News

May 2024

On the UNESCO International Day of Light, 16th May, Dr Tove Noorjahaan Dalenius was delighted to be present at the private view for the exhibition Analogue virtual worlds: Display holography at the dawn of cyberspace at Gallery 286 in London, UK. The focus of the exhibition is holographic works dating from between 1988 – 1992, selected from the Jonathan Ross Collection by Sydney Koke.

The exhibition features DMU Modern Holography PhD alumna Dr Pearl John’s piece ‘Kirsti’, DMU Modern Holography Professor emeritus Martin Richardson’s ‘In a Dreamlike State’ and other highlights.

It is of course impossible to capture the true expression of holograms through 2D photography, but Dalenius hope that the below images gives a flavour of the evening.

Photocredit for image of Ross and Koke Pearl John, other photographs Dalenius 2024.

DMU Modern Holography alumni PhD Dr Pearl John and postdoctoral researcher Dr Isabel Azevedo are showing works at the Dados Negros holography exhibition Paradigma Holográfico, Villanueva de los Infantes, Spain.
Photocredit: Pearl John

Dr Tove Dalenius attended the launch of ‘Robotic Vision and Virtual Interfacings: Seeing, Sensing, Shaping’ to which DMU Modern Holography PhD alumna Dr Pearl John has contributed the chapter ‘When Robots Ignore Us: The Affective Impact of Robotic Artwork and Development of Drone Art’. The evening was opened by editors Lucy Eldridge and Nina Trivedi. Meg Rahaim held a thought-provoking talk about seeing through the “vision” of Google Earth. As well as enjoying interacting with Nicola Plant’s VR demo, Dalenius captured John’s conversations about post-mesolithic scanned artefacts with Ian Dawson and Paul Reilly. Thank you to all organisers and the Dana Studio at the London Science Museum.
Photocredit: Tove Dalenius

March 2024

Modern Holography Professor emeritus Martin Richardson captures the documentation of his large collection of holograms donated to the Science Museum in London.
Photocredit: Martin Richardson.

January 2024

Hans Bjelkhagen visited the De Montfort University Holography laboratory.
Photocredit: Tal Stokes

September 2023

Tove Noorjahaan Dalenius is appointed as Lecturer in Applied Holography at De Montfort University’s Arts, Design and Humanities faculty.

April 2023

Tove N Dalenius attends the private view for the Real/Virtual holography exhibition at Gallery 286, London. Holograms from the 1970s-2000s, selected from the Jonathan Ross Collection by Sydney Koke.

March 2023

Modern Holography’s Tove Noorjahaan Dalenius will present the hologram ‘Emergence’ at Women in Tech 2023 at Stockholm Waterfront in Sweden.

February 2023

Tove Noorjahaan Dalenius was welcomed to exhibit the art hologram ‘Emergence’ by The Women’s Building in San Francisco.

January 2023

Tove Noorjahaan Dalenius presents her paper ‘Full-parallax digital holography, anatomy, and art’ at the Practical Holography XXXVIII: Displays, Materials, and Applications conference at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco. Chair for Session 2: Artistic Applications of Holography was Professor Seung-Hyun Lee from Kwangwoon University, Republic of Korea. Tove also displayed the DWDH hologram ‘Emergence’ at the conference and during the Holography Technical Event at the InterContinental hotel together with holograms by Phillipe Gentet.

Read more about the hologram ‘Emergence’ here: http://tovedalenius.com/emergence
And more about the background the background of the work of art here: http://tovedalenius.com/background-story-emergence

September 2022

We would like to congratulate the Center for Holographic Arts and the Cornell Creative Arts Centre on the new exhibition: Holograms: Dimensions in Light. The show, curated by Linda Law, opens 16/9/2022 and closes 31/10/2022. Kingston, New York State, US.

March 2022
Vivian Amos and Tove Dalenius of the Modern Holography group attended the opening of Ioana Pioaru’s exhibition Maximalism – a solos group show at the 286 Gallery in London. Ioana’s unique technic for creating “Holographic sculptural drawings” involves delineation in virtual reality, and rendering single-parallax representations which are exposed on photoresist material by Geola. The show is on 1-22 March 2022.

