Darius- PART SEVEN: HOLOGRAPHIC CINEMA: A NEW WORLD

Darius- Chapter Seven PART SEVEN: HOLOGRAPHIC CINEMA: A NEW WORLD Kinoform – a type of converging lens that is able to efficiently focuse x-ray radiation. They can be used to study nanomaterials VITAPHONE - an early technique in commercial film-making in which the accompanying sound wasproduced by discs The author’s goal in writing this chapter was to eliminate all misconceptions about holography. This technology was relatively new to everyone including Youngblood therefore this chapter was spent on assessing its potential and clarifying the technology. That was unfortunate because he did not explain what the intention of the technology was with concrete abundance. Instead, Youndblood gives us speculations, predictions, and expectations in this chapter probably more than any other in this book. However, the explanation about the hardware and techniques was detailed to the type of wavelength and picosecond. The art of capturing these waveforms onto photosensitive diffractions is what is called Holography. I love how he compares holography to a more difficult level of photography. He pretty much compared it to lensless photography. After reading the detailed history and explanation, I understood that the imagery of holography was basically the art of constructive light waves. The wave frequency and intensity is key to have success and control, with out it you have no image. Sometimes the chapter felt a little opinionated. I would rather have facts and conclusions about the finish results. Doctors and scientists were the main people working with early holography. I believe it was more of a technical science than it was an art form. Then Midway through the chapter I realized this was written in 1970. Back then the research, work, and development of holography was impressive. Before reading, I didn’t expect things to be happening like that until the mid 80s.They recognized the potential of this new art form therefore they put in the work and were able to develop holography further during the 60s! To those doctors, it was not art at all, it was more of a science. Youngblood is probably one of the rare souls that recognized it’s artistic potential. Having the ability to make 3d images using laser, interference, diffraction, and light intensity as a media back since 1947 blows my mind. Who knew that the word “laser” was an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation? There has always been some confusion and misconception between 3-D movie/TV and holography. Before reading his chapter, even I was confused by this. I also thought that 3-D Tv’s and movies used the exact same technology as holograms. They both use light waves and RGB lighting. Come to find out the hologram is actually true 3-D imaging. It makes sense once you think about. You can walk around and interact with all three dimensions, (x,y,z ) when using a hologram. This is not the case with any 3-D TV or 3D glasses. 3-D Tv is just a parallax effect. This is basically just a displacement or change of perspectives. I have recently had the opportunity to mess around and experiment with creating parallax images and videos so I have a pretty good understanding of how it works. With being said I have to agree with Mr. Youngblood, that it is not at all 3d imagery. It just an illusion, just a simple eye trick. Gene Youngblood predicted that by the year 2000 thousand the holographic technology with be very common. By that he meant theatres would be holographic. Yes we have 3-D movies but Youngblood made it clear that 3D movies are not holographic or actual 3-demisional imagery. He was excited about the technology back then and made a very inaccurate prediction about it. Then again who would not be excite about that. Due to the fact it was first created by Dr. Dennis Gabor way back in 1947 by. It’s funny how a lot of their envisions and predictions that were accurate were not about holography. These Doctors expected holography to take over our lives but that has not been the case. Why is that? The lack of appreciation over the past 60 years is why holography hasn’t scratched the surface or reached the potential it was expected to reach 20 years ago. It’s pretty much been at a stand still when it comes to common usage and development. We now have progressed to better projection of images and that is about it. Don’t get me wrong, holography has made it’s leaps and jumps. Once upon a time you were not able to have more than two people view a hologram but eventually that progressed over years. You also were not able to successfully see the 3D aspect of a hologram from beyond 20 feet. Most the recent jump that anybody cares about was the celebrity hologram of the Hip-Hop legend Tupac Shakur along with other celebrities. Based off the predictions in this chapter we should be well beyond that and Tupac Holograms should have been happening when he was still alive. I don’t think holograms have progressed much in media arts. Maybe it is time for holography to be taken in another direction other entertainment and art. Just when I was beginning to mentally grasp what I was reading, the chapter took a hard right on the last couples of pages. The subject was deep but I don’t see what it had to do with Holography or cinema. Other than the ending I appreciate the new information given from the chapter.