dbe05cbc8c508d/learning-from-labubu.jpg" /> The screening at CAA Hangzhou on 24 December 2026 lead to a 5 day workshop in May 2026 working with students in the visual communications department.&nbsp; Students responded to Boom, labubu and the technique of refunctioning commodity capital to open up discussion&nbsp; <img width="2014" height="1639" width_o="2014" height_o="1639" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7959bf66b3adcca83dfb04967f1294e3c97cf4cada5835db0fb0fc124d5b5b4f/website-1917.jpg" data-mid="251385731" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7959bf66b3adcca83dfb04967f1294e3c97cf4cada5835db0fb0fc124d5b5b4f/website-1917.jpg" /> <img width="1284" height="833" width_o="1284" height_o="833" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5abf8e8df0341c6240106bc385c5b7fae9a4be689119b845f7ade4738ce71e0e/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-27-at-11.20.51AM.jpeg" data-mid="251436035" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5abf8e8df0341c6240106bc385c5b7fae9a4be689119b845f7ade4738ce71e0e/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-27-at-11.20.51AM.jpeg" /> During the workshop the students created their own short films in response to Boom, labubu! , and Wen Chao designed this (beautiful!) poster <img width="938" height="1601" width_o="938" height_o="1601" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bd87dddfa8a1b62c618b3de2ff8d3da1fd6d1f953c40f48a154b439286eb2ff8/Poster-CAA-group.jpg" data-mid="251436085" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/938/i/bd87dddfa8a1b62c618b3de2ff8d3da1fd6d1f953c40f48a154b439286eb2ff8/Poster-CAA-group.jpg" /> <img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bf992c6966cf2b44afc1e3d2b447499708af9b820fb8509d420c0a1a2fe1dfb9/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-27-at-11.03.21AM.jpeg" data-mid="251436037" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bf992c6966cf2b44afc1e3d2b447499708af9b820fb8509d420c0a1a2fe1dfb9/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-27-at-11.03.21AM.jpeg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dd27e0707c2be99c0f7ed80bcc6388970964edec83541fcb42a445dae8e6b274/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-25-at-11.47.25AM.jpeg" data-mid="251436044" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dd27e0707c2be99c0f7ed80bcc6388970964edec83541fcb42a445dae8e6b274/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-25-at-11.47.25AM.jpeg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/26237b519ebc935bbf288be279c3d8528eeb1be63b944436b0b5ce07b086c457/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-25-at-11.47.54AM.jpeg" data-mid="251436043" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/26237b519ebc935bbf288be279c3d8528eeb1be63b944436b0b5ce07b086c457/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-25-at-11.47.54AM.jpeg" /><img width="2048" height="1152" width_o="2048" height_o="1152" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2bbdb6de984dc32c9db551a804e0f5e8db938ad9932753115660667c5f9c622a/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-24-at-8.26.56AM.jpeg" data-mid="251436057" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2bbdb6de984dc32c9db551a804e0f5e8db938ad9932753115660667c5f9c622a/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-24-at-8.26.56AM.jpeg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1c03d137f9519f6de14ddd7d7d24b9e68cc6b77bdf91d10264ff9b8df6defe2a/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-25-at-11.42.54AM.jpeg" data-mid="251436055" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1c03d137f9519f6de14ddd7d7d24b9e68cc6b77bdf91d10264ff9b8df6defe2a/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-25-at-11.42.54AM.jpeg" /> <img width="1200" height="850" width_o="1200" height_o="850" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c4cb2fddbe2941eb78501d787a89632939fd2f1f48a103b6214bd6d91126837c/Glenn-card.jpg" data-mid="251436298" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c4cb2fddbe2941eb78501d787a89632939fd2f1f48a103b6214bd6d91126837c/Glenn-card.jpg" /> Boom, labubu! Chinese translation: Stills: <img width="2874" height="1611" width_o="2874" height_o="1611" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/23f8ba3140765de36bc89b6695f916a3e65a71ce1112fee7afd347a646415425/Boom--Labubu.png" data-mid="251436636" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/23f8ba3140765de36bc89b6695f916a3e65a71ce1112fee7afd347a646415425/Boom--Labubu.png" /><img width="2989" height="1684" width_o="2989" height_o="1684" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c83a04a094aea4e5e749e87bb6d77ded5adb8ffa08a0ff64fc955654bb7822be/Charli.jpg" data-mid="251436637" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c83a04a094aea4e5e749e87bb6d77ded5adb8ffa08a0ff64fc955654bb7822be/Charli.jpg" /><img width="2996" height="1595" width_o="2996" height_o="1595" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/179135072ca5eb12aeb368b47438351ad9d5b279b10da72e3bcbb6d195396b4c/Xcx-d.jpg" data-mid="251436640" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/179135072ca5eb12aeb368b47438351ad9d5b279b10da72e3bcbb6d195396b4c/Xcx-d.jpg" /> https://benedictseymour.com/In-Lovely-Blue Sat, 26 Nov 2022 03:02:59 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/In-Lovely-Blue In lovely bluewith Xiaojuan Zhang, 2022 Frances Kruk already said it: I ordered a hurricane and I am still on this island.