January 2022
DMU alumni and Modern Holography member Dr Pearl John has contributed a chapter to the recently published “The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research” edited by Craig Vear. The chapter “The Impact of Public Engagement with Research on a Holographic Practice-based Study” is included in a section focusing on Practitioner Voices.
ABSTRACT: This chapter will introduce my field of practice as an artist working with holography and lenticular imaging and provide an overview of my research project. Drawing from my experience and my own development as a researcher, I will discuss lessons learnt during my research journey, aiming to answer the questions: In what ways is the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) beneficial to the research process? And how could supervisors make better use of the framework to assist researchers with their development?

November 2021

The Holography Conference Online (THCO) comprised of four sessions, with presentations, panel discussions and debates spread over two days. The DMU Holographic Research Group PhD students Daniel Blackmore and Oliver Peacock presented papers.

October 2020
Professor Martin Richarson speaks with The Telegraph’s Technology Reporter Morgan Meaker.
The race to achieve science-fiction standard holograms
The holographic resurrection of Robert Kardashian has re-ignited a new debate about what is and isn’t worthy of the over-hyped term.
“Despite the hype – Kardashian West is well-known for her ability to put herself at the centre of online conversation – holography experts were quick to issue a reality check: this was not a hologram. “They’re using a video projection which is slightly out of view,” says Martin Richardson, head of holographic research at De Montfort University. “And it’s a reflection of the video projection. So you actually see the real world like a giant augmented reality system.”“
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/10/31/race-achieve-science-fiction-standard-holograms/

July 2020
DMU alumni and Modern Holography member Dr Pearl John has contributed an article to the journal “Holography—A Critical Debate within Contemporary Visual Culture” edited by Andrew Pepper. The Silent Researcher Critique: A New Method for Obtaining a Critical Response to a Holographic Artwork.

February 2020
DMU holography expert on working with David Bowie.
De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) Professor of Modern Holography Martin Richardson tells us about befriending and working with legendary artist David Bowie.
https://youtu.be/bXVMoUmA5aQ

January 2020
BBC – 16th January
See BBC interview with Professor Martin Richarson about the unseen David Bowie footage.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leicestershire-51125250/david-bowie-unseen-footage-released-by-de-montfort-university

January 2020
BBC – 8th January
“Lost footage of David Bowie will be shown for the first time since it was shot in 1998.
The 30 minutes of experimental film had been stored in a chest at Leicester’s De Montfort University for many years.
It was shot by friend and collaborator Prof Martin Richardson, who used it to produce a hologram for an album insert.
The footage is of the Ziggy Stardust performer walking towards the camera, doing various poses.
Prof Richardson used the 35mm film to create a moving hologram of Bowie, which featured as an insert in his 1999 album Hours.
The holography academic went to New York to film Bowie in his studio.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-51040616

January 2020
We would like to congratulate De Montfort University Modern Holography’s Dr Tine Barkman on her graduation.

September 2019
We congratulate PhD alumna Dr Pearl John on securing a Talent Developing Grant from A Space Art. She is working with Post Doc researcher Dr Vivian Amos, who is sharing examples of the latest developments in colour holography.

August 2019
The group has moved to join the Faculty of to Art, Design and Architecture at De Montfort University, to re-establish and sustain our efforts within the creative sector, whilst maintaining a strong technical and scientific grounding.

July 2019
We would like to congratulate De Montfort University Modern Holography’s Dr Pearl John on her graduation.

June 2019
We would like to congratulate De Montfort University Modern Holography Ph.D. researcher Tine Barkmann on the successful defence of her Thesis on the 18th June 2019!

March 5, 2019
Visiting Professor Stanislovas (Stas) Zacharovas gave the presentation: HOLOGRAMS IN OUR DIGITAL AGE at De Montfort University. Stas’ fascinating lecture explained the principles behind 3-D holographic printing using sets of images made from digital video. The end result is a ‘glasses-free’ three-dimensional scene in true-colour and animation. The talk looked at the creative application of these holograms together with the science behind the technology.

