The Look For Sit Down
by Nicolas Bailleul
As a mostly stationary filmmaker, I was inclined to believe that documentaries filmed in offices and in bedrooms would erase the physical presence of the auteur. While viewing desktop documentaries I asked myself if the physical traces on screen of the stationary documentary filmmaker, such as the uncontrollable camera shaking that might be present in films shot on location, would simply be reduced to computer mouse movements or a tab being closed.
As a filmmaker whose focal point is the bedroom and who ends up leaving this environment very little myself, I began to perceive that my body moves in front of the computer, vibrates and tires itself out almost as much as the body of a field documentary filmmaker. This obsession of mine with the movements of an immobile body in front of a computer screen ultimately made me question the physical posture of filmmakers in front of their computers. It made me want to look into whether a given film had an impact on the editor’s posture while working on the project, and inversely if the posture of the editor slumped over his or her computer screen would have an impact on the rhythm and aesthetic of the film itself.
The main environment where I produce my work is where my body has access to my computer setup. My setup usually consists of a computer, one (or multiple) screens, access to the internet, a desk, and an office chair. In French, the word ‘bureau’ signifies both the desk (the computer’s physical support) and the office space itself. When people ask me if I work in a bureau (as an office), I tell them that ‘I work in a seat’. Because the bureau (as a desk) is the physical support to my computer as well as the metaphorical background of my operating system (my desktop). My body’s physical support at work is my office chair. It envelops my body and supports it, it molds to the shape of my back, of my butt, of my legs. It is in fact a much more important object for those who spend most of their days in front of a screen.
In recent years, a new type of office chair emerged online, coincidentally paralleling these thoughts I had about mobility. The gaming chair, with its flamboyant colors and its ergonomic design, has introduced itself seamlessly into the bedrooms of gamers and content creators. While it may seem that, at its core, the gaming chair’s popularity is owed to its comfort and support features, it is in fact its aesthetic nature that now draws people in. The gaming chair has become an essential and almost compulsory object that all web creators must own in order to be respected in their field. It is now an iconic object, central to the folklore of the web. It can be found in the spaces of gamers, streamers, Youtubers, camgirls and camboys. It acts as a symbol of success, a sign of interconnectivity, a contemporary throne of sorts that places the human body at the center of it all.
With its strange design, teetering between an office chair and a race car seat, the gaming chair provokes a desire of movement to the body confined indoors. The gaming chair is a prosthetic extension that provides the mobilised body with metaphorical speed. It ultimately transforms the bedroom into a vehicle.
The Look For Sit Down is the result of an investigative research around this peculiar object to better understand its purpose, its role, and the reasons which led me to purchase one. My quest for the ideal gaming chair is structured like a diary, punctuated by a series of testimonies from various gaming chair owners encountered during my journey. These discussions took place in various settings, whether in private (on Zoom or at their homes) or directly in public chat when interacting with streamers. Thus, while each user sheds light on different aspects of the gaming chair (be it symbolic, ergonomic, social, etc.), the aim of these characters is not to comprehensively represent the diverse uses and user types of gaming chairs. I conceived this film as a road movie where each character briefly appears in my train of thought. However, it should be noted that all the owners encountered are white males, and even though most of these discussions could have taken place with female or non-binary owners, it seems that gaming (chairs) culture primarily targets a male audience. It would be interesting to examine the gendered power dynamics that this object generates, both in domestic and online environments, because, much like in car culture, the aesthetics of performance intertwine with issues of masculinity.
Author
Through the creation of documentary films, installations, and performances, Nicolas Bailleul’s work is defined by the use, appropriation, collection, and exploration of platforms, virtual worlds, connected spaces, and the web’s uncertain logics and geographies. By attempting to concretely depict what unfolds in supposedly unreal, invisible, and inaccessible places, he aims to bring forth contemporary issues related to creation, sociology, economy, and ecology. Since October 2020, Nicolas is a PhD candidate at the AIAC laboratory (University Paris 8) under the supervision of Patrick Nardin (MCF) and the co-supervision of Gwenola Wagon (MCF).