Jem wrote:Is the ISDH for professionals only? Reading Dinesh's post it sounds as though 'hobbyists' may be frowned upon
Sorry, didn't mean to imply that.
ISDH is the evolution/child of TJ (Tung Jeong) of Lake Forest College in Illinois. TJ set up the Lake Forest conferences every three years sometime in the 70's as a way of way of getting together display holographers who were not scientists or engineers. Back then, as far as I know, the only venue for holography was the SPIE conferences. These were a set of conferences meant for scientists and engineers in the optics areas and the content was highly technical. There was a subsection in SPIE for holography led by Steve Benton and the papers, in keeping with the technical nature of the conference, were quite technical. Over the years papers by display holographers for display holographers were presented, but still the main thrust of the conference was to keep other professionals and academics abreast of the latest research in corporations and universities. In fact after Benton died, TJ took over the helm of SPIE and there was a specific section on Art Holography in the SPIE program. TJ started the Lake Forest conferences as a venue for display holography, where the papers were far more informal and the whole atmosphere was far more informal. TJ also had the concept that the holographers would be kept together in a small town near a large city so that all the display holographers could mingle and get to know each other in a somewhat intimate surroundings. I have a picture of attendees in 1983 with a (very!) youthful Peter Miller, Bob Hess, Fred Unterseher. At any rate, the Lake Forest conferences were the antithesis of SPIE - informal and loose.
TJ always had the idea of expanding the conferences overseas (he came to London in about 84 and suggested a Scottish Castle in some remote area!). In 2000 TJ held the "Lake Forest" conference in Austria, in a small town called St Polten outside Vienna. However, it was no longer in Lake Forest Illinois so it could no longer be called the Lake Forest conference, so it became the International Symposium for Display Holographers (ISDH). The next one three years later was in Wales and the last one in 2009 was in China. The latest one is in MIT.
So, right now the SPIE conferences are getting quite technical again, with a lot of papers in digital and computerised holography and getting very expensive. This means that amateur and hobbyists don't go to SPIE and ISDH is specifically catered to the amateurs, hobbyists and anyone else involved in just display holography for it's own sake, rather than university research and corporate puffery.
There is, sadly, a feeling that if you're a PhD doing Deep and Meaningful research that's going to change the world, or you're a Major International Corporation that's going to be a Major Force in the holography marketplace, then you present your credentials at the Court of SPIE and garner a great deal of respect and kudos for the deep, fundamental insights into holography. This puts you above the hoi polloi of the sand table/ basement table set. Yes, there is a class structure! If you get the idea that I don't have a great deal of time for corporate CEO's in expensive suits or academic PhD's full of multi-syllabic techspeak, you wouldn't be far wrong!
At any rate, about five years ago, maybe less, there was a buzz in the holographic world that there were no new holographers coming into the holographic universe. This was brought up for discussion at the Holography Group meeting. If memory serves, Kaveh stood up and said that there needs to be more public showings of holography, as there used to be in the 70's and 80's. I tried to stand up and say that there was a growing set of hobbyists and amateurs (in the sense of holography not being a "day job") and that there was quite a lot of talent and some great work being produced by this crowd. Anyway, when I stood up, the moderator asked me what I was about to say. I replied, "Well, I want to expand what Kaveh just said and suggest that the growing and talented hobbyists crowd's work should be taken into account". The moderator (no names mentioned!) said, "Oh shut up and sit down Dinesh". So I did. Afterwards Bob Hess told me in the corridor outside that he agreed that the hobbyists were showing some pretty good work and they should be recognised by the mainstream. He mentioned that he would try and bring it up the following year. I wasn't there the following year, so I don't know if he did.
I hope, Jern, that this description shows that you would be welcome to ISDH, and that ISDH is not SPIE. It would be a great opportunity to meet other display holographers and , really, a lot of information is passed back and forth in a much more informal setting. Hope you and John will be there!