**4. Results**

The results below include a description of the artworks produced, and the results of the evaluation of the works by the critique groups with a focus on the last critique. Photographs of the animated three- and four-dimensional images are shown below for illustrative purposes only as it is very di fficult to visualize these artworks in two dimensions. Figure 1a,b are of the monochromatic analogue shadowgrams. Figure 1a *Great Great Grandfather* depicts a holographic image of a man, contained within an antique compass, striding along with a walking stick. The image looks to have been taken in the 1940s. The transparent holographic film on which the image is produced is placed on top of the glass protecting the compass needle which is clearly visible beneath it. The image of the walker appears to be sunk beneath the glass existing in the same space as the compass needle. Figure 2b depicts two portraits of the same woman 50 years apart. A transparent hologram of a photographic portrait taken in the 1940s sits on top of a digital photographic portrait. The earlier holographic portrait is sunk beneath the surface of the later photograph.

**Figure 1.** (**a**) *Great Great Grandfather* 2014, mixed media with reflection hologram, 8 cm × 20 cm, P. John and (**b**) *Great Grandmother*, 2014, mixed media with reflection hologram, 12.7 cm × 15.2 cm, P. John created and photographed by the author.

The first two holograms in Figure 1 *Great Great Grandfather* and *Great Grandmother* were shown to both the small group of contemporary artists working in film and media in 2014 and to the group of experts in art and holography at ISDH2018. To see the holograms, the viewers had to move the artworks around in order to illuminate the embedded holograms at the correct viewing angle. The comments from the artists focused more on the emotional impact of the work and of the medium, rather than the content of the holograms. The artists were unable to determine differences in the depth of holographic space used in the works. As a result, the author chose an audience of experts in art and holography to evaluate the last artwork produced in the study.

*Passing Time, Distant Memory* shown below in Figure 2a,b was created during the very last phase of the study and critiqued by the art and holography experts only. The digital animated hologram was hung and lit as part of the exhibition in City Art Gallery, Aveiro, Portugal. As the viewer moves laterally in front of the hologram from left to right, the photographs swing in an arc to show spaces and distances between them; the images on the left become obscured by those on the right-hand-side as if the photographs were solid. The images farthest from the viewer on the left-hand-side of the image depicted older photographs and these were sunk deeper within the *Z*-axis of holographic space. The image, an animated video on the far right-hand side was the most recent. Seven seconds of footage taken from a wedding video were edited to produce an animation in which the bride is shown to speak and laugh as the viewer moves. The video sits on a virtual surface which projects in front of the image plane of the hologram, protruding into the viewer's space.

(**b**) 

**Figure 2.** (**a**) First view of *Passing Time, a Distant Memory*, 2018, digital animated hologram, 65 cm × 25 cm, P. John. (**b**) Second view of *Passing Time, a Distant Memory*, 2018, digital animated hologram, 65 cm × 25 cm. Produced and photographed by the author.

The purpose of the final silent researcher critique was to determine whether the audience could perceive and comprehend the concept that the *Z*-axis of holographic space depicted a chronological narrative; whether the viewers had a new experience in viewing the work; and whether it had an affective impact. The results demonstrated the following: that the experts thought that the artwork was novel; depicted images and memories within holographic space in a new manner; and had affective impact. They described their experience of the work was as follows:

"A new way to present the past." (Expert I); "You are sinking memories into holographic space." (Expert G); "I felt sad when I looked at the image." (Expert A).

The audience of experts recognised that they were part of the time-line and that the *Z*-axis of holographic space included their own present time and space:

" ... if we're thinking we're dealing with a timeline are we were part of that line by viewing the work?" [Laughter] (Expert B); "Okay. I mean it's about this moment. It's about this very particular moment." (Expert D).

The experts discussed different concepts of time inherent in the work they were shown and included their felt experience of time and the concept of linear time.

One of the study's aims was that the work should have an affective impact. During the silent researcher critique, participants reported feeling sadness and nostalgia. However, as the critique

continued enabling people to talk without discussion, other emotional responses to the works became evident: there was slight discomfort, and then when the group broke the 'no discussion' guidance there was disagreement. Two experts expressed that they distrusted that the family history included in the artwork was authentic. A sense of tension during the silent researcher critique was relieved with laughter when there was a suggestion by one expert that the family in the artwork was not actually the author's and that the narrative presented as authentic was fictional. Another area of discomfort was due to three of the art and holography experts disagreeing with one another regarding issues of metaphysics and physics. Two participants shared concepts of objects containing memories, or the essence of the person that they related to. One art expert jokingly said that the objects contained ghosts, and another, whose training had been rooted in science, firmly disagreed. Two contemporary artists in the pilot 'Questions' session evaluation had discussed the same concepts of objects containing memories; however, the research artefacts did not contain the author's memories; most of the photographs included in the artworks were taken before the author was born. Instead, the photographs sugges<sup>t</sup> memories, someone's memories.
