PLACES & SPACES
Constructing the Image:
Holograms as Art and Science in
Long Island City’s Holocenter
By Pamela Segura
Contributor
The term hologram
During the 2012
can also be confusing
Coachella Valley
because of its layered
Music and Arts Fesmeanings. “There’s the
tival in California,
practice of physically
live music organizer
making a hologram and
Goldenvoice included
there’s also, sort of, the
a projected image of
holographic theory,”
2Pac, the late Amerisays Martina Mrongcan rapper, in one
ovius, director of the
performance of the
Holocenter, a hub for
three-day festival.
the art and science of
2Pac’s projection gesholography in Long Istured and moved like
land City, Queens. The
the rapper once did
Holocenter, founded in
onstage, enticing the
1998 by holographic artaudience with a true
ists David Schweitzer
blast from the past.
and Ana Maria NicholThe ensuing media
son, grapples with all of
buzz that focused not
these meanings.
only on the cultural
To make a hologram,
implications of this
two laser beams, proembodiment of 2Pac,
duced via a beam splitbut also on the acter, interact with an
tual visual spectacle
object and with each
that unfolded on the
other, and their interstage. The word “hoPerpetual Notion by Dan Schweitzer (1979) exhibited 2013 in
ference patterns are relogram” was attached to
“Interference:Coexistence” at the Holocenter, NYC.
corded on a two-dimenthe experience. But the
image wasn’t actually a hologram, which typical- sional surface. Later, shining the original laser
beam on the holographic surface reproduces the
ly refers to an image projected onto a flat surobject used to make the hologram as a three-diface by lasers; rather, 2Pac’s body was a special
kind of reflective illusion called Pepper’s ghost. mensional projection. The term hologram refers
Hologram or reflection—in any case, 2Pac’s im- to both the flat, tangible recording and to the
ethereal projection produced from it.
age was misconstrued and misrepresented, and
the spectacle showcased the wider confusion
surrounding the term hologram.
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SciArt in America April 2014