Holography and Research at DMU – a New Name is Added

The history of holographic research and practice at De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester, UK goes back many years to before the days of Profs Nick Philips and Hans Bjelkhagen, and more recently to Prof Martin Richardson’s activities in colour holography. We can now add to that list the name of Prof Christine White (Deputy Dean, Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities), who has taken over the direction of the Holography Lab at DMU.

Prof Christine White – Deputy Dean, Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities

Christine has worked in lighting, events and scene design for over 35 years, designing for live performance, film, events and art installations. She was the founding editor of Scene, which has been producing interrogations of scenographic works for over ten years. 

She took time out from working on a number of academic projects across the university to speak with the readers of Holography News®.

Q: Hello, Christine and thank you for making time for the readers of HN. You are a vastly experienced educator and administrator in the field of spatial arts. How do you see holography’s place within DMU?

A: For teaching and research, including the practice of holography and its applications, we have a fully equipped laboratory providing practice and experimentation in holography.

Holography is a technology that records and reproduces the distribution of light reflected and diffracted from objects. It can perfectly reproduce the image of an object in space and provides the observer with a 3D effect without a headset or eye fatigue. It is also a method of storing large amounts of information and has potential as a sustainable technology for the environment.

Q: There is a lot in the media about academic institutions having to control their budgets and how this might affect the openness to discovery research. How does that stack up against your view of research in holography?

A: Simply put, there is no question that should not be asked, and the team of supervisors and researchers embrace lighting technologies, photography, immersive learning, optics and imaging technologies, photography and scientific instrumentation, medical imaging techniques, art and design.

The field of holography is important for next generation content and fuses arts and technology, data and information storage and visualisation techniques.

Q: How do you and Martin arrange the administration of holography at DMU?

A: Prof Martin Richardson is Emeritus Professor of Holography and the Holography Lab is under my direction as part of the Design Unit DMU.

Martin’s research is taking him to the Science Museum in London next year where some of his work will be on display later in 2024 as part of the permanent exhibition and he is actively working in collaboration with us, so we can expect to see further exciting developments over the years.

Q: What are the projects currently running at DMU?

A: Some of the ongoing projects in the Holography Lab are ‘Schlieren Photography and its Transition into Digital Holography’, a project by PhD candidate Oliver Peacock; ‘Acoustic Holography’, a project by PhD candidate Daniel Blackmore; ‘Low-light holography without a laser’ a project led by PhD candidate Michael Wiltshire and ‘Reviewing and building the holographic pipeline’, a project led by PhD candidate Tal Stokes.

(Editor’s note: Oliver and Daniel presented research papers at The Holography Conference Online 2021 https://holographyconference.com/review-2021/)

There are also RGB camera and holographic printer developments as well as supporting investigations with telepresence, VR and AR techniques. We are also supporting some acoustic recording developments for radio waves.

More general explorations include use of holography for artistic explorations; development of 3D modelling for medical use; data storage; printer developments for reproducible images; low light holography; sustainable holographic practices. And we welcome applications from students wishing to study for a PhD.

We can offer investigations into holography packaging prototypes, experimentations in holography and we have some collaborations with business and other researchers. We have a fully equipped laboratory for education, content production, exhibition spaces, digital and analogue hologram production.

Q: Can you give us an indication of the next crop of students that will be coming out of holography at DMU?

A: We are particularly pleased with the work of Tove Dalenius who has also recently submitted her PhD. As part of her work, she has produced a full-parallax holographic work entitled ‘Emergence’. This work uses the latest holographic techniques to build 3D images. Tove has referred to anatomical MRI scans and through this work has demonstrated some potential future applications.

In this work Tove used a number of routes including 3D printable models. Her research also took her to reflect on scientific literature, anti-sexism literature, images from NASA and anatomy!

The work was exposed using silver halide emulsion with coherent light to generate a permanent 3D light sculpture. Tove worked for 10 years to perfect the technique working also with Yves Gentet who exposed the 15x20cm hologram using the latest high-resolution technology. The colours are outstanding and please do visit these sites to view the work.

You can read about the hologram here: http://tovedalenius.com/emergence and about the background behind the idea here: http://tovedalenius.com/background-story-emergence 

Q: As editor of HN, I constantly read articles that use the term ‘holography’ as a shorthand for heightened reality transmitted images.

A: Many people are now becoming more popularly aware of the term ‘holography’ and are thinking of it in a way which doesn’t match true holography. Martin stated very clearly in the June edition of HN in answer to the question: ‘what is holography?’, the answer ‘wavefront reconstruction. Why the debate?’. So, taking his simple answer and making this real for people we at DMU are offering a short course as an introduction ¹.

Q: Finally Christine, what’s next for holography at DMU?

A: What’s next…? 3D television technology, personal holograms, aerial tactile holograms, - but whatever is next, the future of holography at DMU is bright!

1 - Short Course - Introduction to Holography if you are interested then please make contact: [email protected]