{"id":2836,"date":"2011-07-29T01:21:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T05:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2011-07-29T01:21:01","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T05:21:01","slug":"rebooting-fractal-art-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2836","title":{"rendered":"Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Fractal Art Missing?<\/p>\n

I look at da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and I see something.\u00a0 I look at just about any piece of fractal art and I don’t see that thing.\u00a0 What’s fractal art missing?\u00a0 Why does it always seem to be missing something that other art forms seem to have?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (c 1503)<\/p><\/div>\n

I use the Mona Lisa as an example because it’s well known.\u00a0 I’m not really a fan of it, in fact my favorite part of this famous painting isn’t the woman’s smile, it’s the landscape in the background; that curvy snake-like road.\u00a0 But even the background of the Mona Lisa has that “art” thing that fractal art seems to be missing.\u00a0 It holds the viewer’s eye and just seems to do –that something.<\/em><\/p>\n

I know what art is: it’s the life of the image.\u00a0 It’s easy to tell the difference between living and non-living things.\u00a0 That’s why I’m confident in saying that fractal art is missing something that the Mona Lisa has.<\/p>\n

And yet fractals are fun and exciting and I think that’s what keeps us connected to them.\u00a0 But I’ve been “connected” for almost ten years now and I think that’s long enough to ask: Why can’t fractal artists do what other artists can do?\u00a0 I mean, why can’t they make art?<\/p>\n

I visited the Prado once.\u00a0 It’s a very large and famous art gallery in Madrid, Spain.\u00a0 If you like art, any kind of art, you’ll enjoy having a day or two just to wander around the Prado.\u00a0 I can’t imagine any piece of fractal art ever hanging in the Prado.\u00a0 It just doesn’t fit with those things.\u00a0 But why?<\/p>\n

That’s the big question and I think I can answer it.\u00a0 That is, now that I’ve been looking at fractal art of every kind for a decade now.\u00a0 It’s the reflection that’s important, not the length of time.\u00a0 But reflection takes time and after ten years worth I’ve arrived at some conclusions.<\/p>\n

I think most fractal artists are hopelessly deluded.\u00a0 But I’m jumping too far ahead.\u00a0 I’ve divided all this into a series of five blog postings; parts 1-5.\u00a0 This first one is to simply introduce what I think is the perennial question that pops into my mind whenever I start to wonder where fractal art is going or if it’s possible it will ever take any sort of place in the art world, meaning, will it ever be considered art by anyone other than those who make it and their devoted friends who cheer them on?<\/p>\n

Why can’t fractal artists produce anything with the same artistic merit as artists in other mediums like painting, drawing, sculpting and photography?\u00a0 What is fractal art missing that those other mediums are able to provide?<\/p>\n

Maybe some of you don’t think it’s missing anything and that artwork with a similar merit has already been made?\u00a0 Sure, I’d expect that.\u00a0 After all, I didn’t say fractal artists were hopelessly deluded for nothing.\u00a0 I know they are.\u00a0 I once shared those juvenile notions about fractals until I began to wonder why it all looks the same and there’s never anything significant ever<\/em> made.\u00a0 I mean, anything worth hanging in an art gallery.<\/p>\n

I don’t believe the hype anymore.\u00a0 Rather, I’ve burst fractal art’s bubble and now see it as it truly is and how, ironically, I saw it in the very beginning.\u00a0 Fractals are fun, exciting and sometimes marvelously mysterious and a special world of their own.\u00a0 But I firmly believe that no one has, or ever will, create a real piece of art just by using a fractal program.\u00a0 Fractal algorithms just don’t have what it takes to produce anything other than mere decoration or design.\u00a0 As good as that can be, it’s lifeless when compared to real art.\u00a0 Not dead; just missing something.<\/p>\n

So close your gaping mouth and sit down.\u00a0 You’ll get over it.\u00a0 You can still call yourself an artist on Deviant Art.\u00a0 Nobody will care.\u00a0 (Or even know.)<\/p>\n

Next: Part 2. What Fractals are Good For (upbeat, happy, rah-rah-rah kind of stuff)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Fractal Art Missing? I look at da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and I see something.\u00a0 I look at just about any piece of fractal art and I don’t see that thing.\u00a0 What’s fractal art missing?\u00a0 Why does it always seem to be missing something that other art forms seem to have? I use the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2836","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\/250px-Mona_Lisa_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg?fit=250%2C373","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2369,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2369","url_meta":{"origin":2836,"position":0},"title":"An Internet Fractal Gallery","author":"Tim","date":"21 January, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mona Lisa is the most popular artwork in the Louvre, the most famous art collection in the world.\u00a0 It measures 77 x 53 cm (30 x 21 in).\u00a0 That's the size of a high-end computer monitor, today. The world has the Louvre, and the the Louvre has the Mona\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2369#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/monolith.jpg?fit=503%2C370&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5625,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5625","url_meta":{"origin":2836,"position":1},"title":"Place: Where Art and Fractals Overlap","author":"Tim","date":"23 June, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As I concluded in my previous posting, there are only two art genres which fractals are capable of contributing to: Abstract Expressionism and Landscape\/Place. Everything else created with the fractal medium is what I would call snapshots: interesting, even fascinating imagery but lacking in expressiveness or the portrayal of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=217","url_meta":{"origin":2836,"position":2},"title":"Three Cheers For Jock!","author":"Tim","date":"16 August, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Browsing fractal sites usually leaves me with a feeling best described by the fancy term, \"Ennui\". There just isn't much originality. I don't know why. Maybe most fractal artists makes fractal art for reasons other than creative expression or any of the usual motives that lead people to produce artwork.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=217#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2069,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2069","url_meta":{"origin":2836,"position":3},"title":"2011: The Year of the Fractal Desktop?","author":"Tim","date":"7 December, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In addition to the fractal art world, I also try to follow events in the Linux desktop world.\u00a0 I've noticed some similarities, particularly with respect to the perennial question asked by both fractalists and Linux-ists:\u00a0 When will the rest of the world discover what we've discovered? You all know something\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2069#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/desktop01.jpg?fit=483%2C362&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":490,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=490","url_meta":{"origin":2836,"position":4},"title":"Art, Craft and Fractals","author":"Tim","date":"20 November, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Art is a term that is used very loosely these days.\u00a0 I happen to think that this casual application of the label, \"art\" to everything graphical has produced some confusion in the digital art world and obscured what has traditionally been known as Fine Art, submerging it beneath a flood\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=490#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":225,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=225","url_meta":{"origin":2836,"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\/2836","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=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2841,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions\/2841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}