It is well known that in order to reconstruct a holographic image with spatial accuracy it is necessary to reply the hologram from the same distance, angle and use same wavelength in which the hologram was recorded, however sometimes this is not desirable. Features such as the unavoidable blurring caused by the spectral smearing of white light the further it travels from the hologram film plane and the change in size of adjacent image elements when reconstructed in various parts of the replay white light’s spectrum can all contribute as positive elements of an artistic composition. Similarly the reconstruction of white light holograms with replay sources which include a high proportion of wavelengths which do not match the original laser wavelengths and laser transmission holograms played back in one or multiple wavelengths differing from their original recording wavelength, which thereby introduce a high level of noise, can also provide interesting effects. This paper investigates these ideas though looking at examples of recent art works by Paula Dawson which exploit the visual properties which arise from chromatic aberration, blur and spatial distortion eg. ANN rainbow stereogram from computer graphics, Luminous Presence, reflection Synfography and A Hologram [for Mr Spielberg] optical laser transmission.
