Holography: Re-defined

Copyright 2009 by IGI GlobalWhen writing this paper it became apparent that we were not only exponents of digital holography, but also the critics. This is a problem when it comes to new media. How can one begin to make objective critical theory on a subject when there are no historical or ideological structures that produce and constrain it? While other digital technologies prove well developed, semantic and expressive, digital holography has someway to go before any quantised analysis of the subject is possible. This paper is a collection of thoughts, nothing more. It wonders at the function of digital holography, seeking comparison from other media and explores holography’s influence as a radical form of electronic digital three-dimensional image capture. Within this context we draw comparison with other forms of image making, from cave paintings in Lascaux (France), to Fox Talbot’s early experiments to capture light, Corbusiers architectural designs of space, to early television transmission. They all have one unifying factor: the unfamiliar and the strange. Our intention is not immaterialism but solidification. We explore how civilization has attempted to fix its surrounding world with visual representation, to capture our ‘real’ three-dimensional world using a two-dimensional image. That said, it is not a perspicuous analysis of the historical development of imaging and representation. Rather it is an emblematic snapshoot of the possibilities offered by digital holography and how it may transform our perceptions of space