Holograms: A Cultural History - Hardcover

Johnston has written a cultural, technological and historical exposition of the hologram. Johnston argues that artifacts and people intermingle and the recognition of this fact is essential to an understanding of the development and use of the hologram. Johnston poses the fascinating question of why holograms never gained popularity among consumerssimilar to the way the television grew in prominence. The author tackles this subject and many other relevant questions throughout this discourse on a modern technology. With numerous illustrations and photographs, an extensive bibliography, and two appendices, the author has composed a historical work that thoroughly explains both the technical and cultural importance of the hologram. (H. N. Boyer, CHOICE)

Johnston is the hologram's Boswell ... Johnston meticulously records its protean adventures among scientists, entrepreneurs and the general public throughout the world (Michael Saler, Times Literary Supplement)

[C]omprehensive for common readers and specialists alike. (Reva Garg, Optics & Photonics News)

Holography is a truly fascinating optical medium, almost subconsciously embedded in our culture. Now that the field has matured, it is ripe for cultural investigation and Johnson does just that in a detailed, investigative and intelligently written series of observations.... His expert view is supported by extensive references and footnotes. This book will extend the cultural horizons of the scholar, the visual enthusiast and the curious cultural onlooker. (Andrew Pepper)

This is an important contribution to a small but growing group of pioneering studies showing how twentieth century technologies drew on much richer and diverse sources of creativity across society than the moated community sometimes connoted by the phrase "science and technology". Showing how a spectrum of products and processes resulted from the interpenetration of diverse communities of physicists, engineers, corporate and countercultural enthusiasts, artists and visionaries, Johnston helps us see the process of inventing and developing the hologram in multiple dimensions. (Robert Bud)

This is a highly informative and engaging book. Johnston takes his audiences from the intriguing beginnings to the thousand-fold uses of holography today. He explores the environments in which holography developed, and the new experts who evolved with it. A must read for lay audiences and specialists alike! (Klaus Staubermann)

Holograms offers insightful contextualisation of a science history tracing holography from science workshop to commercial success. Its roller-coaster ride takes you from the beginnings of a new medium to its use as a ubiquitous optical security marker and beyond. Wonderfully written and crammed with factual information, I urge all those interested in understanding the journey of applied optics, greatest imaging tools. (Professor Martin Richardson ARPS De Montfort University, Leicester)

Johnston has targeted an important and fascinating topic. He masterfully interweaves strands of cultural meaning, technical preconditions, theoretical analysis, practical applications and economic ramifications. A must-read for cultural historians and, of course, for historians and sociologists of modern science and technology. (Klaus Hentschel)

Holograms: A Cultural History offers an engaging and highly readable history of the hologram from a totally different point of view. ... Johnston is an excellent storyteller... (Jan Baetens, Leonardo Reviews Quarterly)

Holograms have been in the public eye for over a half-century, but their influences have deeper cultural roots. No other visual experience is quite like interacting with holograms; no other cultural product melds the technological sublime with magic and optimism in quite the same way. As holograms have evolved, they have left their audiences alternately fascinated, bemused, inspired or indifferent. From expressions of high science to countercultural art to consumer security, holograms have represented modernity, magic and materialism. Their most pervasive impact has been to galvanise hopeful technological dreams.

Engineers, artists, hippies and hobbyists have played with, and dreamed about, holograms. This book explores how holograms found a place in distinct cultural settings. It is aimed at readers attracted to pop culture, visual studies and cultural history, scholars concerned with media history, fine art and material studies and, most of all, cross-disciplinary audiences intrigued about how this ubiquitous but still-mysterious visual medium grew up in our midst and became entangled in our culture.

This book explores the technical attractions and cultural uses of the hologram, how they were shaped by what came before them, and how they have matured to shape our notional futures. Today, holograms are in our pockets (as identity documents) and in our minds (as gaming fantasies and 'faux hologram' performers). Why aren't they more often in front of our eyes?