Perry Hoberman has been fascinated with stereoscopic images ever since he was nine years old, when he experienced the 3D film The Mask (aka Eyes of Hell) at a Saturday afternoon matinee at his neighborhood movie theatre. Several decades later, he began incorporating stereoscopic images into his work as a visual artist, and he has continued to do so for nearly thirty years, producing numerous pictures, performances, installations and spectacles, as well as a variety of research projects. In this talk, Hoberman will give an overview of a number of these projects, with a special emphasis on stereoscopic perception, design, techniques and aesthetics. A thread running through all of Hoberman's work is an understanding of stereoscopic 3D as more than merely a display technology; it is instead seen as a technique of active perception and interactive experience. A common misconception is that stereoscopic space is inherently more 'realistic' - but in fact the most fascinating thing about it just might be its sheer artificiality. It is enough like everyday physical space to fool us momentarily, but it enchants us precisely because of its differences. Stereoscopic 3D display technologies are typically used to re-create, reproduce, and represent the three-dimensional world of objects and places, and stereo 3D is thus understood as a technology that supports a kind of spectacular realism. But just as there are many other kinds of 2D images (for instance: stylized, graphical, nonrepresentational or abstract images), there are other, alternative approaches to stereoscopic 3D, and in fact stereoscopy is the only way that many kinds of images can be experienced three-dimensionally.

Perry Hoberman is an installation and performance artist who has exhibited widely in museums and galleries throughout the USA and Europe. Hoberman works with a variety of new media and old, worn-out media, and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations. He is an Associate Research Professor in the Interactive Media Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, where he is currently heading up an initiative to establish a school-wide Center for Stereoscopic Imaging.