New Zealander avant-garde artist Len Lye’s body of works is a treasure trove, and his artistic methods and aesthetic expression remained stunning to this day. He was also one of the first to use several technological innovations in the realm of film color, transferring his painted and stencil-colored animations onto film stock. His experiments in Gasparcolor, Dufaycolor and Technicolor often involved daring technical approaches by making use of highly specific laboratory processes.
Scanning and restoring these films has been a challenge that required the collaboration of many institutions – among them the Len Lye Foundation in New Zealand, the BFI National Archive in London and San Francisco Film Preserve. With Scan2Screen’s multispectral scanning and post-processing workflow, the aim is to recreate an authentic rendition of these stunning films that honors the material properties of the surviving film elements. This presentation will provide insights into Len Lye’s work and the conceptual and technical approach to translating them into the digital domain.
About the Presenter
Dr. Barbara Flueckiger is Professor emerita, founder and CEO of Scan2Screen US and Co-founder of Scan2Screen Switzerland. She has led numerous research projects on film colors and scanning. In 2012 she created the Timeline of Historical Colors in Photography and Film, a comprehensive platform on the technology and aesthetics of film colors. She has received prestigious grants and awards from the European Research Council and SMPTE, among others.
