Making Duratrans and Duraclear

Went to a friend's performance at Printed Matter, one of the best things about New York (no exaggeration). For those unfamiliar, Printed Matter, a small shop on 10th Avenue and 20th Street, has a collection of some 15,000 books published by artists of all kinds. Some come from publishers abroad, others are self-published. A visit is definitely worth everyone's time; their inventory is fascinating. If nothing else, you can have a look at three of Joseph Beuys's 7,000 Eichen (Oaks) installed in front of the building. http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/7000oaks

Yes, these are sculptures. 

While there, I met someone I had only shared emails with: a photographer named Adam Ryker. He is the friend of a friend, and, in our brief conversation, said he saw from my FB posts that the images in SIS may evolve to a back-lit LED panels and asked me what a Duratrans is.

Duratrans is a Kodak product of laser-exposed light-sensitive transparency film. The color, density and resolution are beautiful and that's how I'm planning to print the images. Other options exist, such as ink-jet on paper or film, but I despise those. The toner looks gritty and the color lacks bite. And, the surface is porous--not as hard as film, so the final print would look gooey, not at all suitable for images of steel, ice and stone.

A similar product exists called a Duraclear, which is also a film, but has is transparent rather than having a translucent backing like a Duratrans. For this installation I will probably prototype both since the images are on the dark side and might suffer from the frosted backing. Fuji makes a similar product, but I'm not sure if I'll test it.

The minute I had sent the payment for the LED panel prototype to China, I requested samples and prices from Lambda for Less, also known as Corporate Color. They printed for me before, when I did the Looking for Work show in Kinderhook a few years ago. They also did a job for me when I worked at LTB. What I like is that they have a nice proofing/prototyping set-up, and the moment I get samples, I will send a file to be proofed, with another to be made to-size immediately upon receipt of the LED panel.

When I emailed requirements, the sales associate suggested mounting/laminating the images onto acrylic (in 1/8- or 1/4- inch thicknesses) which would give it a hard smooth finish. I'm interested, but need to see what the LED panel looks like, how it would fit in it, and whether the front of the panel would provide a second reflection of the image (sooo not good). One step further, I'm wondering if the mounted image alone would be sufficient; but let me wait for the panel to come in before the hamster spins in my head.

Some prices below:

The prototype:
$ 139.00
Packing and shipping:   $ 20.00 (UPS ground)


For the Nine images:
$ 125.00 or $ 1125.00 plus $ 25.00 for shipping.

If I go with the lamination, the shipping costs rise substantially. I'll be getting that price this week, along with samples.

Push over another couple of beads.