HOLOGRAMS -- AUGUST MUTH at the UNM ARTS Lab

AUGUST MUTH spoke and showed his holograms at the ARTS Lab of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, on November 14, 2024:

August Muth flyer

for his hologram talk at UNM

August Muth shining a laser beam

through a human hair

August Muth speaking at the UNM ARTS Lab

THE LECTURE

Stewart Copeland, the director of the UNM ARTS Lab, introduces August Muth:

Introduction

Hologram exhibition

Hologram laser beams

Holographic color in nature

More holographic color in nature

Lasers in front of a mirror

 in August Muth's studio in Santa Fe

Coating the gelatin on glass,

before exposing to make a hologram

The "photo booths" are cushioned below

by concrete and supports,

because any movement will mess up the hologram

The laser beams and mirrors

Early hologram of the August's jewelry

August Muth showed his work three times at the CURRENTS NEW MEDIA annual exhibition in Santa Fe.  One year he allowed the visitors to "borrow" his sculptures, on the understanding that they would pass the sculptures onto someone else to enjoy after a while.  And that person was expected to pass the sculptures onto someone else to enjoy...ad infinitum...

Holograms at the CURRENTS exhibition

in Santa Fe

Interesting points:

• Dennis Gabor "discovered" holography in 1947, and later won the Noble Prize in 1971 for holography after the discovery of lasers made holograms possible

• The first hologram was realized in 1964

• Bruce Nauman made holograms in the 1960s

• The HOLOCENTER is a holographic museum in Kington, New York -- including works by August Muth

Tanya bought this piece from August Muth

at the Granada Gallery in Tucson

during the Gem and Mineral show

---

OUR HOLOGRAM

 Experiments

August Muth used to work with FRED UNTERSHER, who wrote the book -- Holography Handbook: Making Holograms the Easy Way  I used to draw with Fred at Argos Gallery in Santa Fe, until he passed away in 2021:

Hologram Review

Fred Unterseher, a pioneer in holography, 

passed away in June 2021

Doug scratched a real hologram into acrylic using a stylus on a point plotter, and posted his hologram on the Quelab Discord:

Clay 3D Printers + Hacker Toys + AI Programs

A REAL hologram

scratched into plastic

• We have been thinking about scratching holograms into plastic with the CNC at Quelab.

• Adric has been reproducing real holograms from molds

FAKE HOLOGRAMS

Meanwhile we have been experimenting with FAKE holograms using the Looking Glass Factory displays.

In September Adric at Quelab gave me the new smaller Looking Glass Go display:

SEPTEMBER SUMMARY -- 2024

Two Looking Glass displays next to each other,

my 3D AI art on the left, 

and Adric's 3D face on the right

I set up an account on the Looking Glass BLOCKS website, with an aim of creating holographic slide shows from AI ART, and sharing them with other users.  However between the move at Quelab and all the recent printmaking events, I have not yet pursued this yet.

Previously we had been working with the earlier LOOKING GLASS PORTRAIT display.  I summarized our efforts at the end of this long blog post about AI 3D in 2023:

Two LOOKING GLASS PORTRAIT displays

side-by-side in 2023

• 3D ART can also be used in Augmented Reality

***

In my art masters thesis I asserted that we in the 21st Century should think about the space in front of the painting.  

In the Renaissance they invented perspective, and treated the canvas like a window, inviting the viewer to see a scene BEHIND THE CANVAS.

Modern art tended to emphasize the FLAT 2D CANVAS.

Now I would like to partition the space IN FRONT of the painting, by delivering a different image to two different viewers in front of the same painting. David Alfredo Siqueiros was doing this with murals using his "polyangular perspective" technique. I think of this as "sculpting" the space in front of the painting(s).  The holographic artworks seem to partition/sculpture just that very nicely.

Meanwhile, UNM is constructing a new Art Department building:

They broke ground in October

for the new Fine Arts Building at UNM

• Plus CNM is building a film school at the ABQ Railyards