(art )n Laboratory: The Equation of Terror (left panel: Chemical Terror)
Artist(s):
Title:
- The Equation of Terror (left panel: Chemical Terror)
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 1991
Medium:
- Stealth Negative PHS Cologram
Size:
- 24 x 130
Category:
Technical Information:
Hardware: AT & T Pixel Machine, SUN Ill, SUN IV, RAYLIB, PICLIB.
Software: Written by the artists.
Other Information:
(Art)N is a collaborative comprised of artists, computer technicians, mathematicians, and scientists who have developed a new 3D visualization medium called a “Phscologram” (pronounced skolo-gram) that mimics the effects of holography, although it is generated through the use of computers and four-color process printing. In the phscologram process, we start with multiple views (usually thirteen) of a scene, and slice them into very thin vertical colums with a computer. We then mix all the vertical columns from all the images to make a single image. This mixing process is called interleaving. We then laminate this image onto the back of a piece of plexiglass. Onto the front of the plexiglas, we laminate a barrier screen, which is a sheet of black film with thousands of vertical slits. These tiny slits allow you to see only one image at a time from any angle. Since your two eyes are separate, they are at different angles to the phscologram, and you see a different image in each eye. Once the images are in the computer, they are interleaved to form a computer tape. This is then output on a high-resolution prepress scanner. This scanner produces four black and white images, each of which corresponds to a single colour; these are used to expose transparent Cibachrome film. The scanner also prints the barrier screen. After the barrier screen and the film are laminated onto the opposite sides of the plexiglas, the finished work is displayed in a lightbox or sculpture.
