Three Gravity Stools by Jólan van der Wiel [Click on images to view full size.] Tim’s third eye opened (again) and recently puzzled out the mysteries of fractal art’s Phase Three. But I’m still mired in the cryptic borders and physical parameters not found in strictly digital renders but made possible only in Phase … Continue reading
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 into the usual categories. Here are some of those high points –special finds– of this 2011 holiday season on Deviant … Continue reading
We’ve all watched or taken part in, at sometime or another, that great quest to “define” fractal art. Although few members of the fractal world seem very interested in this sort of “constitutional debate” everyone operates with at least some sort of understanding of a boundary around fractal art. The boundary is where fractal art … Continue reading
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 revisit the notion that the competition (and fractal art in general) ought to think outside the program and envision our … Continue reading
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 review of the images and background on how the project came about. Continue reading
Let’s just jump to the heart of the matter: Why is Deviant Art such a garbage dump? What is it about fractal art, and especially the flame fractal category in particular that leads to the creation of these huge online wastelands of worthlessness? It’s not all bad Oh yes, I have to acknowledge that there … Continue reading
“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, sky, clouds and eternal silence. Continue reading
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 utilizes the “flame algorithms” discovered or invented by Scott Draves, the author of Electric Sheep, the original flame fractal application … Continue reading
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 and his “Tralfamadore” series of images are worth studying as well as appreciating for their fractal-ness. There’s something to be learned from Brummbaer’s fractal artworks. Continue reading
“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 posting, Renderfeast, which featured an number of Deviant Art folks (DAers) I saw people on Fractalforums.com remarking that they had … Continue reading
A collection of uniquely rendered fractal things. And a few that are just traditionally intriguing. Continue reading
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 Sheriffs of Nottingham known in today’s Sherwood Forest as “The Selection Panel”. Fitz’s claim is that –well let’s let Fitz … Continue reading
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 to view fullsize on original site~ It’s part of the ever enduring mystery of art that images like this rarely … Continue reading
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 or two people but so be it. Lindelokse, an established Deviant-artist decided to join the gang at Fractalforums.com and announced … Continue reading
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 Madman’s posting on Fractalforums.com today, when he said, “This one took 10 days to render @HD quality, no anti-aliasing.” …I … Continue reading
Or: Why the Offline Promotion of Fractal Art is a Waste of Time Here are 6 reasons: There is no such thing as “Great” Fractal Art This is the key problem, really. I didn’t understand this myself until just this past year. Fractal art is a limited medium and it just can’t make the kind … Continue reading
And another thing… If you’ve only got one or two judges then there’s nothing that really needs to be explained. But when you’ve got 12… one would naturally wonder how a much more complicated scenario like that would actually work. How do a dozen people from all over the globe select a group of 25 … Continue reading
If they’re going to… not consider a second artwork by any artist rearrange the judging results to include a “wider range” of styles declare in the rules they don’t want “garish” art let the Honorary members influence the results have a discussion to decide the final winners …then why do they have all those judges … Continue reading
In case you haven’t seen them, the winning images are all here. Of the 25 winning images which will make up the entire exhibit shown sometime within the next year, there’s only really one good one: Aztec Flying City by Bernard Bittler. They messed up his name on the official website. I know because this … Continue reading
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 BMFAC as a topic — maybe because while the competition makes changes that should improve it, it never really improves. … Continue reading
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 size on original site~ They have no need of being real, we can relate to them entirely as manifestations of … Continue reading
It had to happen sometime. Fractalforums.com is a wide-open, free access forum that allows image uploads. And many fractal artists subscribe to the old belief that if you throw enough “stuff” at the wall eventually some of it will stick. Well, 65 clumps on the wall in one day was just too much for the … Continue reading
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 images. Such things are important from my revolutionary perspective because they appear to refute my theory that fractal art is … Continue reading
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 light. And just when you were finally getting comfortable with the fabric of the universe. Rip up that old model … Continue reading
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 things just picked up off the floor of the gold mine. The fractal miners don’t call them art. They don’t call them anything. They’re named by where they were found or by a date. Continue reading
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 are different than paint and canvas or chisel and stone. In fact, fractals are probably the strangest kind of artistic … Continue reading
~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 –a fractalscape. It’s a classic sci-fi vista complete with a rich, city of the gods in the distance. Buildings that … Continue reading
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 to me it can only be because he’s been consistently uploading interesting work. Continue reading
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 epic-length response, half of which was merely quoting Tim’s original post, rebutted — and then called in reinforcements from the … Continue reading
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 UF List to defend his sacred manifesto (and legacy?), they’ve amassed in OT’s basement to pour their burning oil on … Continue reading
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 formally define fractal art. If you visit the Wikipedia page for Fractal Art, you’ll see that quotations from The Fractal … Continue reading
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 revised, and outright laughable on the BMFAC front. Contest Sponsors As of this writing, and with less than a month … Continue reading
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" series is the most skillful, satisfying, and stylistic fractal art series to date. And here’s why: 11010401aa by Jock … Continue reading
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 Parameter Art in my last posting, Part 4. What we’ve all seen is what we’re all going to see. Of … Continue reading
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 a natural bent towards the decorative and design type of art work. Artists who attempt to create more serious kinds … Continue reading
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 say, “art”. I mean the thinking man’s stuff. The kind of image that provokes your mind to complex, intense thought … Continue reading