CNN’s Hologram: A Metaphor for a Hopeful Future

CNN decided to add another dimension to its election night coverage. Not the magic map nor the magic window. Nope. CNN went totally Star Wars with a news report in life-sized hologram* form.

It quickly brings to mind another line delivered by hologram: “Help me Obi Wan – you’re my only hope”, found in Episode IV: A New Hope. While the message itself in turn reminds us of Barack’s “The Audacity of Hope”, this does not qualify as metaphor, thus does not concern Observatory staff.

Instead we find significance in the other meaning that the hologram holds for us: a wonderous future. This was also seen on the Daily Show’s take on Obama’s win, as the cast walked out of the dark studio and into a bright future with animals, a clear blue sky, sunshine and a child.

In these images, we find that the first black American president is not taken as a sign of now, but as a sign that the future is now. It will be interesting to see if consumer spending follows this hopeful imagery. Maybe we’ll allow ourselves to think that this war can end.

*Note: On further inspection, this was not a true hologram, but a 2-D mockup. The impact at its time, however, remains.

Added: Al Jazeera published a collection of reactions by world leaders that supports the notion of “Obama is hope”. Well worth reading.