Time

Back to work.  Long break.  Must remember to tell Benedict Carpenter this:  "Time and Memory merge into each other; they are like the two sides of a medal."  Tarkovsky, A. (1986) Sculpting in Time:  Reflections on the Cinema, Faber & Faber, London. P.57.

Showing Artwork in St Petersburg

I've just returned from a fantastic ISDH2015 in St.Petersburg where I delivered a paper, Co-Chaired the first day's Session - Culture, Education and History of Holography - and am exhibiting work in the accompanying Holography exhibition at the Optics Museum of the ITMO University.

My Hologram 'Portrait: Great Grandmother' a 4x5cm reflection hologram with digital photograph on the far right of the cabinet was in good company here with work by August Muth and Andrew Pepper.

 

Virtual Artist Evaluation Wordle

Evaluating artwork

As part of my PhD studies at De Montfort University I have to evaluate the 'Virtual Artist' exhibition which ran between 26 August – 26 September 2014 at the University of Southampton’s Hartley Library.  My research explores ways in which time and space are represented in artwork using Holography and Lenticular Imaging and how audiences understand, respond to and remember the images which have been displayed – even after some time as passed.

Participants who were willing to give their feed back will have their anonymised research data held by myself for up to five years with any personal information given considered confidential.

The names of those who are willing to complete the evaluation will be put in a prize draw and the name selected at random will have a hologram made from a family photograph.  

For any further information do please get in touch via my website - or blog.  

Martina Mrongovius - talk at the camera club

The Royal Photographic Society, 3D Imaging and Holography Group

“Holographic Collaborations”

Ana Maria Nicholson & Rudie Berkhout Collaboration 1989. Dr Martina Mrongovius 6 September 2014

Martina described the background to the current exhibition at Jonathan Ross’s Gallery 286 (which I hope to see on Tuesday) “Holographic Collaborations” with artwork by Ana Maria Nicholson and Rudie Berkhout.  Martina described the creative backgrounds of both artists – and how their collaborative work had influenced their individual practice. 

The holograms in the exhibition had been found during a clear-out at the Centre for the Holographic Arts in New York.  Martina works there as the Director for the Centre – (and also teaches holography in Cologne).

Rudie Berkhout was a prolific artist, he produced dynamic holographic artwork with his own visual language.  His early transmission holograms made in the 1970s consisted of Holographic Optical Elements (HOEs) beautifully composed with great depth and rich colour.  His work was inspired, at that time, by the cosmos and light or photons and presented incredible dynamic images of light.   

In the early 1980s Rudie worked on a sand table and produced artwork which captured ridges in the sand and included mirror elements – such as  the study for ‘New Territories’ 1984 which is held in the Rudie Berkhout Collections.  This work was made when he moved from Down Town Manhatten to the Catskills area – his work became more influenced by the land and featured shadowed forms and silhouettes.  The work included a mountain path, different elements and colours and a solid light plane for the sky.  Different images were viewable up close and farther away.  The 30x40cm holograms on Agfa holographic plates had tremendous depth and animation. 

 Ana Maria Nicholson came into holographic portraiture through working with Lloyd Cross.  Ana Maria was the Director of the portraiture gallery at the Museum of Holography in New York.  She made holograms of artists (Martina showed us a holographic portrait of Keith Haring) and spiritual leaders amongst others, Ana Maria aimed to capture the essence of people.  The Holocenter and Museum of holography had very different pulsed laser portrait cameras so their work can easily be identified.  The Museum of holography had a single overhead object beam, while the Holocenter’s had two object beams on either side of a sitter’s face. 

Rudie walked into Ana Maria’s studio and both their lives were transformed.  Both artists were interested in the healing processes and their work was a creative dialogue between the two.  They were both interested in the question; “what is a portrait?”  And “what makes a portrait a work of art?”.  Ana Maria made Rudie’s portrait.  She cut holes in a piece of cardboard and showed his hand bursting through in works in 1987-1989. She wanted to capture a person’s essence and thought of portraiture as different from fine art, its own genre.  Rudie made a portrait of Ana Maria.  He wanted to produce images about feelings/dynamics – his portrait of Ana Maria used curved film – which when straightened out for display showed a warped wobbly image. 

Working together Nicholson and Berkhout produced holograms which were unpredictable images.   They had replaced the diffused light which illuminated the sitter in pulsed portraits and put cardboard masks on the object beam – allowing slits and slivers of light to illuminate the face.  What they had produced were shells of light – the viewer peers around behind and seemingly inside the person in the portrait.  The artwork traces the face, your eye follows lines around the face – discovering different parts of the sitter.  The holograms were reflection and colour mixed, a master was produced then copied using red and green pre-swelled plates.  This colour mixing was characteristic of Ana Maria’s work.  Rudie didn’t like the process – his work was meticulous transmission work– hers messy reflection with chemicals and pre-swelling. 

