Author: cruelanimal

Disappearing should be an art form, a seductive way of leaving the world. I believe that part of disappearing is to disappear before you die, to disappear before you have run dry, while you still…

Shield by Tamrof Boynton Superb minimalism. Careful composition. So lovely. Dog03 by Cornelia Yoder Please. Merciful God. Make it stop. Signal by Earl L. Hinrichs Coming through clearly for ten years. Shroomies by Stan Hood…

Six Images from The Fractal Universe Calendar 2010 Break out the cheese dip, fractal artists. Your 2010 Fractal Universe Calendar (hereafter known as the FUC) has finally arrived. You might not have noticed, though. Although…

Moment in Blue by Paul DeCelle Ultra Fractal is certainly versatile but too often images produced with it quickly lose their freshness to my eyes. The reason is found in its composing process in which…

A Farewell to Regret by Stacy Reed Popular fractal programs certainly take their share of hard knocks. Apophysis, for example, seems to fiind itself frequently floating in critical backwash, and here on OT we’ve been…

Spleen (2008) [Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.] The first section, entitled “Spleen et idèal,” opens with a series of poems that dramatize contrasting views of art, beauty, and the…

To the Reader (2008) [Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.] The poems [in Flowers of Evil] found a small but appreciative audience, but greater public attention was given to their…

Blue Buffalo (2001) Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiority, then privileges, and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second, and dies in the third.—Vicomte De Chateaubriand It will surprise…

April 10, 2008 Avalanche Publishing, Inc.P.O. Box 55Delafield , WI 53018 Attention: Publishing Team for the Fractal Universe Calendar Dear Publishing Team: I am writing you out of concern for the protocols used to solicit…

Hyperbolic coral forms by Christine Werthiem and Margaret Wertheim. Photo by Alyssa Gorelick. From the “Goings on about Town” section of The New Yorker, 4-7-08: Crocheting the Coral Reef: The Institute for Figuring, a Los…

Incoming (1999) Duck and cover, Orbit Trappers. There’s been some shelling this week on the Fractal Universe Calendar front. Although I noted that the current Fractal Universe Calendar editor should presume she has been contacted…

Facelift (2008) The call has sounded again for the 2010 Fractal Universe Calendar. And the website for all things FU has been given a text-heavy facelift. But peel away the new cosmetic facade, and nothing…

Troll Prima Donna (2000) Another paradigm shift: trolls are hecklers. They aren’t satisfied with the nearly infinite opportunities on the Internet to build their own spaces and places and express their views. They’d rather steal…

Aigaios (2008) All I want is some good Clean Fun All I want is some Good Clean Fun–Descendents, “GCF” It’s not torture when we do it… —Bark of the Moonbat (and countless others) When so…

Well, it’s an exciting neck and neck (sea)horse race over at the idreamincolor forum where the locals are busy buzzing and definitively storming the hive while answering this honey-dripping question: What Is the Best Fractal…

Leave a Light On (2008) Reader Toby, in our comments section, has finally taken up the challenge to address some of the points Orbit Trap has raised about the two major fractal competitions. He also…

Ah, back to blogging after some wandering in RL wilderness. The holidays nearly did me in. Although anti-depressants are currently weathering a storm of debunkers, their alleged restorative process might be an appropriate metaphor. Getting…

Termites (2007) Termites are morphologically uncomplicated insects, in contrast with their astonishingly complex social behavior. –Robert L. Smith, Termites Several weeks ago, while commuting to work, I was listening to Dana Gioia, director of the…

Summer in Malibu (1999) Nine campers view photos of longboarders and swells of smoke. Hot Hub said industry crosstalk. Click the link to flame on and off premises. Dry weather, a tourist, checks in and…

Naysayer (2007) The price of professionalism is no more costly than the mistakes of amateurs.–Slogan for MonkeyIT The fractal contest fracases refuse to “go gentle into that good night.” After much sound and fury (signifying…

A Crash Course in Reaganomics (2000) The medium is the message…—Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan was concerned with the observation that we tend to focus on the obvious. In doing so, we largely miss…

The Dead CEO Watches His Back (2007) Your decisions passed on cancer. A memo meant as a joke killsquicker than all layoffs. Death won’t get you a bye. Workers lean from chemo and fleeced pensions…

Party Guys (2007) I need my head examinedI need my eyes excitedI’d like to join the partyBut I was not invited—Elvis Costello, “Two Little Hitlers” At first look, tonight’s image seems to show a “couple…

As an art lover, one thing I enjoy about the Internet is that I am always only a few mouse clicks away from a museum. When Orbit Trap first began, I wrote a post called…

Mourning Becomes Fractalus Act III ~/~ …with still more apologies to Eugene O’Neill. Made with an early version of Comic Book Creator. Fractal images used are my own. Text is a mashup of my own…

Mourning Becomes Fractalus Act II ~/~ …with more apologies to Eugene O’Neill. Made with an early version of Comic Book Creator. Fractal images used are my own. Text is a mashup of my own writing…

Mourning Becomes Fractalus Act I ~/~ …with apologies to Eugene O’Neill. Made with an early version of Comic Book Creator. Fractal images used are my own. Text is a mashup of my own writing collaged…

Soma (2001) It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame.—Oscar Wilde Why is it that people who question the improprieties of the BMFAC contest are repeatedly told they must “get…

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.–William Shakespeare, Hamlet I know it is sometimes difficult to speak out. There can be consequences. One might be embarrassed — attacked — even punished. So far, only…

A New Way of Seeing (2007) …you should be asking — asking now that Version.2006 has a year of dry paint and Version.2007 has just rolled its wet pixels off the assembly line– asking before…

Fiends without a Face (2007) Weird for the sake of weird… Moe Szyslak, The Simpsons We know fractals are said to be supposedly infinite, highly recursive, and sometimes interpreted through aesthetics. But can the exaggeration…

Who Dissected Roger Rabbit (2007) The function of art is to disturb. Science reassures.—Georges Braque Andrea Yates believed that cartoon characters told her she was a bad mother who fed her children too much candy…—Court…

What follows is a complete transcription of a series of email exchanges between Damien M. Jones and myself discussing topics recently posted to Orbit Trap. The correspondence begins on Sunday, July 8th, 2007, and ends…

I was really glad to read Damien’s recent entry. I completely agree with him that all fractal artists post-process and that no one fractal tool is proprietary. He is absolutely right. It makes no difference…

Yes. I’m returning to rant again on my favorite pet peeve: the never-say-die stink surrounding post-processing. I know some of you feel this is a dead issue. We all get along now… …except we don’t.…

The Twister Forms (2000) My dream starts to get strange on The Plains. Blue balloons drift over my town as rain mode begins and gusts curve. In one fictive package hot moves up when I…