5 min 4

“Special” Holiday Fractal Finds

There is fractal art and there is the analysis of fractal art, and then there’s fractal events: contests, calendars and the occasional news item.  But then there are those occasional “things” that just don’t fall…
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6 min 0

Phase Two: Byte 1

Fractal Alchemy (Detail) by Carl Scrase Now that the decorative dust has settled from the most recent (and oftentimes lamest) iteration of the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC), I figure it’s time again to…
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10 min 1

Best Fractal Calendar Ever!

Christian Kleinhuis of Fractalforums.com has just published a 2010 fractal calendar. Featuring the best artwork form Fractalforums.com and printed large size and spiral bound, it hopefully marks a new era in fractal art publishing. A…
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3 min 8

The Echo of El Greco

"Sheeny", distorted and shadowy: Is it not the echo of El Greco? I like the simple title, too. The image is simple but potent. In this tiny drop of formula there is river, desert, mountains,…
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5 min 10

Flame Fractals: Get the Fire Extinguisher!

My continuing Odyssey in the seas of Deviant Art has brought me to what I shall refer to as the island of Apophysis, that being the great flame fractal program created by Mark Townsend which…
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7 min 0

Fractal Paintings of Tralfamadore

The intersection of Brummbaer (he doesn't use a first name) and fractal art is something worth taking a second, and more careful look at. Brummbaer brings with him several decades of graphical and artistic experience…
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7 min 0

My Deviant Art Odyssey

“A lot of the people I hang out with at dA are the same people that are at Fractal Forums…” Hal Tenny said that in a comment here on Orbit Trap recently.  After my recent…
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10 min 5

Renderfeast!

A collection of uniquely rendered fractal things. And a few that are just traditionally intriguing.
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9 min 2

Fitz vs. The BMFAC 2011

As the Robin Hood of the Fractal Kingdom, I feel compelled to take up the cause of our fellow countryman, “Fitz” and right the wrongs of the evil Prince John and his minions, the various…
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3 min 0

Wormhole!

Fresh and only recently uploaded to Fractalforms.com, the Times Square of Fractalville, comes this modestly named image, Stable Wormhole.  Created by none other than the author of the famous Mayan-something images, Reallybigname… ~Click on images…
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1 min 2

Hello Everybody!

Sometimes I just like to share interesting things that I find online that I think will be of interest to Orbit Trap readers who are “on the same wavelength” as me.  Perhaps that’s only one…
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4 min 0

A Golden Straight-Jacket for Madman

It’s not often I click on fractal videos these days.  Video is just tricky with fractals, especially when you’re trying to combine it with music or some sort of meaningful sound. But when I saw…
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5 min 0

The 2011 BMFAC Winners Are Announced

  Why don’t I ever seem to get better, Dr. Jones? [Image seen here.] I feel strangely unmotivated to write about the 2011 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) "winners" this go-around.  I’m tired of…
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6 min 0

An Art Form of Shape and Color

By looking at all these weird fish images my hope is that you’ll stop seeing them as fish and start seeing them simply as objects of shape and color. ~Click on images to view full…
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7 min 2

A Fractal Made Me Smile!

If you’ve been following my recent revolutionary thoughts about fractal art you may have noticed a few comments posted by readers here and in other venues relating to emotional experiences and feelings triggered by fractal…
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3 min 0

Hardwired Brain Fractals

Who knew this was a documentary? [Image seen here.] It’s been a rather heavy week in science. An international scientific team in Italy claims to have recorded sub-atomic particles traveling faster than the speed of…
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7 min 0

Scenes Inside the Goldmine

Why do people make fractal art? Well, actually they don't make it so much as they find it... steal it... dig it out of the dirt. Some of the best pieces of fractal art are…
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7 min 1

Fractals: A New Medium

I think I’ve found a better way to explain what makes fractal art so different than other art forms.  The differences are there simply because fractals themselves are a different medium to work with.  Fractals…
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3 min 0

A Fistful of Fractals

~Click on images to view full size on original site~ Mayan Trickster by reallybigname was a great piece of design but this one here by Jesse Dierks is what I would call a great landscape…
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3 min 3

Reallybigname = Reallygreatstuff

The only place I ever go on a regular basis to see fractal art is Fractalforums.com. I don't pay much attention to the names only the artwork. So when a name like "reallybigname" becomes familiar…
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11 min 1

More Manifesto Retorting

Some time has now passed since Tim posted his thoughts on "The Fractal Art Manifesto" — basically arguing that Kerry Mitchell’s document glorifies the artist’s role and downplays the computer’s contribution. Mitchell, in a cut-and-paste…
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8 min 7

Speak, Fractalbookers!

How dare you? Really, really, really… [Image seen here.] It seems a flash mob of Fractalbookers has lowered the drawbridge and surged out of their virtual fortress. Upon hearing Kerry Mitchell’s clarion call on the…
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13 min 15

The Fractal Art Manifesto Revisited

While it may not be as well known today as it has been in the past, The Fractal Art Manifesto, written back in 1999 by Kerry Mitchell, is one of the very few attempts to…
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9 min 2

BMFAC Slogs On

Hi there. I’m sponsoring BMFAC. Send appropriate entries accordingly. [Image seen here.] I guess the 2011 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) slogs on. Here’s the latest scoops on what’s buzzworthy, overhyped, leaked out, historically…
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10 min 3

On Style 3

2766 by Jock Cooper Create your own visual style…let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others. —Orson Welles The premise of this post is quite straightforward. I assert that Jock Cooper’s "Mechanicals"…
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12 min 4

Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 5

The future of fractal art Well, bluntly stated, there is no future in fractal art.  At least not in the kind of fractal art that most artists are making today.  That’s the stuff I called…
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24 min 2

Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 4

Pixel Art vs. Parameter Art In my preceding three parts I have dealt with what I see are the limitations of fractals for making artwork.  To put it simply, the geometric imagery called “fractals” has…
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10 min 6

Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 3

What fractals fail to do… You can’t make art with them.  And we all need our heads examined for thinking we could in the first place. I should be a bit more specific when I…
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10 min 4

Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 2

What fractals are good for, or, the creative use of fractal algorithms. Fractal art needs a reboot, a re-thinking of what it’s all about.  The optimistic forecasts from the early days of fractal art, the coming…
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