The Trauma of Existing: A Review of Robert Seidel’s Hysteresis, Followed by an Interview with the Artist
Rhizomes Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge February 15, 2026 John Hawkins
This hybrid work combines art criticism and artist interview to examine Robert Seidel’s experimental film Hysteresis (2021) as a meditation on consciousness at the threshold of human-machine convergence. Drawing on Maurizio Ferraris’s concept of hysteresis—the persistence of effects beyond their causes—the paper argues that Seidel’s five-minute film offers a rare aesthetic glimpse into...