A critical exploration of James Benning’s films, the material environments they explore and the perceptual environments they createFor more than forty years, the experimental filmmaker James Benning has been engaged in a systematic investigation of...
more
A critical exploration of James Benning’s films, the material environments they explore and the perceptual environments they createFor more than forty years, the experimental filmmaker James Benning has been engaged in a systematic investigation of the relations between man, landscape, and the filmic medium, and during the last decade it has become increasingly clear how much these investigations have to offer to contemporary debates about ecology, the age of the anthropocene and the potentialities of new digital technologies. In James Benning’s Environments a range of international scholars highlight the thematic and formal coherence of Benning’s practice, whilst providing readers with an artistic and historical context to understand his experimental film work. The volume offers a number of interpretative frameworks drawing on film theory, environmental humanities, visual culture and philosophy, explaining why Benning has emerged as one of today’s essential filmmakers.Key FeaturesContextualises Benning’s work in relation to the most important artistic and socio-historical influences on his filmmakingAnalyses Benning as an eco-filmmaker with perspectives from environmental studies and eco-cinemaOffers philosophical approaches to Benning’s films in view of their aesthetic, political and epistemological import
