Holmes' "divorce of form from
matter" is not, primarily a stereoscopic function, it is a possible consequence of
photography. Stereography, with its additional third dimension enhances the reality aspect
of form. Once form is rendered in a pure state, uncontaminated by matter, it becomes
theoretically possible to inscribe it with meanings that are not attributable to the
object in reality. This is the basis of Jean Baudrillard's concept of post modernity, in
which the circulation of simulacra becomes a currency in and of itself. Homes appears, at
times to veer towards this position but, unlike Baudrillard, he regards this as a
liberating moment. Once the viewer has made a selection from the vast field of
photographic detail, he is able to fill the contigent form with ideas, narratives and
connections, like that of Holmes' speculation on the circumstances of James Russel in the
Aloway Kirk Scenario.
But there is another feature that prevents
the imaginary production, now concretised by form from, from becoming a meer figment of
the spectator's imagination. On the one hand there is the romantic production, while on
the other there is the guarenteed photographic evidence that the object of the romance is
real. They slide into a single whole like the two different sides of a stereograph drift
together to finally present a total reality. It is an image of the specator's making
stamped with the seal of truth. It is a small part of the image envisioned by the text,
but its substance (matter) has changed. It is no longer 'about' what the general view
tried to say.
In a second piece of futuristic thinking, Holmes
envisages a vast network of Image library's the archives of which are available to the
public. Image libraries, providing 'library footage,' exist today but they are largely
controlled by the institutions of photojournalism, advertising or television. The images
are constituted by appratus more like that of the diorama than of the stereoscope.
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