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Artificial Darkness: An Obscure History of Modern Art and Media By Noam M. Elcott The University of Chicago Press, $45
Before competing with neon exit signs and smartphone screens, cinemas were cloaked in darkness, a mystical abyss. How did these sites of ritualistic assembly and their spotlit offerings come to be? In Artificial Darkness, Noam M. Elcott examines the pioneering artists, particularly George Méliès, who transcended the novelty of magic lanterns and ghostly illusions to develop technologized darkness into an art. Elcott contends it was Richard...