"When Maria Callas appeared on stage . . . on Sunday
night, she looked a little pale, a little spectral." That is how Anthony Tommasin (writing in the
New York Times) described witnessing a hologram performance of the diva at
Lincoln Center. The real Callas has been
dead since 1977. It used to be that the
only hologram we had to contend with was Princess Leia seeking help from Obi-Wan Kenobi. There is now a new phenomena
to utilize this technology to create concert performances of deceased stars. To date there have been hologram performances
from Tupac Shakur, Michael Jackson, Ronnie James Dio and now Maria Callas. Mojo reports that a hologram Roy Orbison is
about to tour the United Kingdom and that the Frank Zappa estate is about to
send Frank out on tour with some of his old band members performing live.
I find this
really creepy for the most part. It is
interesting that Tommasin does not completely dismiss the Callas experience
stating "it was amazing yet also absurd, strangely captivating, yet also gimmicky and ridiculous," going on to state that opera fans tend to dwell in the
past thus indicating that this sort of performance might appeal to them more
than other audiences. My worry is that
as our contemporary heroes age and die off will the hologram industry rise to
fill the void. Could Paul McCartney be
preparing a hologram version of himself to send out on tour? - - - Probably. Will the hologram develop artificial
intelligence (wait that's another blog).
All of this
made me begin to wonder about the rights that artists traditionally give up
when signing record contracts. Usually
there is some limited assignment of name, image and likeness rights and the
rights to control video recordings made during the term but could this be
considered to be a grant of rights that would encompass holographic images of
the artist long after the term (and the artist) expires? Obviously the artists who have leverage don't
need to be concerned with these boilerplate clauses necessarily but this is
something that is certainly going to be on my radar going forward.
