Participation in the Symposium ISDH2012 and the Holography Exhibition at the MIT Media Lab

The 9th International Symposium on Display Holography (ISDH2012) took place this year (25-29 June) in Boston Massachussets at the impressive top floor of the new extension of the MIT Media Lab and the Hellenic Institute of Holography could not miss being present in this special gathering.

The origins of ISDH date back to 1982 when Professor Tung H. Jeong organized the first such meeting at Lake Forest College in Illinois, USA and since its conception it has been a unique event unlike any other scientific conference. Rather, it is one that synthesizes history, education, art, science, and economic developments that involve holography. A unique purpose of ISDH, beside the obvious exchange of information on display holography, is also to engender a sense of community among participants. In this spirit, participants were invited on the first day to present their reports on the current state of holography in their part of the world and for Greece, Alkis Lembessis, HiH director, undertook this role by presenting his Report from the Nations: Greece' whilst -at a special session of the Symposium- all 'departed' holographers since the last ISDH meeting in 2009 were commemorated.

As on earlier occasions, numerous scientific papers from the most authoritative authors on a wide spectrum of display-holography-related areas were presented in a very efficient (typically American) manner indicated by the meetings' Agenda, from which we naturally focus on the HiH contribution in the works of this Symposium entitled

"A transportable system for the in situ recording of color Denisyuk holograms of Greek cultural heritage artifacts in silver halide panchromatic emulsions and an optimized illuminating device for the finished holograms".

We cannot refrain from noting the various praises and positive comments received from the participating holographers -some of the most reknown individuals in this area- refering to the results of HiH works. Explicit compliments such as 'you are bringing a "new wave" in display holography'  or ...

 ...  'at last, your approach with mobile camera and tunable illuminant is bringing the 'missing links' to display holography' simply confirm the correct direction that HiH set out in the beginning of the experimental development of its systems whilst -at the same time- re-affirm the position of Andreas SARAKINOS among 'world-class holographers'.   

The innovative concept of HiH to incorporate its Optical Clones (OptoClones^TM) of artworks, originated in situ with the use of its transportable holographic Z_Lab, into the integrated  documentation program (Hyper-Documentation) offered by the private company ArtGnomon proved to be also of particular interest. The mobile services laboratory of this company is based on proprietary state-of-the art equipment developed by FORTH-Hellas of Crete as well as on the unique applied expertise and know-how of its scientific partners in the analysis and diagnosis of cultural works of art.

Equally, the recent technical developments of HiH, such as its transportable holographic camera Z3^RGB  and the intelligent LED illuminant  Η_oL_oF_oS of 3^rd generation, attracted attention and were positively commented (e.g. by Prof. Hans Bjelkhagen in his overview presentation) not only on their innovative design but also on their functional way of operation and the derived results.

On the opportunity of ISDH2012 being organized at its premises, the MIT Museum opened in its Galleries a dedicated holograms exhibition titled 'The Jeweled Net: Views of Contemporary Holography' featuring a limited number of approx. 20 selected pieces of individual holographic works. This unique show is expected to be seen by the world audience that visits the MIT Museum over a significant period of time until the end of Sep 2013 and it is a special privilege for the Hellenic Institute of Holography that our unique hologram with theme 'the Chios Epitaph' has been selected to go on show by the organizers' international committee of holography experts. 

Further information on the symposium can be found at the website of the Organizers whilst in due course all presented papers will be electronically published through an OpenAccess web page in their scientific format version. In addition, all MS-Powerpoint presentations have been recorded on video and are already accessible on internet (for re-play or download in MP4 format) through River Valley TV, thanks to a kind offer by Kaveh Bazargan, together with some professional photos taken by Mark Diamond appearing on The Holographer. Don't forget to post your comments, if any !

At the same time, some amateur pictures from this meeting can be seen at our relevant Gallery page whereas the visualized presentation of HiH in PDF (2.40 Mb) may be downloaded from the following link:

A transportable system for the in situ recording of color Denisyuk holograms in silver halide panchromatic emulsions and an optimized illuminating device: applications in the documentation of Greek Cultural Heritage artifacts.

The next meeting of ISDH is scheduled for June 2015 and HiH (in coordination with Prof. C. Fotakis, President  of FORTH) have invited its organization in Heraklieon of Crete. The decision of the Organizing Committee is expected to be reached by the end of 2013 though a good majority of the usual participants have already expressed a positive inclination to this possibility as compared to the alternative options (Japan-Hokaido and S. Korea-Seoul). 

Dieter Jung, Αndreas Sarakinos

A. Pepper, Α. Lembessis, A. Muth

Αndreas Sarakinos, Paula Dawson

Watch this space for more exciting news in the field of Display Holography.