HOLOGRAMS USE ILLUSION TO BEDAZZLE; HIGH-TECH ARTWORKS ON EXHIBIT THROUGH AUG. 30 IN SANTA PAULA.

Byline: P. Catherine Shanks Daily News Staff Writer

Fun and functional, the fine-art holography on display at the Santa Paula Union Oil Museum sheds new light on a state-of-the-art technology.

``Light Dreams'' features more than 20 works by holographers from throughout the United States and Europe.

``It's amazing how real and dramatic and lifelike the images look,'' said museum director Mike Nelson. ``It's like you're looking through a window into a box.''

Nelson said the show, on tour from the Midwest, explains how three-dimensional images - particularly holographic ones - are created.

Many of the unusual multidimensional artworks on exhibit are the products of a special form of laser photography involving two laser beams. One beam is reflected off the object being photographed onto highly light-sensitive film. The second beam strikes the film directly.

When the two beams interact, they either weaken or intensify one another. This interaction causes a series of fine lines to be recorded on the film. Then, when light is focused on the film, the fine lines bend the light and add depth and dimension to the image.

To the eye of the beholder, the photographic image appears as real as the genuine article. Other holographic forms represented in the exhibit rely only upon bent light to create their illusions of reality.

Four types of holograms are evident in ``Light Dreams'': transmission, reflection, embossed reflection and integral.

In transmission holograms, the image is illuminated by light from the side opposite the viewer. The light is bent as it passes through the image, toward the eye. Reflection holograms depend on reflected light and chemical emulsion to form the holographic image.

Embossed holograms use reflected light and etched ridges on the surface of the hologram to establish the illusion of depth. The integral process is responsible for some of the moving and changing images in the exhibit. Motion-picture film and standard photography are combined to create a hologram with a story line.

Nelson said museum visitors are both dazzled and dumbfounded by the variety of holograms. He has noted reactions of surprise, shock, amazement and wonder at the works of art, each accompanied by a written explanation of how it was created. Explanatory videos describe the holographic process in detail.

``The exhibit involves people in a very real physical sense,'' Nelson said. He highlighted a few of the more popular images: A coiled snake prepared to strike at the viewer. Children enjoy a holographic sequence featuring Dracula rising from the crypt and flashing his fangs. In still another image, a man smacks a light bulb with a hammer and the viewer witnesses the resulting spray of glass fragments.

One particularly popular image is that of a microscope and a computer chip. The viewer is aware of the chip only after looking through the microscope's lens. So effective is the image that one is inclined to lay hands on the missing microscope.

Other images in the show bring viewers face to face with a clown, and walk them past a bouquet of rapidly blooming daffodils.

In addition to the more creative aspects of holography, ``Light Dreams'' illustrates scientific applications and outlines current and future uses for the technique. Industry, aerospace and the military rely on holography for testing and product development, and scientists are exploring the use of holography for information storage.

Holography also has been employed aboard space shuttles. An image of the instrument panel is projected onto the windshield of the spacecraft, giving the pilot a more efficient means of monitoring equipment.

``Light Dreams'' runs through Aug. 30 and is free to the public. The Santa Paula Union Oil Museum is at 1001 E. Main St. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. For more information, call [phone].

P. Catherine Shanks is an arts and entertainment writer for the Daily News. Readers can write to her at P.O. Box 7797, Ventura, CA 93006. E-mail: ms(underline)communicationscompuserve.com.

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) ``Pierrot,'' by Edwina Orr, is one of more than 20 holographic artworks on exhibit at the Santa Paula Union Oil Museum through Aug. 30.

(2--Color) Ran in Simi and Conejo Editions only) ``Born Free (Lion Cubs),'' by Edwina Orr, snarls at the viewer with its incredibly lifelike imagery.

(3) (Ran in Simi and Conejo Edition only) Mike Nelson, director of the museum, sits in the gallery with some of the holograms on display.

Evan Yee/Daily News