{"id":2798,"date":"2011-07-21T17:09:43","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T21:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2798"},"modified":"2011-07-21T17:09:43","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T21:09:43","slug":"does-the-bmfac-get-enough-entries-to-be-taken-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2798","title":{"rendered":"Does the BMFAC get enough entries to be taken seriously?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dave Makin tacked the word, “International” onto the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 in his announcement<\/a> of this year’s contest at FractalForums.com.\u00a0 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 the calling of the annual American baseball championship, the “World” Series<\/em>.\u00a0 Sure, the World Series<\/em> is the world’s biggest baseball championship and is probably world class in terms of athletic quality, but it presumes to take in the entire world and that (sorry fans) isn’t true.\u00a0 (Apparently, in some parts of the world baseball isn’t even played.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Then there’s Miss “Universe”.\u00a0 Well, considering that the planet Earth has a monopoly on human life in the universe<\/em>,\u00a0 I guess the name could possibly be considered accurate.\u00a0 But can any beauty pageant have “Universal”<\/em> proportions?<\/p>\n

Can a fractal art contest have “International”<\/em> proportions –international status?<\/p>\n

The BMFAC has grown somewhat from its first year in 2006, but the number of entries I think still makes it an art contest that is better labelled as City-Wide<\/em> than anything else.\u00a0 Fractal art just hasn’t developed beyond the realm of the amateur and the the hobbyist to be taken seriously beyond that of a city or school art competition.\u00a0 There’s nothing world class yet to show people.\u00a0 At least they haven’t had any entries of that caliber yet.<\/p>\n

In fact, the use of Benoit Mandelbrot’s name is itself rather presumptuous and something of an exaggeration when one considers the enormity of what Benoit Mandelbrot himself has achieved in the field of mathematics.\u00a0 Benoit Mandelbrot has made major contributions to science while fractal art, albeit derived from his discoveries, is practically unknown if not irrelevant in the world of art.\u00a0 Trying to suggest that fractal art belongs up on Benoit Mandelbrot’s level of expertise and importance requires a rather inflated view of one’s artwork.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It reminds me of an incident that occurred in my city.\u00a0 A local shopping mall, albeit the biggest, got together with a local newspaper (a free, weekly, advertising-rich “newspaper”) to commemorate celebrities by putting their names on shiny, gold floor tiles and calling it “The Walk of Fame”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Controversy ensued when they –attempted–<\/em> to honour a local guy who moved to the US and subsequently became a big Hollywood movie star.\u00a0 It seems he –wasn’t interested–<\/em> in the shopping mall’s “Fame” or coming home to be lauded in a great ceremony and praised in the pages of a weekly ad-wrapper.<\/p>\n

The little weekly advertiser covered the controversy (outrage!) for a few months and then moved back to their usual coverage of drug busts, car accidents and Real Estate Special Editions<\/em>.\u00a0 When they finally announced their list of celebrities to be immortalized on the shopping mall’s floor, I had difficulty recognizing the names of almost all of their “famous” people who had, in contrast to the Hollywood movie star, eagerly agreed to attend the opening “gala” and be photographed with their personalized floor tile.\u00a0 They just couldn’t attract serious people to their shopping mall\/ad-wrapper “Walk of Fame”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 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 →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/serious1.jpg?fit=500%2C241","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":405,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=405","url_meta":{"origin":2798,"position":0},"title":"Nothing New in the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest","author":"cruelanimal","date":"30 August, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't want to hear about why art competitions should be run professionally using fair play to promote excellence and diversity rather than favoring a select group. I'd much rather be openly exploited and cynically scammed. You say you got a real solution Well, you know We'd all love to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"La la la la la...","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/ignore.jpg?fit=450%2C293&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=403","url_meta":{"origin":2798,"position":1},"title":"Will the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Do the Right Thing?","author":"cruelanimal","date":"22 August, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.--Mark Twain Image seen on afgc.org. I wanted to pop on briefly and second what Tim said in his last post. I've known Garth Thornton since I helped test early versions of Xenodream years ago. I always found\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"No easy button...","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/dotherightthing.jpg?fit=450%2C505&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=223","url_meta":{"origin":2798,"position":2},"title":"Contests and other Circuses","author":"Tim","date":"2 September, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Before I start to comment on this year's Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest, I should tell you something: I don't like contests. I think they trivialize art by turning it into a sports competition. The only redeeming features these self-inflicted events have is they create a compilation of artwork whose\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=223#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2189,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2189","url_meta":{"origin":2798,"position":3},"title":"BMFAC: Sorry, you’re looking for something that isn’t here","author":"Tim","date":"11 January, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a riddle:\u00a0 when is the host of an art exhibition not the host of an art exhibition? Interesting search results for \"fractal art\".\u00a0 Maybe they don't call it \"art?\"\u00a0 Well, alright.\u00a0 Some people might not see fractals as real art but how about just \"fractals\"?\u00a0 That's got to come\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2189#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Screenshot-3.png?fit=728%2C319&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Screenshot-3.png?fit=728%2C319&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Screenshot-3.png?fit=728%2C319&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Screenshot-3.png?fit=728%2C319&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1260","url_meta":{"origin":2798,"position":4},"title":"The BMFAC Exhibition Begins? Who Knew?","author":"cruelanimal","date":"3 June, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just like the Olympic torch.\u00a0 I travel the world, and no one knows my route in advance. [Promotional poster for the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Exhibition.\u00a0 Image seen on Sandra Reid's blog.] Apparently, the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Exhibition has begun. Of course, you'd never\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1260#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"BMFAC in San Sabastian","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/BMFAC_SanSebastian.jpg?fit=450%2C300&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":225,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=225","url_meta":{"origin":2798,"position":5},"title":"Questions about the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest…","author":"cruelanimal","date":"8 September, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A New Way of Seeing (2007) \u2026you should be asking -- asking now that Version.2006 has a year of dry paint and Version.2007 has just rolled its wet pixels off the assembly line-- asking before you start your generators and begin revving your fractals for next year\u2019s Version.2008: ~Why is\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=225#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"A New Way of Seeing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/newwayofseeing.jpg?fit=450%2C600&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2807,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions\/2807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}