**7. Narrative**

Holographic artist Jacques Desbiens states that "Linear narration is shattered in holography" (Desbiens 2019). The holographic artist may choose to resist the tyranny of one-point perspective. The artist may resign as "dictator of a single viewpoint" and accept the challenge to become a "framer of possible views". My work embraces this role, leading me to make holograms of ideas instead of things. The author shares a space with viewers. They may combine story elements again and again to yield fresh lines of personal meaning and narrative. By thinking of the hologram as a mirror with a memory, I want to encourage an intimate dialog with narrative depth. With these z-axis thoughts in mind, I worked on three reflection holograms.

#### *Arts* **2020**, *9*, 1

There are three women in this hologram, one in each of the three zones for z-axis placement discussed below (Figure 1):

**Figure 1.** *Speaking Volumes*, reflection hologram, 2001, 20 cm H × 25 cm W, created by author.

Behind the film plane, on the left, grounded in history, an academic view of Madonna in an art book, an idealized woman enshrined for viewing and study, a relic of the past, recalling imposed beliefs and modeling subservient behavior for women.

At the film surface, on the right, the historical image is matched with the living ghost of a woman's face, inhabiting the right-hand pages with her eyes masked. She is visible but is blinded, trapped in the present moment, looming out of the page.

In front of the film plane, the hand of a third woman holds up a magnifying glass that casts a shadow on the Madonna. We see only her hand, but we can peer through the lens, suggesting her careful examination of how the canon served to determine and accordingly oppress the space occupied by this idealized woman.

In Open book (reading between the lines), (Figure 2) a pair of holographic plates are mounted in one frame tilted slightly toward each other, like pages of an open book. On the left "page", shredded paper bits are suspended in all three zones of the z-axis, around and inside the baby's head which also occupies the 3 zones, slightly behind the film surface, through the surface and out in front of the plate. The mother lifts her child up into the cloud of floating pieces. The position of her fingers curving in front of the plate echoes the edges of the pages falling on the right side of the diptych.

On the right "page", drops of milk fall in lines just behind the film plane at the top, then on through the pages of an atlas until, at the bottom, they fade floating in front of the frame, approaching the viewer as they fall out of sight. The milk raining through pages of an atlas alludes to ancient searches for a nourishing home in dry terrain.

**Figure 2.** *Open book (reading between the lines)*, reflection hologram diptych, 2001–2008, 40 cm H × 60 cm W, created by author.

The hologram, A device for the lifting of gravity (again), 2008, (Figure 3) is illuminated by projected light from a security-camera feed to display live, moving imagery of viewers' feet as they walk past the installation. The three-dimensional imagery recorded in the hologram is of animated fire. The combination of the live projection and the animated holographic image allows viewers to "walk" through fire, reminiscent of medieval trials of witches and saints walking through a bed of red-hot coals. The real-time video of the viewer's feet anchors the "now" with the flames licking just behind and in front of the plate, extending the time-based narrative into space. Viewers recognize their feet almost instantly, often commenting "that's me" at the image of their feet lifted to face them at eye level. They scuff their feet and then turn away, looking over their shoulders to make sure their feet follow them. One viewer even searched for the camera at the floor level in order to rub hands together to pretend-warm them in the phantom flames. Such acts of viewer participation show how the spatial flux initiated by a hologram encourages a narrative response.

**Figure 3.** *A device for the lifting of gravity (again)*, 2008, reflection hologram 30 cm H × 40 cm W, video projection of live security camera, used by permission of David Licht.