In addition to DMU students and staff, David Brotherton-Ratcliffe and Tal Stokes from Geola UK, Jeff Blyth from Cambridge and Hans Bjelkhagen from Wrexham Glyndŵr University were also attending the lecture.

March 2019
Dr Stanislovas Zacharovas will give the presentation “Holograms in Our Digital Age”  at De Montfort University. Tuesday 5^th March 2019. from 1.00 – 2.00pm. Queens Building, Lecture Theatre 1.12.

Zacharovas is a Holography and Optical High-Security expert with over 20 years experience in the field. He wrote the much revered “Practical Holography, Fourth Edition” together with Graham Saxby. (2015, ISBN 9781482251579). In September 2018 he received 2018 the Denisyuk Medal for a life work in holography from the Russian Optical Society.

February 2019
De Montfort University Modern Holography post-doc researcher Dr. Vivian Amos is presenting the paper “A holographic representation of three-dimensional J₉ space” at the Practical Holography XXXIII: Displays, Materials, and Applications conference at the SPIE Photonics West OPTO in San Francisco.
The Modern Holography group would like to send our good wishes to all presenters and participants.

December 2018
We would like to congratulate De Montfort University Modern Holography Ph.D. researcher Pearl John on the successful defence of her Thesis on the 19th December 2018!

November 2018
De Montfort University Modern Holography Post-Doc researcher Dr Vivian Amos attended the Reconnaissance – The Holography Conference 2018 in Minsk, Belarus.

October 2018
We would like to congratulate De Montfort University Modern Holography Ph.D. researcher Amani Althagafi on the successful defence of her Thesis.

July 2018
We would like to congratulate De Montfort University Modern Holography’s Dr Vivian Amos on his graduation.

June 2018
The Modern Holography group from De Montfort University presented holograms and academic papers at the 11th International Symposium of Display Holography ISDH2018 in Aveiro, Portugal. The group was represented both in the Art in Holography: Light, Space & Time exhibition at Aveiro City Museum and in the Technical exhibition at the University of Aveiro.

Download full scientific programme here.

June 2018
Leonardo Day celebration at ISDH2018
Leonardo’s Executive Editor Roger Malina presented at the art/science/technology journal Leonardo’s 50th Birthday celebration in Aveiro, together with Modern Holography Ilumnae Pearl John and Isabel Azevedo.
ISDH2018: Holography Symposium Leonardo Day
During his keynote speech Malina stated that Holography was still an ’emergent art form’ in 2018, with more research in the field welcomed by the international art/science/technology community.
Roger Malina’s ISDH presentation Power Point.

April 2018
DMU researcher wins national recognition for innovative glasswork with holograms
De Montfort University Modern Holography Ph.D. researcher Charlotte Wilkinson is creating a pioneering way to incorporate holograms into her glass sculptures to produce truly groundbreaking works of art. Her creations have been recognised at the British Craft Trade Fair, the biggest of its kind in the UK, where she was named Craft and Design Magazine’s ‘Best Newcomer’. The award cited Charlotte’s innovative work with holograms as well as the overall quality of her craftsmanship, the presentation of her work and her business acumen.
Craft and Design Magazine

March 2018
Professor Hans I. Bjelkhagen generously donated his life long collection of Lippmann papers, books, cameras and photographs to the De Montfort University Holographic Archive.

March 2018
Professor Hans I. Bjelkhagen presented the seminar Lippmann Photography – The True Colour of Photography at De Montfort University.
“Gabriel Lippmann invented the process of interference colour photography, also known as interferential photography, or Lippmann photography, in the years 1891-1894.”  

December 2017
We would like to congratulate De Montfort University Modern Holography Ph.D. researcher Vivian Amos on the successful defence of his Thesis.

