The E6 Process attends to the invisible labour beneath moving images. It is a work about work: the unseen beneath the seen, the heard beneath the unheard. It is subterranean. Assembled over months, it depicts the E6 process in one of the few remaining North American labs doing such work. With the last colour reversal motion picture stock discontinued in 2012, these recordings document a precarious ritual.
Recording the process–largely performed in darkness–with various microphones and techniques, the piece narrates the revelation of exposed images from beginning to end. Embodied and disembodied, it both tracks the worker and follows the film into the machine itself. Paired with the latent object of this labour, the piece invites listeners to hear and feel their way into the motion picture image.
About the Artist:
Derek Jenkins is a multidisciplinary artist based in Hamilton, ON. His practice is handmade, personal, and documentary, with an interest in labour and the domestic. He works at Niagara Custom Lab. derekbjenkins.bandcamp.com