Dieter Jung
Motion in Space - Space in Motion
1987
- Artist / Artist group
- Dieter Jung
- Title
- Motion in Space - Space in Motion
- Year
- 1987
- Category
- holography, Holographic stereogram
- Material / Technique
- 4 computer-generated holographic stereograms, 4 pedestals
- Dimensions / Duration
- 112 x 140 cm each
- Collection
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
- Description
Four transparent panes are mounted on plinths in the exhibition space, placed next to one another in front of a wall. If you stand directly in front of one of the rectangular panes, a hologram appears, seemingly consisting of geometric color fields which overlap and result in an optical illusion of three-dimensionality. If you begin to move, the static hologram will also seem to shift, with the fields of color turning on their axis. The visitor’s own speed of movement thus also determines the speed at which the color fields rotate. “Stand in front of a hologram and try to do nothing at all—it’s impossible.”[1]
The process involves a computer animation not based on photographs. Previously, real objects were photographed for use in holograms, a process which required stable and consistent lighting in the studio. This process was superseded by a new technology of virtual computer-based animations, developed by Dieter Jung between 1985 and 1989. He worked in close cooperation with scientists at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CVAS), led by Otto Piene, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.
Moreover, »Motion in Space—Space in Motion« evinces clear links to the light artists of the 1950s. Jung’s exploration of the principle of rotation references key figures in the Zero artist collective, Otto Piene and Heinz Mack. His moving holograms thematize the process of perception and also facilitate the experience of virtual space through movement—which Jung describes as the fourth dimension.[2]
[1] Dieter Jung, »Im Rausche des Lichts: Dieter Jung im Gespräch über Holografie und das ZKM | Karlsruhe,« in »Das ZKM Karlsruhe: die Anfänge der Zukunft,« ed. Rolf Funck, Michael Heck, and Peter Weibel (Paderborn: Fink, 2014), 214–24, here 221. Translated here from the German.
[2] Victoria Lu, »Flying Colors, Moments of Seeing: The World of the Techno-Art of German Artist Dieter Jung,« in »Flying Colors, Moments of Seeing: Dieter Jung,« ed. Lynne Ni, exhib. cat. (Shenzhen: The OCT Art & Design Gallery, 2010), 101.
