Report of the nations: Belgium
Belgium is probably the most productive holographic nation, insofar the production of silver halide material is concerned, and silver halide is still the workhorse for a very large number of holographic applications, both in display and technical fields.
Wellspring with dying leaves
As was already noted and repeated to saturation by a number of prominents, big is beautiful. Therefore it was tried to make a monumental (biggest in the world?) hologram mosaic, that, combined with properly aligned mirrors, would provide the impression of infinity to naive onlookers. Due to the cost of such a project and the financial situation of Belgian universities, a maquette was first made and presented to a number of potential sponsors. After a couple of years, we were lucky enough to be able to produce the real thing, i.e. one quarter of an octogonal fountain pit of about 3 by 3 metres (10x10 feet) surrounded by stairs. The walls were provided with mirrors, two of them, in front of the spectators, providing a kaleidoscopic effect, three smaller ones giving rise to a repetitive reflection. The bottom of the well was a Denisyuk hologram mosaic of leaves; by some optical tricks, it was tried to simulate the effect of shivering water surfaces. The evolution of the proj ect with time, the practical problems involved, the final realisation, the advantage and the shortcomings of the presentation during a technology fair will be discussed.
Carnival of Shame: Doctorow and the Rosenbergs
“Literature can turn language, for the moment at least, against the sentence of death.” Considering the national and international furor provoked by the sensational early 1950's “atom spy” trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, one may be surprised that these dramatic and traumatic events have not inspired more literary artistry than they have. But a prominent playwright, Arthur Miller, did write The Crucible (produced in 1953) in part as a response to the rabid McCarthyism of that era, and two highly regarded novelists in a later decade composed ambitious novels drawing directly on the Rosenberg affair: E. L. Doctorow in The Book of Daniel (1971) and Robert Coover in The Public Burning (1977). In 1987, Sidney Lumet produced the little noticed film Daniel, based on Doctorow's novel, and still more recently Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Angels in America, with Ethel Rosenberg as one of the characters, has been playing on Broadway.