Let me explain.
-click on images to view fullsize on their original site-
I’d like to start with this one because it is so simple and even a bit retro and yet so energetic. It’s made with Mandelbulb3D which gives it the 3D appearance, but it is essentially just a plain mandelbrot. So a sort of 3D variation of a 2D theme (2½D?) It’s hard to figure out what gives this image it’s visual energy but I think for me it’s the 3D characteristics. It’s looks like something we have just walked up to while strolling in a fractal shopping mall. A display for a bed and furniture sale. The surface almost has a soft, puffy leather upholstery appearance. It’s from 2020. The mandelbrot formula will never get old or boring. Iconic and pneumatic.
If that first one didn’t spark you then this one should. Although, I should add that Visual Energy is something you percieve. And if art is all about nuance, as I posted (years ago) then the spark that unleashes the Visual Energy in our minds can be quite eccentric and individual. We don’t all get zapped by the same thing.
What I like here in the MandelBox Golden Hall by “philb” is how easily 3d fractals create real spaces. Fractals, even 2d ones, “take us places” although the effect in the 2d realm is not as strong as in the 3d realm where it’s more natural. Such a great feeling of spaciousness and rich luxurious, palatial spaciousness in this one. Images like this abound on sites like Fractalforums and Deviant Art but this one has that something extra, the Energy. Why try to explain fractal art or art of any kind? Visual Energy describes it best. Excitement. We stand in one place and yet see a thousand things. Worlds and windows to worlds. A little bit of light goes a long way in a palace of glass.
Even a dog can learn what electricity is by touching an electric fence. We ought to be able to understand art just as well: that sudden energetic sensation and it’s unconscious reaction.
It’s the light. To me it’s like one of those great paintings that on the surface is just a common everyday scene and yet provokes some strong, great emotion in you and you don’t care what anyone else thinks about it or even any art critic. This one is a good example of what makes fractal art tick –why we spend so much time looking at it and making it and just exploring it. Sometimes we stumble on something great and remember how good life can be. The light is from a setting summer sun. But not the last rays, there’s still some time before it gets dark. All day this mechanical thing was there but in these last moments of the day and approaching twilight, the machine unites with the natural world around it. Too fragile and subtle is the lighting for capturing with a camera, only a painter could preserve what we’re seeing. If only one could remember such a thing.
It’s been said that art imitates life and I would add to that that art simply is life. Art is what makes life lively. No wonder we often have such wide ranging reactions to art: we don’t all get excited by the same things in art or in life.
Well, it came up on the “fractal” tag listings. (A lot of stuff comes up marked “fractal” on Deviant Art these days.) Naturally this is an AI image. Despite that, it does have a fractal-ish look to it. I’ve seen plenty of rich, elegantly flowing tendrils made in Ultra Fractal like this but in this case, like with all 3d graphics, this actually looks like you could step into the image and walk to the far side of this seascape image.
AI has something in common with fractals. It’s the Visual Energy. Like a lot of AI graphics, this one ought to be just some glitzy, slick scene from an amusement park. Again, the lighting? Maybe light is just another word for mood or excitement.
There’s actually something a little terrifying about this image. It’s the creative POWER of it. Just like the creative power of fractal algorithms but with a slightly sinister edge to it. Look at all that carefully crafted detail and the vast seascape teeming with it in the background. I’ve seen some very creative work done with AI, or rather done by AI because I think all it requires is just a well worded “prompt” or series of instructions.
Maybe the terror factor comes from this fact that AI reminds me of the magical power which the sorcerrer’s apprentice unleashes and almost destroys himself and the castle he’s in. AI will do anything for anyone. Fractals will never stray from the domain of math.
Epilogue
The future of fractal art isn’t just in discovering more sophisticated software and algorithms, it’s in producing artwork that has greater visual energy. But don’t worry, the future is already here.