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MacDonald:
Why did you focus on Pascal?
Benning:
Well, he's an interesting person. He would work on a project and quickly get to the center of things, but then he'd get bored and go on to something else. He invented the first digital calculator; he almost discovered the calculus. He made contributions to fluid studies; he invented the syringe. Then he had this religious experience, dropped science, and started writing theoretical essays on religion. He became quite mad in the latter part of his life, obsessive about punishing himself for impious thoughts. He had a wall with spikes on it and every time he'd have an impious thought, he'd slam his fist into it!
Pascal was the starting point of that piece and provided the overall narrative structure. And then I added other things, about computers, about art, about how technology and art function together and apart. I like the piece. I want to do much more with computers.
Also, there's a computer language called Pascal.
MacDonald:
Why didn't you use Pascal for the piece?
Benning:
I should have. It's just that the NEC BASIC language is a little higher powered and so I could write fewer statements and get the same job done.
MacDonald:
How much has
Pascal's Lemma
been shown?
Benning:
I've shown it to a couple hundred people who have visited my loftfriends or people who call up and come over to see it. The only public screenings have been at the Kitchen and at the Museum School in Boston. Lots of people came to the Kitchen to see it.
MacDonald:
I remember seeing Laurie Anderson there.
Benning:
I just talked with her this past week. She had been going to my films at the Whitney retrospective. I think we have some similar ideas, especially about technology.
MacDonald:
You've mentioned a new project [
Used Innocence
] about a person who may or may not have killed somebody. What's the state of that project?
Benning:
I've been doing research: basically, getting acquainted with Lawrencia Bembenek, who's been in prison for four years. I've visited her and written letters. I'm interested in how she feels about being in prison and in what she says happened when she was a police officer. And I'm very attracted to her.
MacDonald:
Why is she in prison?
Benning:
She was convictedon the most circumstantial evidence one could possibly be prosecuted underof murdering her husband's ex-wife. I can't say she's innocent. There's no evidence to show that she didn't do it. She doesn't have an alibi. She was home alone when it happened. It's too complicated to get into here. At this point my idea is to film her telling her own story, and she's agreed to do that. I'll have to