&nbsp; 2 or 3 things I know about clouds and power in October 2022.&nbsp; Shot in Greece and UK, this is a sketchy meditation on the blue of the heavens, the systematic confusionism and terror under which we live, dead auteurs and whited out retail windows as the economy shifts into a new kind of ‘death spiral’. Holderlin wanted to run away from Germany to Greece but only got as far as France. He realised it was more Greek than Greece itself, and stayed put. We ran away to Greece but found it occupied by cops and Californian algorithms; kind of the UK but more so, and first. Wikipedia kept us (in)sane but still this was no garden of Eden. More an airbnb compound by the sea where we researched Abraham and Sarah and the Old Testament of everyday life – call it ‘contracting social reproduction’. The impossibility of travel under the cloud brought us back home, by a commodious vicus of recirculation, to an unanswered phone call to the Mental Health system about a mad woman in my ends – my successfully failed attempt to be of use to her. I cut this bit out but you can still hear the ‘holding’ music – and in the end that’s key to the image of the moment (until the cloud consumes the telephone &amp; its proletariat completely)? Forget about the loading gif, when you’re really fucked they ask you to call then put you on hold. With the completion of the Tory-Labour merger, the sky not not falling on our heads (the hurricane you ordered...), negatives double or quadruple. But we’re not all volk, right?&nbsp; Thanks to my collaborator Xiaojuan Zhang, and to Danny Hayward for added inspo. JLG: RIP.&nbsp; Isou, IOU. The video premiered at Dwelling on the Cloud, a group show at Lovely Duck, London 24-27 Nov 2022.&nbsp; https://benedictseymour.com/Second-Wave Tue, 07 Jun 2022 19:05:14 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/Second-Wave Second Wave July 2020 Premier: Kunsthalle 3,14 Bergen, 20 August 2020 A new – contracted and s(p)ite-specific – edit of One Nation Under A Grave (2020), for a pop up art show in Bergen mid-pandemic.Second Chapter at Kunsthalle 3,14 in Bergen. This version notes the structural identity of the logic of Brexit and the logic of the pandemic under the reign of homicidal laissez-faire (make work and let die) capitalism. Both Brexit and the Tory management of covid 19 are mechanisms decreeing expanded social murder for increased short term profits (and longer term collapse). Both, as mythologies and mechanisms for a right shift, stage a Reichstag fire for the age of social media and social distance. They are ‘freedom games’ in which the rich get richer and the poor die at an accelerated rate, all in the name of your freedom to (insert class specific fate: work/shop/etc). This mechanism is built into the form and ‘address to viewer’ of the video, which was shown in a Bergen gallery at a time when it was questionable that any public space should be open, and during which, as film-makers / artists, we found ourselves needing to pressure the institution to make the viewing experience safer, in the end only their laid back promotion of their own pop-up protected the potential public from their idea of a ‘socially distanced’ (ie side by side) seating arrangement. This anticipated similar wrangles in Cyprus &amp; UK art spaces (see later videos). As a social relation (necessarily incorporating ‘institutional critique’ or ‘anti-relational aesthetics’?) this edit of One Nation Under A Grave testifies to the universality of the homicidal drive of late neoliberal /para-fascist regimes that impose work and sustain middle class cultural consumption without paying for the mass suspension of labour necessary to actually end a pandemic. We hadn't been pro-Corbyn for so very long before the election; in turn, the pandemic would make us nostalgic for Fidel Castro. But of course, the answer is neither Washington nor Havana nor even Beijing capitalism (etc) but global communism.&nbsp; This version&nbsp; notes the structural identity of the logic of Brexit and the logic of the pandemic under the reign of homicidal laissez-faire (make work and let die) capitalism. Both Brexit and the Tory management of covid 19 are mechanisms for expanded social murder and increased short term profits. Both, as mythologies and digital mechanisms for a ‘right shift’, stage a Reichstag fire for the age of social media and social distance. They are 'games of freedom' in which the rich get richer and the poor die at an accelerated rate, all in the name of your freedom to (insert class specific fate: work/shop/etc). https://benedictseymour.com/I-am-sitting-in-a-Zoom Tue, 07 Jun 2022 18:52:59 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/I-am-sitting-in-a-Zoom I am sitting in a Zoom March 2021&nbsp; A Zoom lecture performance reprising Alvin Lucier’s 1969 minimalist sound work&nbsp;I am Sitting in a Room&nbsp;for the moment of covid lockdown, George Floyd Uprising, and Capitol siege. By joining a single Zoom meeting with two different inputs (phone and laptop), the performer provokes the platform into a form of positive feedback, a self-inflicted Zoom bombing.