6 min 8

The BMFAC 2010: An Audience of Winners!

A small revelation took place in the comments section of Terry’s recent posting, Diaries 2.  Terry had suggested, reasonably enough I think, that since there appeared to be no information or reaction anywhere on the…
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2 min 2

Tis the season for a movie, or two…

Yes, the fractal art world has its Christmas movie offerings just like Hollywood does.  Well, actually, most of these were posted long before the holiday season started, but I just haven’t gotten around to (re)posting…
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8 min 0

Color: The Fourth Dimension

From time to time while browsing fractal art on the internet I’ve seen images that greatly impressed me and yet when subjecting them to a second, more critical evaluation, found myself unable to defend them…
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7 min 0

One-eyed, vs Cross-eyed, Fractal Art

How old is 3D imagery? In case you’re wondering, and you’re also stupid, 3D imagery has been around as long as humans have had two eyes.  It’s pretty common actually and goes under the generic…
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3 min 2

2011: The Year of the Fractal Desktop?

In addition to the fractal art world, I also try to follow events in the Linux desktop world.  I’ve noticed some similarities, particularly with respect to the perennial question asked by both fractalists and Linux-ists: …
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2 min 0

Are atomic explosions a type of fractal art?

Yep.  They sure are! See if you can guess what fractal program made this one: Oh.  You guessed wrong.  But that’s understandable.  You see, the entire fractal generator that made the explosion was destroyed in…
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2 min 1

Cellular Automata Escapes from the lab!

~Click images to view on original site~ Doesn’t this just freak you out?  I’ve actually held a few seashells like this in my own hand and seeing that computer art pattern on such a natural…
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4 min 1

A Journey to the Center of the Mandelbox

A new and wondrous discovery in the land of 3D fractals has been made by a veteran Fractalforum member, Erp Trafassel (trafassel). In response, Daniel White (twinbee), who sparked the original 3D fractal quest for…
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5 min 1

ASCII: Wild Fractal Typewriter

A new fractal program (alpha version) yFractalExplorer. It's real-time rendering abilities include displaying the image as color ascii art. A couple other examples of animated fractal ascii art which begs the question: "Is fractal land…
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6 min 2

Mixed Media Fractals

Although some fractals today can look extremely realistic, I find they don't usually mix well with photographic elements. Computer-made imagery just seems to clash --aesthetically-- with imagery from the real world. But just recently I…
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4 min 14

Is it too late to patent your fractals?

In a previous post, Can you really copyright an Ultra Fractal parameter file?, I questioned the validity of copyright protection for parameter files.  I based this on my observation that what parameter files do is…
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4 min 2

Max Ernst: Fractal Art’s Imaginary Link

Although the works of Max Ernst (1891-1976) might exhibit a pronounced frontal brow on their foreheads, closer examination reveals startling similarities between them and the contemporary fractal art that now inhabits the same landscapes they…
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2 min 1

My Oort Cloud Vacation

~ Click on images to view full-size on original site ~ In defense of Valerie, tohu777’s image fooled me too.  I thought it was an art installation out in some desert somewhere. Even now I’m…
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3 min 1

Liquid Canvas Abstracts by Richard Todd

A “liquid canvas abstract” is a floating painting — an artistic expression of color and form on a liquid “canvas” using oil-based pigments. The evanescent image is preserved photographically in high resolution. No digital construction…
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8 min 3

Prince Johan …and a few others

I have a few rules of thumb I like to keep to when it comes to reviewing fractal art.  One of them, if it were boiled down and expressed as a revolutionary slogan painted on…
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10 min 3

Copyright and Fractal Art: Crimes of the Century

In my previous post, Copyright and Fractal Art:  What the law really says,  I quoted from the US Copyright Office what their definitions of copyright privileges and fair use exemptions were.  Fair use is something…
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7 min 3

Copyright and Fractal Art: What the Law really says

Copyright: the word that launched a thousand fairy tales! Let’s see what the US Copyright Office says about copyright: § 102. Subject matter of copyright: In general28 (a) Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this…
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9 min 1

Smudge-ism: Blurred to Perfection

We’ve all heard of blur.  It’s one of those basic graphic effects that every graphics program, and even some fractal programs, automatically include.  Most of us though are probably more familiar with the sharpen effect…
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5 min 2

The Jumping Spiders of Oklahoma, and elsewhere

Is DNA an algorithm?  Can its renderings be presented as Algorithmic Art?  Will they jump down off the wall and attack the well-dressed gallery patrons? Consider the humble jumping spiders of Oklahoma: As always, click…
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8 min 2

Champion Graveyard Sound

Macro photography and fractals have a lot in common.  I don’t know what that is, but I just sense that they have a “family resemblance”.  Imagine you’re trying to put together a jig-saw puzzle but…
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9 min 3

Frames, drains and hurricanes

Many people have a favorite sport.  Some follow soccer, others american football or hockey, basketball, baseball, cricket…  I follow hurricanes, the tropical storms or cyclones that form in the Carribean during summer and fall of…
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8 min 5

Surf’s up

I've been surfing. From the noisey beaches of Deviant Art to the silent shores of guano islands. Every one here's a gem to me. Each one gleamed in its own way when I saw it.
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2 min 0

Art imitates Nintendo

I don’t play video games much; just an hour every day of Star Wars Battlefront (original one).  I have friends in Mos Eisley and although they always lose –horribly– they’re always asking me to come…
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2 min 3

Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine

There’s actually a lot of goldmines out there in the outer reaches of our computer system.  None of us have been to all of them, but we’ve all been to some of them.  I don’t…
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3 min 0

Bow the Knee to Blob!

Such simple rendering and yet, such powerful rendering.  Remember, most of MC Escher’s great drawings were done in pencil, so there’s no reason why a grayscale or monotone image has to be dull.  Just look…
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