Models as Media of Worlding in Sadie Benning and Fernand Deligny

What do the Pixelvision videos of artist Sadie Benning and the ‘tentatives’ of philosopher and social educator Fernand Deligny have in common, and what links these works to the question of models? Both Benning and Deligny criticize existing models and decidedly do not want to create new models. Both want to change the existing view of the world and its respective models, which are firmly anchored in society and 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 Deuber-Mankowsky will show, models play a crucial role for both Benning and Deligny in their explorations of different forms of worlding. The question is, of course, what one means by model?

Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky is Professor Emerita of Media Studies and Gender Studies at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. She was Visiting Professor at the Centre d’études du vivant, Université Paris VII (2007), Columbia University (2012, 2017), and Northwestern University (2023), as well as Senior Fellow at IKKM Weimar (2013) and Fellow at the DFG Research Group ‘Media Anthropology’, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (2022). She is also Associate Member at the ICI Berlin, External Affiliate at the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought (Goldsmiths University of London), and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Deutsches Historisches Museum.