Drawing in Space: A holographic system to simultaneously draw images on a flat surface and in three-dimensional space.
Department of Fine Art, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
Pepper built a holography studio in the basement of the Fine Art Department, originally on the London Road campus, where developmental research was carried out. Works for the doctoral submission were made during an Artist-in-Residence at the Museum of Holography, New York, and in collaboration with the Light Fantastic Gallery, London, during the early 1980s.
Practice-based
Submitted in 1988, it was the first Fine Art Doctorate to be awarded by the University of Reading and is considered an early example of a practice-based submission by an artist accepted by a university, where practical work was admissible as the ‘thesis’ for this doctoral degree.
Artworks as Doctorate
The submission was made up of a specially constructed ‘file box’, bound in the university thesis colours (used for text-based submissions), containing nine holograms (two framed), a spotlight to view them, and an illustrated 108-page bound text outlining the development of the work as a creative research initiative.
A copy of the submission was originally acquired by the US-based Rosemary H. Jackson private collection, and later donated to the MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, upon her death.
It was officially accessioned by the museum in June 2025.
Works in the submission:
Line Addition
Plane Addition
Point Addition
Face to Vase
Drawing Series
Plates 1,2,3,4,5
When, towards the end of the research period, I was asked to suggest an external examiner for the PhD, Stephen Benton was high on the list.
His engagement with holography, support for artists and his own visual work in the field meant he had significant creative, cultural, and scientific credentials. I thought, if I’m going to fail (and there was a likelihood as there were no models for this type of submission in Fine Art at the University), then I should fail spectacularly.
The viva voce was intense, as was the wait for the decision and the call back into the examination room for the result.
The submission passed without adjustments or corrections and the degree was conferred in the autumn of 1989 in the Great Hall at the University.
Being awarded this degree, and the experience gained while carrying out the research, gave me the opportunity, several years later, to act as an external examiner for some of the key PhD submissions in creative holography, light and trans-media research.
The submission was made to the University in November 1988.
Examiners:
Professor Martin Froy, Head of Fine Art,
University of Reading, UK.
Professor Harold Hopkins, Chair in Optics, Department of Physics,
University of Reading, UK.
Dr John Macdonald, Programme Director for the MSc and Applied and Modern Optics, Department of Physics,
University of Reading, UK.
External examiner:
Dr Stephen Benton*,
Head of the MIT Program in Media Arts & Sciences, Cambridge, USA.
* Stephen Benton was the inventor of the rainbow hologram (Benton hologram) and a pioneer in medical imaging and fine arts holography.
He worked with many artists internationally and taught holographic techniques and Benton Math, in workshops specifically for artists.
In 1996 he became head of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, founded in 1967 by György Kepes, which supported artists at the threshold of art and technology.
