Holographic Chiaroscuro: Figures in Virtual and Pseudoscopic Space

In two recent holographic stereograms Shadowy Figures [1] and Luminous Presence [2], I have animated the darkness and light within the spatial volume of the image to lend a sense of complex temporality to a figure. The type of complex temporality I am hoping to evoke stems from a particular example described by Michel Baxandall [3], Tie-polo’s drawing of a Roman soldier. Tiepolo’s drawing approach is to introduce spatial anomalies by unifying the composition with one overall lighting schema into which are embedded smaller zones rendered as though lighting were in a completely different position. In the case of the Roman soldier drawing, the entirely different zone of shading nested in a section of drapery leads to the ambiguous interpretation of the leg’s being in two possible positions. Pictorially the transition between the two models is completely seamless, yet in the viewer there is a constant shifting between the alternate lighting models, thereby extending the actual time of engagement with the image and precluding a simple and finite location for the figure, both spatially and temporally. Pictorial styles which involve anomalies in light and darkness have long been used in two-dimensional media (such as drawing, fresco, and painting) by artists, to engender a greater sense of familiarity and presence of the subject. I have been seeking parallel and alternative means of accomplishing this effect through devices available though the inherent properties of the medium of the digital holographic stereogram.

The way in which a beholder interacts with an animated holographic stereo-gram is quite open-ended. Unlike film animation, in which the rate of frames is predetermined, the sequence linear and the beholder stationary, the animation frames of a holographic stereogram are all visible simultaneously, enabling the beholder to sample the animation by entering and walking though the space before the hologram film plane. The pace of the beholder’s steps determine the speed at which the frames are seen and their left/right direction determines the beginning and end of the sequence. The animation can be paused at any point by the beholder’s becoming stationary.

Fig 1.

Luminous Presence, holographic stereogram, 1000 × 1500 mm, 2007. (© Paula Dawson. Photo © David Braun.)

Due to the direct correspondence between the viewer’s spatial location and the specific pairs of frames which are channeled to their eyes it is possible to build the illusion of a static three-dimensional scene, such as in the portrait series of Chuck Close. The opposite effect is also possible, that of destroying the three-dimensionality by moving the subject elements in every frame. This has been used by Eduardo Kac in work titled Ad Huk in which scattered mobile letters coalesce to form the word Ad Huk when the beholder occupies one specific position [4]. In both holographic stereo-grams, Shadowy Figures and Luminous Presence I combined static figures (to ensure the scene would read as a three dimensional place) while animating the lighting and darkness surrounding them.

However, as the viewer of the holographic stereograms is likely to walk and then pause, since this is the way most other wall based work is viewed, it is possible to portray major differences in the lighting and darkness of a single stationary scene, treating each frame as a complete work. The lighting and darkness of the subject of the hologram can undermine or support the experience of the image as occupying the present tense, which its space suggests.

Through changes in the 81,920 hogels (holographic pixels), which comprise Shadowy Figures, I investigated three distinct approaches to using darkness [5]. Dividing the viewing space into three zones across the horizontal axis (know as three-channel and visually resembling a wipe) enabled me to position different treatments of darkness employed by Giotto, Masaccio and da Vinci side by side on a single figure. The particular examples are drawn from Michael Baxandall’s book Shadows and Enlightenment: Giotto, Joachim and the Shepherds fresco, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua; Masaccio, Baptism of the Neophites, fresco, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence; Leonardo da Vinci, Drapery Study, brush drawing on brown linen...