Year: 2010

There's a lot of far-out stuff in Dan Wills' ultraMeta Picasa gallery. It's a reminder that fractal art can be just as much about exploring a fractal world as it is about that strange, fickle…

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…

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…

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: …

Add the following two links to your bookmarks/favorites and visit them every day and you will stay up to date with 80% of all that’s interesting in the fractal art world today.  Recent Uploads to…

We recently received an inquiry here at Orbit Trap; an email requesting where the Fractal Universe calendar featuring the work of Cornelia Yoder could be bought. I was flabbergasted… But I Googled the title, found…

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…

~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…

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…

Hermann invites stranded passengers at the Munich airport to share a beer. A look at one of his artworks and the java applet based method by which Hermann displays them. Jwm-art's two recent images of…

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…

A UPR is probably something that can be copyrighted because it's really no different than a computer script. And computer software can be copyrighted... so is that the end of it? But what if someone…

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…

I'm not an Ultra Fractal user but I do follow the daily exchange of information on the Ultra Fractal mailing list. Up until recently I never thought anything of those copyright notices, but after giving…

Known as JackOTradez or FractAlkemist and probably a few others, Lloyd Garrick (a name he rarely goes by) has made a sizable collection of fractal videos using Fractint and some very effective musical soundtracks.

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…

Back in the Halcyon group-hug salad days of Orbit Trap, I put up a post about titling.  I used my own images (and several others) to investigate whether titles unfairly nudge viewers to the artist’s…

~ 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…

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…

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…

If a tree falls in the woods… …and no one hears it, does it really make a sound? If a tree falls in the woods and it doesn’t cost anything, does it really make a…

"Think of color, pitch, loudness, heaviness, and hotness. Each is the topic of a branch of physics." Drawing seen on foreignpolicy.com. …into history. From pcmag.com: Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of fractal geometry, has died at…

~/~ Fractal images seen on galleries at the Fractal Universe Calendar page.   I’d mention the artists’ names, but, of course, since the product was meant to be thrown away, like a soon-withered bouquet, no…

Cornelia Yoder was true to her words: the Fractal Universe Calendar 2011 is made up exclusively of her images and retains the traditional name although the publisher has skipped like a stone from Avalanche to…

If you’re a critic on the Internet, everyone can hear you scream. –Cameron Woodhead, The Sydney Morning Herald Image seen on blog.hr. It should go without saying that when folks speak out about OT in…

What has it done for fractal art? It's brought publishers to the realization that fractal art can be bought in bulk like any other stock imagery they already use. The years of contests, editors, sorting,…

Cornelia Yoder: "I was pretty flabbergasted, but did as they asked." It still isn’t safe to wander into your favorite mall gift shop or bookstore.  After seemingly undergoing a well deserved decapitation, the staple of…

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…

I find this work menacing/playful because of the way the optical suggestions of the purity of line makes resonant the larger carcass. Review courtesy of the The Instant Art Critique Generator. The 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot…

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…

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…

My blogging slows down in the summer when other projects get moved to the front burner. But I’m still lurking around. The 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest exhibition begins in a little over a…