ARTIFICIAL DARKNESS: AN OBSCURE HISTORY OF MODERN ART AND MEDIA.

ELCOTT, Noam M.

ISBN 10: 022632897X / ISBN 13: 9780226328973

Published by University Of Chicago Press, Chicago And London, 2016

About this Item

Large 8vo. pp: xi, 306. First edition. Original publisher's black cloth boards with debossed dark grey lettering at spine in original publisher's black, grey and white illustrated dust jacket. Richly illustrated with photographs and drawings in black and white. ISBN: 9780226328973 Dust jacket is very lightly creased along top and bottom edges. Otherwise tight and internally perfectly clean copy. Near fine in near fine dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # C71092

Bibliographic Details

• Title: ARTIFICIAL DARKNESS: AN OBSCURE HISTORY OF MODERN ART AND MEDIA.
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press, Chicago And London
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022632897X
• ISBN 13: 9780226328973
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

Darkness has a history and a uniquely modern form. Distinct from night, shadows, and artificial light, “artificial darkness” has been overlooked—until now. In fact, controlled darkness was essential to the rise of photography and cinema, science and spectacle, and a century of advanced art and film. Artificial Darkness is the first book to historicize and theorize this phenomenon and map its applications across a range of media and art forms.

In exploring how artificial darkness shaped modern art, film, and media, Noam M. Elcott addresses seminal and obscure works alongside their sites of production—such as photography darkrooms, film studios, and laboratories—and their sites of reception, including theaters, cinemas, and exhibitions. He argues that artists, scientists, and entertainers like Étienne-Jules Marey, Richard Wagner, Georges Méliès, and Oskar Schlemmer revolutionized not only images but also everything surrounding them: the screen, the darkness, and the experience of bodies and space. At the heart of the book is “the black screen,” a technology of darkness that spawned today’s blue and green screens and has undergirded numerous advanced art and film practices to this day.

Turning familiar art and film narratives on their heads, Artificial Darkness is a revolutionary treatment of an elusive, yet fundamental, aspect of art and media history.

About the Author

Noam M. Elcott is associate professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University and an editor of the journal Grey Room.