Response - March 31st (Viewing)

After viewing Benning’s mathematical demonstration my immediate thoughts (like many people in the class) were, “how does this apply to filmmaking?” While I had some ideas it didn’t entirely make sense until I thought about it more after the performance and during the group discussions. One great point brought up was that after a certain point in math it becomes more of an intellectual curiosity than a proven thing. Benning’s demonstration of infinity and imaginary numbers were a great example of that. Like math filmmaking (and art in general) is all about theories and concepts that aren’t always totally solid and are sometimes more abstract in terms of thinking. Sometimes in order to try and understand something there needs to be an abstract idea presented because there is no solid explanation in life. That makes me ponder about life’s mysteries and how the human culture uses abstractions to explain questions they don’t know how to answer. Take religion or the concept of God for example. As humans we don’t know how things came to be or makes the world tick, so we use abstract ideas with logical explanations (well sometimes logical) to explain what we don’t know. In many ways math and filmmaking do the exact same thing. They are the explorations into discovering the hidden abstract ideas that we are trying to solve. All this pondering makes me think of the movie “Pi.” The contemplation that math is the solution to all of life’s mysteries and that there is some interconnection between everything (i.e. mathematical beauty/symmetry in leaves and nature) helps further this notion that Benning was presenting. Often Benning would stop and say something like “look at the symmetry in the equation, isn’t it beautiful.” I believe there is a great connection between math and filmmaking (and life for that matter) and Benning’s demonstration helped exemplify that.

The demonstration itself also made me think of the concept of intervention art and live performance. Each equation was like a new chapter and concept being illustrated like in a performance. Which made me wonder, “isn’t all teaching a form of performance art?” I mean think about it every chalkboard demonstration is partially rehearsed (sometimes spur of the moment) but it has a background to it. It’s presenting a concept and forcing the on looker to think about what is being presented. (Whether abstract or not) Each equation is fresh and new even if it turns out the same (do too the formulas of math). This freshness is shown because mistakes happen altering the performance and adding new depth and possibility to what is happening. Either way teaching is a performance and an intervention into the on looker’s life and Benning helped demonstrate that concept to me.