&nbsp; Cybernetics derives from kybernetes, the Greek work for steersman, and studies organization, communication and control in complex systems by focusing on circular&nbsp; (feedback) mechanisms.&nbsp;Commissioned for the online conference Dysfunctionalities in Art at EKATE, Nicosia, Cyprus, 13 March 2021. See also: Civil War Short Circuits: Finance, Feedback and Culture, Mute Magazine, 2011.&nbsp;Lecture version: Goldsmiths, University of London, 2015. &nbsp; https://benedictseymour.com/Blackout-for-the-rioters-of-2020 Wed, 05 Jul 2023 12:18:34 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/Blackout-for-the-rioters-of-2020 Blackout, for the rioters of 2020 2 June 2020After a long night shift at Royal Mail Greenford during the 2020 covid lockdown, the protagonist of this film was trying to set the Zoom backdrop for an online dinner party discussion of blackness at a US museum when he accidentally polarised himself. Together with a predominantly Global Ethnic Minority cast of disposable ‘Heroes’ he had just contributed to beating the all-time UK record for sorting mail – parcels, garden furniture, fast fashion, knickers, letters to Stephen Frears pitching films about Kathleen Cleaver, you name it. One class was at home in the garden ordering a parasol base, the other was working over-time with a significantly heightened chance of death. In the US, the vanguard of that class was rioting against the systematic state murder of a racialised population. Consequently, the protagonist is burned out on the morning of the Black Out Tuesday* social media shutdown in solidarity with the George Floyd Uprising. Sometimes the situation writes its own script. The rest is hysteresis. *&nbsp;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_Tuesday &nbsp; https://benedictseymour.com/One-Nation-Under-a-Grave-1 Tue, 07 Jun 2022 19:06:50 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/One-Nation-Under-a-Grave-1 One Nation Under a Grave with Veronica Diesen, Feb 2020 Premiere: Kode 2, Bergen, Norway&nbsp; Revisiting Derek Jarman’s Blue (1991) in the context of Brexit, Tory victory and the last of the Labour party as anything other than pure trash.One Nation Under A Grave explores the behavioural-scientific magick of 'Brexit' considered as a far-right coup. The film considers the referendum question ‘Leave or Remain?' as a device converting economic crisis and popular unrest into fascist opportunity, nudging us from class war toward race war. In the process of taking apart this logic, the film imagines a different kind of ‘us versus them’, a different exodus from a failing state.&nbsp; https://benedictseymour.com/You-Make-Me-Feel-So-1917 Tue, 07 Jun 2022 19:08:14 +0000 Benedict Seymour https://benedictseymour.com/You-Make-Me-Feel-So-1917 You Make Me Feel So (1917) 트Generation, 2018 K-pop project: 트Generation [Transgeneration]* &nbsp; Revolutionary defeatism as a pop song to learn and sing. This music video project explored kpop’s latent kommunist potential. Reaching across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea it narrates the the psychedelic flight of 2 young lovers on a magic memory foam mattress looted from a store in Seoul. In the process it anticipates the revolt of young Koreans against binaries of gender, race, class and sexuality, but also the rising masculinism and militarism of an era of global nationalisms. Closing with a cameo from the great Harisu, Korea’s first transgender pop star, the song pits trans love against (terf) war. You Make Me Feel So (1917)&nbsp;attempts an anti-militarist anthem for the era of Trump and BLM. As US imperialism slides from global trade wars to proxy wars to war wars it may stay (un)timely. Glossary: 동무: Dongmo: Friend/comrade&nbsp; K-pop =&nbsp; Kommunist pop with 동무- character-istics&nbsp; 동무 may be ultimately of Sino-Korean origin&nbsp;From 동모 (同謀): dongmo = “planning together; complotting; collusion”&nbsp; 동무 (dongmu) was originally a non-ideological, neutral word for "friend" once used all over the Korean Peninsula North Koreans later adopted it as the equivalent of the Communist term of address "comrade" Music, words, concept, video – B. Seymour. Research, discussion, translation, vocals – Soohyun Choi You Make Me Feel So (2017) 7 mins edit 7 minute extended directors cut In secular crisis, always go long&nbsp;Dongmu + donkdonk donk donkdonk = revolution 你让我感觉 (1917)&nbsp;[Chinese subtitles] ‘Nǐ ràng wǒ gǎnjué (1917)’ Chinese sub-titles were made for the video when shown and discussed at CAA Hangzhou in December 2025 and April 2026 <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/935655315dac0fcc3934135acd7d1e96bf55f392ab9468a64b219e6fa970a13e/thumb-1.jpg" data-mid="242269486" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/935655315dac0fcc3934135acd7d1e96bf55f392ab9468a64b219e6fa970a13e/thumb-1.jpg" />