After 1989 the artist’s work diverges again.  Ana Maria wanted to capture more movement by double-exposing.  She was inspired by dancer.   The image suggests the sitter coming alive opening up and then curling up – it referenced the barrier of surface of skin to the spirit and the plight of women.  ‘Into the Night’ 1994-1995 colour mixing blue and reds. Her work suggests that there’s more than the physical body there, a spiritual/light body.  After working with Ana Maria Rudie’s work developed using a system of mixing alcohol and water and two colour exposures and reflection holography.  Rudie died in 2008. 

The Holocentrehttp://www.holocenter.org is a non-profit arts organisation.  Its core objectives are to provide a place for artists to be able to make holograms and to preserve its history and holographic art collection. 

In 2009 the holographic equipment was moved from Long Island to Ohio State University allowing artists to make work there as part of a residency programme.  There are courses which give artists and educators an introduction to holography, a development course which allows an artist to explore a concept and a pulse facility for experienced holographic artists.  30 Artists have been through the programme. 

In 2009 the Holocenter had an exhibition in the Flux Factory – an artist’s collective with an artist’s run space.  The space for the exhibition was enormous a 3,000 sq foot space on the ground floor of a bank vault.  A giant holography exhibition was put together by local artists and called “Interference Cohexistance”.  The exhibition explored how artists deal with the concepts of interference.  Work was provided by the MIT museum such as Betsy Connor’s “Light Rain”, multimedia work with computer fans.  The show had great press, lots of vistors, a and sponsors allowed the exhibition to be extended.  Phillippe Boissonet’s work was included ‘Certain Worlds’ which explored the concepts of ‘here/there/where and place.  How we know the position of things and where we are.  Mapping and a sense of community.  To view his work you have to trigger the lighting to come for another viewer to see the hologram – you can only trigger light for someone else not yourself.  You work with others in the space to see your hologram. 

Eventually the building was sold and the exhibition moved to a new home on Governor’s Island; a historic house and a summer-time museum.  Other buildings on the island which can be reached via a $2 ferry ride include a Photography Centre and Museum of Mathematics.  Upstairs from the exhibition there is a screening room, for 3D screenings and workshops.  There are 3D courses for drawing technology, view master workshops, intro to holography workshops and physics of holography courses.  It’s a network of people sharing techniques and ideas; a vibrant community.  The public get a better sense of the medium of holography when it’s exhibited with hybrid technologies.  They can work with ideas of 3D. 

The talk was thoroughly inspiring – and I look forward to seeing the show.

 http://www.rudieberkhoutcollection.com/collection_t.html

  http://www.holocenter.org

http://www.holographics.com.au

A Virtual Artist - Exhibition ready and waiting.

'Timepiece' mixed media with reflection hologram, Pearl John, 2014.  Central artwork for Case 1 at the A Virtual Artist exhibition, Special Collections Gallery, Hartley Library, University of Southampton.  Show is on from 26 August - 26 September 2014. 

A Virtual Artist

I'm frantically working towards my next exhibition: A Virtual Artist: An exhibition of holographic artworks - 26- August-26 September 2014.  Special Collections Gallery, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.

The Virtual Artist exhibit contains a selection of the artist’s own art collection of holograms dating back to the 1990s – a retrospective exhibition which also includes current work. The Virtual Artist includes the artist’s own ‘Special Collection’ of objects and holographic artworks which have been gathered to form an archive of a family history. Some elements of the exhibit are autobiographical, while other elements are fictitious.

The collection consists of a mixture of personal items/artefacts and photographs belonging to a
number of family members, which are overlaid by translucent holograms. The objects range in
date from the 1900’s until the present day. The holograms contain text and images which recede
into the substance of the object they are paired with – or escape the surface of the holographic
film. The objects hold memories and stories and the holographic images make visible the invisible.

The eight lenticular images shown in the Level 4 Gallery space were exhibited at the Royal
Society’s Summer Science Exhibition in July 2012 and have not been shown since. The data which
inspired these animated art works was provided by scientists and astronomers working with lasers,
magnetism, astronomy and particle physics at the University of Southampton. John explored different
time intervals from “pico-second” laser pulses - produced in trillionths of a second - to black hole
events occurring millions of years ago.

The exhibit also includes Typhoon an 10”x8”hologram produced in collaboration with artist
Ya-Ling Huang for “The Delight of the Chinese Character Festival” in Taiwan in 2010, a version of
which is currently on show in the MIT Museum, USA.

A V I R T U A L A R T I S T

Acknowledgements: Prof Martin Richardson, Prof Ernest Edmonds and Nick Higgett (De Montfort University), Prof Malcolm Coe, Prof Phil Charles, Dr John Nesbit, Dr Tony Bird, Elena Kammann, Dr Gaby Slavcheva, Dr Matteo Franchin and Prof Hans Fangohr, Dr Anna Scaife, Dr Alexander Belyaev and Dr Sadie Jones, Gareth Savage, Justin Harris, Anne-Marrie Steel, Laura Joy, Fran Lunn and Jane Birkin (University of Southampton), Clare Harvey (SEPnet), the John & Morris Family, the
Gravett Family and Martin Gardiner.