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| Call for Papers>>Final Program |
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| Abstract of admission as follows: |
| The Imaginary Hologram: A Short Cultural History |
| Sarah Maline
PhD Chair, Department of Visual and Performing Arts Associate Professor of
Art History University of Maine Farmington Farmington |
| Abstract |
| As we look back on the 40-year history of display holography it is tempting to discount the cultural impact of the medium. Surely holography has failed to meet many of its earliest expectations, whether commercial, technological and artistic. As we know now, many of those prospects were outrageously hyped and cannot offer a clear metric for measuring the medium's cultural impact. So how, then, do we evaluate the importance of holography as a cultural product? Further, when considering the importance of the medium, how do we factor in the incessant cultural presence of the hologram as metaphor or image removed from the real technology? In this paper I will focus on the imaginary hologram, the hologram that exists in the cultural imagination, with or without connection to the technology of holography. First, how and where has the hologram served as metaphor and to what extent is its metaphorical identity fixed? In what ways does the hologram’s metaphorical identity affect reception of actual holograms, especially in art and other creative display modes? What parallel disconnects between concept and technology do we find in other new media? And when we evaluate the historical importance of the medium, how do we weigh the value of the imaginary hologram against the real? |
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