Archiving a creative history: holography for a future generation
Andrew T. Pepper · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2000
Acknowledging the past can stimulate the future. This paper discusses the problems involved with archiving the activities or artists and producers active in creative holography. A system exists, within the world of science and research, for knowledge to be archived via conferences, symposia and published proceedings. Artists often find verbalizing or quantifying their activities both difficult and inadequate. Yet their experience and research is a valuable resource for progression in the field. How will pioneering events, which have taken place of the last 50 years, be accessible for artists new to the medium of art using holography? What archives exist and in what form? As the interest in creative holography migrates from museums and centers dedicated to the subject, to more diverse venues, is there a chance that we will begin to lose valuable knowledge and experience? High-speed communication, the Internet and World Wide Web have revolutionized the dissemination of information. Is there still a case for geographically based archives or must we all resort to digital facsimiles?