Escher hologram project

The work of M.C.Escher has always appealed to holographic artists and designers, and it is not hard to see why.


Two of my favourite examples are  the 'Escher Staircase' produced by Graham Tunnadine for Applied Holographics ,

  

and Dominic Welby's 'Lizards', 

both from the late 1980s.

And of course there is Steve Benton's sublime 'Rind II', from 1978.

Now there is a new Kickstarter project, 3-D Holographic Designs inspired by Escher, from Javid Khan's Edinburgh-based company Holoxica.

So far, Holoxica has specialised in medical and scientific imaging, though one of their more recent projects, the remarkable Rhind Mummy hologram, has taken them into the museum world.

This new venture would apply the digital holographic imaging process to consumer products - holograms for the home - and Holoxica envisage a range of images in sizes from 10 x10cm up to 30 x 30 cm with lightsources to match. By pledging funds now you can hope to receive 

one or more of these new holograms before they are rolled out to the general public.

The following image, 'Starfield' is an example of what they have in mind.

There is precious little new on the market for enthusiasts of well-designed decorative holograms, so I wish Javid all the best for his enterprise and look forward to seeing the results.

Ultimate 3D moves to Taipei

Back in Taiwan last month to assist with the installation of the Ultimate 3D exhibition at a new venue in the capital Taipei. The show attracted 140,000 in Kaohsiung so we are hoping to improve on that figure.

We stayed in the very attractive W Hotel, where I had the chance to rest up and acclimatise before going to the venue.


This was the view from the bathroom, looking out towards the city.

and what I thought was a radio beside the loo, turned out to have more interesting functions

There was also some fabulous corridor art

The Songshan Cultural and Creative Park was a ten minute walk away, and located close to various other attractions. There was an exhibition of Karl Lagerfeld photographs just nearbye.

The building itself was in the Japanese style and at about 60 years old, fairly ancient for Taipei. A cavernous warehouse conversion it provided a perfect blank canvas to work on.

This time the installation crew were relaxed and cheerful, more confident of what needed to be done. You know a transmission hologram is properly lit when it casts a rainbow on the viewer's face.

Shu-Min Lin, Taiwan's best known holographic artist, had seen the exhibition in Kaohsiung and, to my delight had asked for some of his work to be included this time. We last met in 1994 at Lake Forest but I recognised him at once and was really pleased to be showing his holograms.

Mostly pulsed portraits of people, there were also glass vases containing holograms that you could look down into.

I was pleased with the way the show looked in the new venue. The lower ceiling gave a more human scale and the layout flowed more easily. 

The Art pieces are displayed in a discreet gallery of their own, but the local design team like to add graphics to jazz up other sections of the show and sometimes I think it works - as with the Richmond Holographic Studios 'Mime' hologram and the Light Fantastic 'Cheshire Cat', in the Kids Section of the show.

I had to fly home before the opening but UEG's man on the spot, Zex Yeh, sent me some of the above photos and I found this one of Shu-Min Lin opening the exhibition on the Ultimate 3D Facebook page.

Fingers crossed it all goes well and I should be back in Taiwan in the Autumn for the next leg of the tour!  It would have been nice to see more of the city, which I last visited in 1990, but I did get a chance to visit UEG's other exhibition in town - Salvador Dali, Mind of Genius!

Pearl John at the Royal Society

Pearl John invited me to join her for a soirée at The Royal Society, to view their Summer Science Exhibition, in which she had some work, and to enjoy a slap-up dinner in a marquee outside.


Discovering at the last minute that it was a black tie do, I dug my dinner jacket out of the wardrobe with some trepidation as, the last time I did, I found that moths had eaten half the trousers - requiring an expensive trip to my tailor. To my relief, this time all was well.

Pearl had been commissioned by the South East Physics Network (SEPnet) to create a series of lenticular prints, illustrating research by various scientists at Southampton University, where she is based. The subjects ranged from Supernova to Nanotubes and included one showing data from a particle collision at the ATLAS  detector at CERN which, following the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs Boson there, was generating particular interest.

Pearl is pointing at the Higgs Boson image above. And you can read more about her work and the scientists involved here.


As a non-scientist many of the exhibits went over my head, but it was a splendid occasion with the great and the good of the science world assembled, all in their best bib and tuckers, with medals worn by some. One elderly gentleman looked like an extra in a Ruritanian costume drama. Dinner was pretty good too. I had the roast leg of Sussex pork - slow-cooked for 8 hours the chef told me - followed by the cheese board and a Nutmeg Posset Tart, which was a first. It wasn't much to look at or I would post a picture, but did taste good.