By: Robin Wander
STANFORD, CA.- Ellen Lake discovered a golden age of 16mm film. For a brief period the diacetate Kodachrome film used between 1939 and 1942 produced lush color and appears today perfectly preserved, as opposed to triacetate film that came into popular use in the mid-1940s and did not hold up nearly as well. Lake, a visiting artist at Stanford’s Experimental Media Art Lab (EMA Lab), is mining 16mm films from that picture-perfect era to use in new work that explores the evolution of technology. Her work involves staged, clever interventions by combining contemporary elements with these film stills to create digital prints and short animations. The equipment and resources available 24/7 at the lab in the Nathan Cummings Art Building support