The Hologram Museum

One thing I loved more than ‘going to the amusements’ as a kid was when they had something other than the typical 2p machines (and fruit machines at the back for the adults, and kiddy rides for the little ones).

One of these was the Hologram Museum. I loved it. You were invited in by Marilyn Monroe and by your own reflection which reached out to hold your hand as if you were meeting yourself! Then you were to climb further up into the tower.

There were so many weird and wacky holograms there. A hologram was something that didn’t  really and truly exist, but you could see them. So you would reach out to touch them. Only to find they were not actually there. Spooky!

The music in a place like that was all spooky and loud. Instrumental. Probably made of synthesisers but it just sounded like it was out of this world.

There were portraits, faces of people. Elvis. Marilyn. Famous people like that or just random faces. Or the faces of animals. All of them seeming to interact with you and to watch you. It was all huge and over my head. A light bulb which you could stick your hand into (might be my imagination but it really did feel warm in the centre?)

It felt like you were stepping into the future. This is what the future felt like. Fascinating but also a bit spooky.

I discovered the Hologram Museum one day when I was at the Amusements. I asked my dad ‘what does hologram mean?’ He couldn’t really explain. To tell the truth, it is difficult to explain, I have found it hard here & I assume you’re 13+ and not a little kid like I was. It almost hinges on philosophy or at least the internet – what is it to be there but not to be there, simultaneously?

There was also a TON of laser balls, balls of light sparking off into different directions. These were real glass (or Perspex idk?) You could touch them and they would react to your touch.

And then as was typical of a museum where everything was there and not there at once? It disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. We just went there one day to find it all barred off. It has been like that ever since. I think it’s a shame. Either bring back the holograms or make something new in its place instead! 

Feel like this is much more our Y2K idea of 'cyberspace' than the internet ended up being. And the more I look back at it, the more it spooks me but fascinates me at the same time.

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