Exchange Exhibition at Crane Arts Space

Holograms are a curious artefact of the digital age. They speak of future desires and ambitions. They remind us of our shared past, the moment of first witnessing r2 d2 projecting a hologram of princess Leia. They also remind us that we have not yet reached that present, and for the most part with few exceptions we don’t live in a world full of moving projected holograms. These holograms exhibited are completely digitally produced, they are designed to share the encoding of the mathematical origins of form, they are crafted to retain their sense of  3 dimensionality, and yet they are tantalisingly untouchable and distant to the viewer. They also require the immediacy of engagement, you are required to witness them at hand, you can’t access them on the web. And lastly in a manner that tortuously opposes all that the digital age stands for, they cannot successfully be photographed and Instagramed.

The holographic works are studies in complexity theory, particularly the application of algorithmically derived formulas to aesthetic theory and perception. The research field is visual arts and in particular, digital media. The research question regards the hapticity of an audiences interaction with the visual image.  In this instance, the visual images are a series of encodings of spatial forms encoded in holographic film. The research asks how the viewer can attempt to understand and interpret algorithmically derived forms never before seen by the ability to move around the hologram and address it spatially and with haptic association. 

The works comprise novel generations of holonically paired algorithms; that is features of initial algorithms affect and influence the second, and so on. These holograms represent some of the worlds first 3 dimensional fractal forms encoded to holographic film. The chief reason that the forms are innovative is that they add to the lexicon of shape grammar and are new to art and design and novel to a gallery audience particularly.

These works require the immediacy of engagement, you can’t access them on the web. And in a manner that tortuously opposes all that the digital age stands for, they cannot successfully be photographed and shared electronically. The holograms exhibited are personal exchanges, a viewer has to be with them to. experience them they are encoded information that affects and demands presence. The works have been successfully exhibited in Philadephia for two weeks in October 2015 and strangely live on in documentation for the published Exchange catalogue.