Book Section
What do the Pixelvision videos by artist Sadie Benning and the tentatives by philosopher and social educator Fernand Deligny have in common, and what links them to the question of models? Both want to change the existing view of the world and its respective models that are firmly anchored in society — in its values, feelings, and affects. And both build on the singularity and contingency of the present in order to initiate a practice of worlding that is less exclusive and less violent. And yet, as I will show, models play a crucial role for both in their exploring different forms of worlding. The question is, of course, what we mean by ‘model’.
Title
Models as Media of Worlding in Sadie Benning and Fernand Deligny
Author(s)
Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky
Identifier
Description
What do the Pixelvision videos by artist Sadie Benning and the tentatives by philosopher and social educator Fernand Deligny have in common, and what links them to the question of models? Both want to change the existing view of the world and its respective models that are firmly anchored in society — in its values, feelings, and affects. And both build on the singularity and contingency of the present in order to initiate a practice of worlding that is less exclusive and less violent. And yet, as I will show, models play a crucial role for both in their exploring different forms of worlding. The question is, of course, what we mean by ‘model’.
Is Part Of
Place
Berlin
Publisher
ICI Berlin Press
Date
20 May 2025
Subject
model
media
Pixelvision
Sadie Benning
Fernand Deligny
queer aesthetics
Clifford Geertz
mapping the wander lines
worlding
sound
Rights
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Language
en-GB
page start
21
page end
45
Source
Breaking and Making Models, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey, Marietta Kesting, and Claudia Peppel, Cultural Inquiry, 33 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 21–45
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  • Ce gamin, là (Radeaux dans la montagne), dir. by Renaud Victor (France, 1975)
  • A New Year, dir. by Sadie Benning (USA, 1989)
  • Girl Power (Part 1), dir. by Sadie Benning (USA, 1992)
  • Alvarez de Toledo, Sandra, ‘Fernand Deligny: Repères cinèbiographiques’, in Alvarez de Toledo, Le Cinéma de Fernand Deligny (Paris: Editions Montparnasse et les auteurs, 2007), pp. 3–8
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  • Deligny, Fernand, Sandra Alvarez de Toledo, and Cyril Le Roy, Cartes et lignes d’erre / Maps and Wander Lines: Traces du réseau de Fernand Deligny, 1969–1979 (Paris: L’Arachnéen, 2013)
  • Deuber-Mankowsky, Astrid, ‘The Space of Appearance in Deep Underground: A Film Is Being Made and the Documentary Gesture’, MLN, 137.3 (2022), pp. 443–65 <https://doi.org/10.1353/mln.2022.0034>
  • Geertz, Clifford, ‘Religion as a Cultural System’, in Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), pp. 87–125
  • Krtolica, Igor, ‘La “Tentative” des Cévennes. Deligny et la question de l’institution’, Chimères, 72 (2010), pp. 73–97
  • Masters, Kim, ‘Auteur of Adolescence’, The Washington Post, 17 October 1992 <https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/10/17/auteur-of-adolescence/bad908d9-02b0-4a56-a336-8d0cd1b78b31/> [accessed 20 August 2024]
  • Miguel, Marlon, Camering: Fernand Deligny on Cinema and the Image (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2022) <https://doi.org/10.1017/9789400604308>
  • Rich, Ruby, New Queer Cinema: The Director’s Cut (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013) <https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822399698>
  • Solway, Diana, ‘Transgender Artist Sadie Benning Is Not Afraid’, W, 13 May 2016 <https://www.wmagazine.com/story/sadie-benning-artist-mary-boone-callicoon-fine-arts> [accessed 20 August 2024]
  • Wharton, Annabel Jane, ‘Defining Models’, in Modelwork: The Material Culture of Making and Knowing, ed. by Martin Brückner, Sandy Isenstadt, and Sarah Wasserman (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021), pp. 3–20 <https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv1z9n20d.4>
  • Holzhey, Christoph F. E., Marietta Kesting, and Claudia Peppel, ‘Introduction’, in Breaking and Making Models, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey, Marietta Kesting, and Claudia Peppel, Cultural Inquiry, 33 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 1–17 <https:/​/​doi.org/​10.37050/​ci-33_00>

Publication scheduled for 20 May 2025