Abstract
Digital holography is arguably the most advanced form of visual recording to date. But are holograms "mere" recordings of objective visual reality or creative artefacts capable of expression, interpretation and deception? The same question was asked of photography in the early 19th century. Dismissed originally by artists as a mechanical recording medium, it became in the hands of pioneers such as Bresson and Brandt a subtle artistic tool capable of the most delicate expression and artful deception. Skilfully selective framing of the image, manipulation of objects and lighting in the scene can transform the banal into the dramatic or reduce the sinister to the mundane (Nazi rally image from RDN). Postproduction techniques can add to the deception, as illustrated by Victorian snapshots of fairies and spirits and the "un-existing" of political rivals by Stalin in the Soviet Union. People were added and deleted both from photographs and real existence as easily as pressing the delete button in Photoshop TM. Those early attempts at virtual reality seem clumsy to us in retrospect, compared with the power of modern digital imaging. This paper argues that, like photography, digital holography is certainly more than a recording medium. It is a tool that can substantiate fantasies that previously never existed or comment subtly on the real world, blurring our grasp of that reality to the point where objectivity is submerged in a sea of imaginings. The extreme reality of holograms challenges our understanding of what we mean by "real" yet their essential ambiguity is as unsettling as their verisimilitude is reassuring in a post McLuhan age of "virtual reality" experiences, "reality TV" spectacles and "celebrities". Celebrity portraiture is a field that has always been susceptible to flattery and artifice. Can we rely on a hologram of a contemporary celebrity to be any more objective than say a 16th century Holbein celebrity portrait in oils? This paper reports on the creation of one such portrait and comments on the balance of technical and interpretive skills employed to create the image.
Citation
Richardson, M., and Brown, S. (2004) Strange Manifestations of Three-Dimensional Intelligence in the Digital Era., in Redmond, J., Durling, D. and de Bono, A (eds.), Futureground - DRS International Conference 2004, 17-21 November, Melbourne, Australia. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2004/researchpapers/162
Strange Manifestations of Three-Dimensional Intelligence in the Digital Era.
Digital holography is arguably the most advanced form of visual recording to date. But are holograms "mere" recordings of objective visual reality or creative artefacts capable of expression, interpretation and deception? The same question was asked of photography in the early 19th century. Dismissed originally by artists as a mechanical recording medium, it became in the hands of pioneers such as Bresson and Brandt a subtle artistic tool capable of the most delicate expression and artful deception. Skilfully selective framing of the image, manipulation of objects and lighting in the scene can transform the banal into the dramatic or reduce the sinister to the mundane (Nazi rally image from RDN). Postproduction techniques can add to the deception, as illustrated by Victorian snapshots of fairies and spirits and the "un-existing" of political rivals by Stalin in the Soviet Union. People were added and deleted both from photographs and real existence as easily as pressing the delete button in Photoshop TM. Those early attempts at virtual reality seem clumsy to us in retrospect, compared with the power of modern digital imaging. This paper argues that, like photography, digital holography is certainly more than a recording medium. It is a tool that can substantiate fantasies that previously never existed or comment subtly on the real world, blurring our grasp of that reality to the point where objectivity is submerged in a sea of imaginings. The extreme reality of holograms challenges our understanding of what we mean by "real" yet their essential ambiguity is as unsettling as their verisimilitude is reassuring in a post McLuhan age of "virtual reality" experiences, "reality TV" spectacles and "celebrities". Celebrity portraiture is a field that has always been susceptible to flattery and artifice. Can we rely on a hologram of a contemporary celebrity to be any more objective than say a 16th century Holbein celebrity portrait in oils? This paper reports on the creation of one such portrait and comments on the balance of technical and interpretive skills employed to create the image.