MY HOLOGRAPHIC WORLD...
My fascination for holograms started way back in childhood… I suspect to have been mesmerized by Princess Leia when she appeared as a hologram projected by the little droid R2D2 in the first Star Wars movie.
Since then, I feel that my path has always been entwined with the idea of the Future, science and technology… just sharing a key moment which has become more than an exploration, a way of thinking!
What is it that attracts me so much about holograms and what are they exactly?
Holography is a succession of graphic bands which once put together and lit under a certain angle, gives an impression of relief. Holography is a media which captures space and time information together; the image exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
This particular hologram represents Andy Warhol reading a magazine; as you walk past, he moves, looking up from the page to give you a 3D stare…
To continue on my line of ideas about holograms and the sciences of the visible, the Camera obscura was an optical device that led to photography, the photographic camera and later on to technologies such as the cinema and holography.
The device consisted of a box or a room with a hole in one side. The light was coming from an external scene which was going through the hole and striking a surface inside, where it was reproduced, inverted (upside-down), but with color and perspective preserved.
The image can be projected onto paper, and can then be traced to produce a highly accurate representation.
Mozi, a Chinese philosopher was the first one to ever write about the Camera Obscura (470 to 390 BC), the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 to 322 BC) was also familiar with the principle and, one of my old time hero, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) published the first clear description of the Camera Obscura in his Codex Atlanticus.
Giambattista della Porta, a 16th century Napolitan scientist improved the Camera Obscura by replacing the hole with an old man's lenticular (biconvex) lens. This device became a precursor to the Pepper's ghost effects and later on to photography, cinema and holography!
Although the Victorian era is often associated with scientific and technological progress, many Victorians were drawn to the paranormal and the supernatural.
In 1862, inventor Henry Dircks developed a technique which was used to make a ghost appear and disappear.
A few years later, John Pepper improved the technique and created the famous "Pepper's ghost" effects which massively captivated audiences at the time. On command, ghostly objects would appear and fade in or out... objects would magically transform into different ones.
We were at the dawn of Holography!
Today, I am presenting an astonishing Pepper Ghost example of this technology! I don't know if you remember the amazing hologram of a ghostly Kate Moss, which first appeared in Alexander McQueen’s 2006 ‘Widows of Culloden’ show in Paris.
The Kate Moss hologram was a dramatic and emotional finale to the Paris show, with the ethereal figure of Moss shown floating inside a giant pyramid, set to the poignant soundtrack from Schindler’s List.
This particular work was created using the Victorian Pepper’s Ghost trick.
When Dali meets Holography … it gives this!
In the early 1970s, Dali again looked beyond painting for inspiration. He was one of the first artists to explore holography. Dali was completely captivated by this idea to create an image in three dimensions where he could be in front of and behind his subject.
One of Dali’s most successful experiments was his Alice Cooper hologram.
Working with artist holographer Selwyn Lissack, Dali created a rotating three-dimensional image of the rock star. Here Cooper either sings into or bites off the head of a “shish kebab” Venus de Milo statue. Cooper wears a real diamond tiara, and there is a plaster brain stuffed with a chocolate éclair and real ants suspended behind his head.
Patrick Boyd is my ultimate favourite hologram artist and I wanted to share his incredible talent!
"Lucy in a tin hat" is considered as the Mona Lisa of the Holographic art, a holographic art masterpiece created by Patrick Boyd in 1989.
Holography is so much more than just a 3-D image. It displays time, motion, fantastic colours; it can be interactive and is capable of capturing the qualities of light itself.
Renowned for his holographic portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, light artist Chris Levine’s art seeks to push the use of light to its furthest boundaries. Here, the hologram titled “Royal blue” is a remarkable portrait hologram of The Queen. Her eyes follow your movements around the room like no other.
In a different register than the holographic technology, but nevertheless really appealing to my eyes, Chris Levine was commissioned by The Historic Royal Palaces to create a series of light installations in a themed exhibit around the Princesses that had lived at the palace.
Recently, Spanish activists “Holograms for freedom”, staged the world’s first-ever virtual political demonstration against a controversial law banning protests outside government buildings.
The stunt saw thousands of holograms marching in front of the Spanish parliament in madrid in protest against the so-called “gag law”.
What an astonishing and meaningful way to use this holographic technology!
I am fairly sure that the Spanish government got the message!
Just to meditate...
“If tangible reality was only an holographic illusion, we would not be able to say anymore that the brain creates the conscience. It would be the conscience that makes appear the brain, as well as the body…”
And good morning to you!
I like to think of Holographic thinking as an all-encompassing perspective of the world…
Thinking holographically everything that was, is and will be, (people, places, times, ideas, cultures, life forms, matter, energy) are all interconnected.
Any change in one thing is reflected, to various degrees, in everything else. Thinking holographically, the “Problem” contains the “Changes” which become the tip of a “Greater Solution” waiting to emerge.
In other words, one could say that "Problems Contain the Seeds of Their Own Solutions"!!
I am in!
