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 fame and pubic recognition, needs to be corrected and downgraded in light of what has actually come about in the … Continue reading

Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 1

Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 1

What is Fractal Art Missing? I look at da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and I see something.  I look at just about any piece of fractal art and I don’t see that thing.  What’s fractal art missing?  Why does it always seem to be missing something that other art forms seem to have? I use the … Continue reading

BMFAC Announces Its Judging Panel

BMFAC Announces Its Judging Panel

  A symbolic representation of the BMFAC judging panel. [Photograph seen here.] The 2011 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) finally got around to releasing the names of its judges. They are: Honorary Presidents: Michael Barnsley Aliette Mandelbrot Panel Members: Don Archer Javier Barrallo Cory Ench Damien Jones David Makin Kerry Mitchell Samuel Monnier Paul … Continue reading

Give it up for CO99A5!

Give it up for CO99A5!

I just think it’s great.  It’s a strange, surreal place, nice composition, not oversaturated with detail and has nice, subdued but engaging color.  Check out the artist’s little story about the image: Description: This is a result of an intentional hybrid from the 3D navigator anomaly of combining two different works. At first I thought … Continue reading

Does the BMFAC get enough entries to be taken seriously?

Does the BMFAC get enough entries to be taken seriously?

Dave Makin tacked the word, “International” onto the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 in his announcement of this year’s contest at FractalForums.com.  And while the contest could be said to span the globe, the word “International” suggests a status for the contest that is something of an exaggeration, even more of an exaggeration as … Continue reading

BMFAC Slinks Back

BMFAC Slinks Back

Things More Pleasant Than Thinking About BMFAC Again Dave Makin sent me a personal email to let me know the 2011 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) has been announced.  I guess he wanted to be sure I got the good news. If you read this blog regularly, you already know how we feel about … Continue reading

More Computer Art for the Old Folks…

More Computer Art for the Old Folks…

Gero Wortmann, hailing from Munich, Germany may not be as old as me but some of the stuff he makes I really like. ~ Click images to view full size on original website ~ They look fractal, but what does that really mean?  His work really focuses on the basic shape and form of the … Continue reading

Computer Art for Old People

Computer Art for Old People

I’ve been trying to reconcile two conflicting things:  Firstly, that there’s something exciting about fractal programs, and secondly, that there’s something quite disappointing about fractal art today. I don’t need to explain why I’m enthused about fractal programs, I hope.  But I probably do need to do a lot of explaining to convince people that … Continue reading

Name! That! Comment!

Name! That! Comment!

Welcome back, readers, to the home edition of the Fractalbook Network’s much loved game show: Name! That! Comment! Now, finally, through the mystery of OT technology, you can continue honing your somewhat-fractal-related social networking skills and never miss a beat stroking your virtual artist-friends while sitting alone at home in a room by yourself.  Just … Continue reading

NASA’s Earth Day Fractals

NASA’s Earth Day Fractals

Susitna Glacier Alaska’s Susitna Glacier revealed some of its long, grinding journey when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite passed overhead on Aug. 27, 2009. I’ll be back to posting more regularly on OT as summer nears and RL slows down. For now, enjoy this natural fractal photoblog … Continue reading

Reality Changes Things

Reality Changes Things

Something happens to fractals when they start to resemble real things.  It’s sad, in a way, but I think fractal art is limited in its appeal to a wider audience simply because it’s “fractal.” Fractals have shape, color and pattern, but often those purely abstract, non-representational qualities relegate fractal imagery to the domain of the … Continue reading

Velocipede Rides Again

Velocipede Rides Again

From time to time I revisit places and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mr. Velocipede, a long time fractal artist, has reinvented herself and started an new blog with new enthusiasm entitled, “Oh no, not again.” Nothing interests me more than seeing someone do something new and different with fractal art and Velocipede … Continue reading

BMFAC: “We Are All Winners Now”

BMFAC: “We Are All Winners Now”

This does not look like an art exhibition. Two photographs of the exhibition of the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest in Hyderabad, India, 2010. Photographs released by Esin Turkakin. Photographs of the showcase exhibition of the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) have been released by one of the contest winners.  Only the winners … Continue reading

presenting… The Information Hallway!

presenting… The Information Hallway!