November 2017
Launch of The Hologram by De Montfort University Modern Holography Professor Martin J. Richardson and John D. Wiltshire’s The Hologram: Principles and Techniques explores the various types of holograms in their multiple forms and explains how to create and apply the technology. The Hologram is a well-designed instructive tool, involving three distinct disciplines: physics, chemistry, and graphic arts. This vital resource offers a guide to the development and understanding of the recording of materials, optics and processing chemistry in holography.
ISBN-13: 978-1119088905

July 2017
Modern Holography and the Imaging and Displays Research Group was represented at the Leicester Business School “Beyond Business as Usual” event.

February 2017
De Montfort University Modern Holography researchers Yin-Ren Chan, Tove Noorjahaan Dalenius and Vivian Amos present the papers and holograms at the Practical Holography XXXI: Materials and Applications conference at the SPIE Photonics West OPTO in San Francisco.

Ph.D. researchers Yin-Ren, Vivian and Tove visit artist John Kaufman’s holographic studio in Point Reyes. 

January 2017
Members of the UK holography community gathered at Jonathan Ross’s Gallery 286 in London for a memorial exhibition and party in honour of the late leading holography artist Margaret Benyon. Vivian Amos, Tine Barkmann and Tove Dalenius from the DMU research team were present.
Margaret Benyon Memorial Exhibition.

2016
Royal Photographic Society bursary for DMU holography archive
An important archive of holograms and related materials has been given a boost with the award of a £6,000 Royal Photographic Society bursary. A large archive of research materials gathered by Professor Sean Johnston, a physicist and historian of holography at the University of Glasgow, was donated to the DMU collection. The archive included correspondence and interview recordings with hundreds of seminal figures in the field such as Emmett Leith at the University of Michigan and Yuri Denisyuk of the Vavilov Institute in St Petersburg. Prof Johnston’s archive also contained reminiscences, photographs, exhibition catalogues, unpublished documents and holograms from holographic artists, engineers, scientists, business people, enthusiasts and collectors.
About DMU – Holography Archive

December 2015
Professor Sean F. Johnston’s book Holograms: A Cultural History is published. (ISBN-13: 978-0198712763)
“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. “

Professor Martin Richardson provided holograms from his collection for the book, and images of transmission holograms for the book were captured in the De Montfort University holography laboratory.

June 2015
The 10th International Symposium on Display Holography, ISDH-2015 takes place in St Petersburg, Russia. De Montfort University Modern Holography Professor Martin Richardson is overall Art Chair and Ph.D. researcher Pearl John chairs the session “History, Culture, and Education”. Ph.D. researcher Vivian Amos presents his paper ‘An Interactive Holographic Display System’.

February 2015
Launch of Professor Martin Richardson’s book The Prime Illusion: Modern Holography in the Age of Digital Media in Portuguese translation: A ilusão perfeita: holografia moderna na nova era dos meios digitais. Translation by Modern Holography’s Maria Isabel Azevedo. (ISBN: 978-989-26-1125-9)

June 2014
Professor Martin Richardson showcases Art Holography at the GREAT festival of Creativity in Istanbul.

The international festival celebrates creativity and innovation through a unique partnership between the British Government and major organisations including the university, and is part of the GREAT Britain campaign promoting the UK as a world-class destination for trade, tourism, investment and education – now active in 144 countries. DMU was selected by 10 Downing Street to represent British education at the GREAT festivals around the world. The university will took part alongside fellow GREAT partners: the world-leading companies of HSBC, BBC Worldwide, Jaguar Landrover, PwC, IHG and British Airways. British Chamber of Commerce Turkey. UK Government: Foreign & Commonwealth Office report.

November 2013
Bryan May visits De Montfort University to talk about his research into Victorian stereoscopic cards. He also makes a hologram with Professor Martin Richardson.

October 2013
Professor Martin Richardson and Dr. Simon Rees of the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development’s (IESD) successfully bid for Higher Education Innovation Fund: Proof-of-principle (PoP) Study funding for a Holographic Data Visualisation project instigated by IOCT masters student Tove Dalenius. Tove and Simon develop ideas around holographic visualisation of solar irradiation data and computational fluid dynamics data during a 6 month project.