Near the end of today’s always-lovely Beingfulness session, Narit brought up the Queen’s recent “hologram” carriage, asking a wonderfully valid question of it: “I mean, what is that?” I have some answers — too many, in fact; I just completed a PhD dissertation on that very technological subject! — and I refrained from jumping in for fear of babbling on and hijacking the enjoyable chat.
Forgive the ego trip, but for anyone interested in one nerd's thinking through the emerging quandary of digital holograms — how they mess with and/or enhance ways we make sense of reality, and my own claims about how they boost embodiment within the social experience of any modern media (which inherently create liminal spaces between presence and absence in which we “communicate” but, more in this case, really commune) — I offer some light bedside reading …
An essay of mine, “Will holograms help us grieve?”
An article of mine based on research at the Univ. of Westminster (nee the Royal Polytechnic Institution), "Pepper’s Ghost and the Augmented Reality of Modernity" (PDF below, with the usual caveats about academese)
My very occasional blog, with several posts about recent holograms of deceased pop stars
There are likely related discussions to be had about this community's own experiences Zooming with Alistair & Daniel et al., the ways the online platform (and this site) has facilitated so much more than linguistic & intellectual communication, and the virtual space between presence and absence we find & occupy together, literally/figuratively/liminally/magically etc.
Good heavens Thomas, how did you manage to hold your tongue last night? I am always impressed by people's depth of knowledge and I look forward to diving into your holographical musings.
I like the idea that Daniel and I could be Abba-ized into a meditative Frieda and Agneta