Still so sure it’s a better place to introduce people to fractal art than the (now old-fashioned) information highway –the internet? The recently released photos of the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Exhibition really underline what I’ve been saying for years:  no offline anything can compare with the internet for introducing people to fractal art … Continue reading

The Roots of BMFAC

The Roots of BMFAC

It wasn’t the sleep of reason that gave birth to a monster. Some of Orbit Trap’s critics have taken issue with our claim that the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) is nothing more than a publicity stunt to feather the nests of its organizers and judges.  These critics argue the competition is being unfairly … Continue reading

2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fractal Art Blogging

2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fractal Art Blogging

I’m sorry, but I can’t give out too many details about the actual recipient because the prize winning  journalist has been keeping  a very low profile in order to avoid “the haters” of the fractal art world which he’s observed over the years to have plagued and besieged Orbit Trap, the blog that inspires him.  … Continue reading

On Style 2

On Style 2

Send Out the Probes by Linda Allison No one to date has had a more profound effect on fractal art style than Linda Allison. Her fractals became the template de rigor for the Fractal Universe Calendar (FUC) — the long-running staple of fractal art mass marketing.  Her work made with early iterations of Ultra Fractal … Continue reading

The Art of the Strange Place

The Art of the Strange Place

Although it’s probably been a perennial theme in fractal art from the beginning, the recent 3D fractal explosion has greatly increased the number of images whose main impression is that of The Strange Place. Because of this, I think it’s only appropriate to give some thought to this reinvigorated sub-genre of fractal art. Continue reading

Parameter File Sharing For Dummies

Parameter File Sharing For Dummies

Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. biblegateway.com The most recent “discussion” about parameter file sharing on the Ultra Fractal Mailing List has reminded me how deep the wheel ruts are … Continue reading

Ultra Poetry

Ultra Poetry

Well, the Ultra Fractal Mailing List is at it again. Last time it was opera, but this time it’s bongos, coffee houses and poetry readings. I’ve reformatted the original excerpts to give them that “je ne sais quoi” (bongo roll!) of true poetry lingo.  A little extra push to bring this baby out into the … Continue reading

Fractal Computing

Back in 2006, Juan Luis Martinez (Fractovia.org) wrote a post explaining why despite the growing popularity (and growing hip-ness) of the Macintosh computing platform we shouldn’t expect a similar proliferation of fractal programs to follow the way they have on the Windows platform. He doesn’t speculate as to why it isn’t going to happen or … Continue reading

On Style 1

On Style 1

He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher. —Walt Whitman Style is a fraud.  I always felt the Greeks were hiding behind their columns. —Willem de Kooning Style is not something applied. It is something that permeates. It is of the nature of that in which it is found, whether … Continue reading

An Internet Fractal Gallery

An Internet Fractal Gallery

The Mona Lisa is the most popular artwork in the Louvre, the most famous art collection in the world.  It measures 77 x 53 cm (30 x 21 in).  That’s the size of a high-end computer monitor, today. The world has the Louvre, and the the Louvre has the Mona Lisa, but Orbit Trap has … Continue reading

Behold!  Haltenny is here…

Behold! Haltenny is here…

~ Click on any image to view full-size on the original site ~ He has a Deviant Art Gallery too with more examples of “steampunk” mandelboxes.  On DA he goes by Hal Tenny which sounds like a real name. He shares, he cares, he posts parameter files! What a wonderful fractal artist and human being … Continue reading

More Phase Two Sightings

More Phase Two Sightings

sbioelements (from Undersea) by Tatiana Plokhova I figured it might be time to return again to examining work that falls into the category of Phase Two fractal art.  Tim laid down the foundation for Phase Two thinking in an earlier OT post where he notes that Phase Two fractal art focuses on the image and … Continue reading

The BMFAC 2010: An Audience of Winners!

The BMFAC 2010: An Audience of Winners!

A small revelation took place in the comments section of Terry’s recent posting, Diaries 2.  Terry had suggested, reasonably enough I think, that since there appeared to be no information or reaction anywhere on the internet about the recent Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest’s exhibition in Hyderabad, India held this past August, 2010, that perhaps … Continue reading

Diaries 2

Diaries 2

Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle.  Photograph seen on 1000 Stemmer.   Daylight licked me into shape I must have been asleep for days –The Cure, "Just Like Heaven" Dear Diary, I must have dozed off.  Before I knew it, months had passed.  But, surely, in the wake of the late holiday season, world peace … Continue reading

Tis the season for a movie, or two…

Yes, the fractal art world has its Christmas movie offerings just like Hollywood does.  Well, actually, most of these were posted long before the holiday season started, but I just haven’t gotten around to (re)posting them here.  If you follow Fractalforums.com then you’ve probably seen all of these fine, cutting-edge, fractal videos.  Maybe I should … Continue reading

Color:  <i>The Fourth Dimension</i>

Color: The Fourth Dimension

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 as anything more significant than just eye-candy.  What all of these images had in common was exceptionally good color. Upon … Continue reading