Week Nine (Monday 3-31-08)

James Benning, if anything, was definitely unique. If I hadn't been previously informed, I would have never guessed that a visiting filmmaker would perform a math demonstration. The fact that he used math as a way of articulating a sense of art was interesting. He made some points that made sense to me and a few that didn't. But I think that's okay - I don't think that the demonstration was meant for everyone to understand in its entirety. His connection between math and art was occasionally not clear, but that might be because of the way that he performed. Benning jumped from concept to concept quite rapidly, not always finishing one idea. I did, however, really connect with his work with the square root of 2 proof. The main point of that proof was the idea of solving a complex problem through very simple means. I liked that. I can absolutely see applying that to an art form, especially filmmaking. If one is having trouble with a certain aspect of filmmaking that seems too complicated, there is most likely a simple way of getting around it. I would consider myself to be fairly proficient with math, so most of the equations he did made sense to me. Although, despite this, math is not one of my favorite things - I might have been good with it, but I never really liked it. It may have been a little easier for me to understand his concepts than someone who was less proficient with math, but I don't think that was the point. It doesn't matter who is better at math, Benning's point could be received by anyone, regardless of his or her math skill. Like we said in discussion, people got what they wanted to from Benning's performance. I definitely liked how Benning never directly related math to art - it was more abstract. I think that this made the performance more interesting. It forced to audience (if they wanted) to think about Benning's concepts and work out for themselves what it all meant. The idea of coming full circle was a good way to end the performance. I only wish that Benning had been my math teacher.