{"id":2848,"date":"2011-08-04T01:04:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T05:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2848"},"modified":"2011-08-04T01:04:58","modified_gmt":"2011-08-04T05:04:58","slug":"rebooting-fractal-art-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2848","title":{"rendered":"Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

What fractals fail to do<\/em>…<\/p>\n

You can’t make art with them.\u00a0 And we all need our heads examined for thinking we could in the first place.<\/p>\n

I should be a bit more specific when I say, “art”.\u00a0 I mean the thinking man’s stuff.\u00a0 The kind of image that provokes your mind to complex, intense thought and feeling.\u00a0 I don’t mean “beauty” and that sort of nice to look at thing, but rather images that portray ideas and a fresh perspective on the world around us.\u00a0 One of the best examples I can think of to illustrate what art is (no pun intended) is a photograph by Ansel Adams.\u00a0 It’s particularly appropriate with respect to fractal art because fractal art, to some degree, is like photography in that we “capture” imagery rather than form it ourselves.<\/p>\n

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Moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico by Ansel Adams (1941)<\/p><\/div>\n

Art is like a new kind of food.\u00a0 The best way to describe it is to taste it.\u00a0 I can’t believe those clouds weren’t painted by Salvadore Dali.\u00a0 It’s just a photograph.\u00a0 But what a photograph.\u00a0 This is what I mean by art.\u00a0 You can’t make stuff like this with fractals.\u00a0 In this photo we see everything from the momentary (the little village) to the eternal (the moon).\u00a0 I think that’s how this image works in our minds but I’m guessing.\u00a0 There’s a story here, a poem, written in the oldest of visual languages: landscape.<\/p>\n

Fractals don’t tell stories because they don’t speak any of the visual languages, that being: the human form and gesture<\/em>, or; landscape<\/em>.\u00a0 Fractals, as many have pointed out, are mostly abstract imagery or in some cases, as with 3D fractals like the Mandelbox, geometric or organic-looking objects and scenes.\u00a0 None of these are capable of containing real world symbolism because they’re neither real nor capable of being altered and transformed into realistic things.\u00a0 It’s hard enough to be expressive with abstract painting, it’s much more difficult when one is also limited to using just geometric\/organic structures and elements.<\/p>\n

Fractals are just too fractal.\u00a0 And with respect to art, they lie in the category of “decorative arts” or what is more currently called design and applied arts.\u00a0 But as decorative\/design works, fractals work quite well because they often create interesting shapes with repeating elements that are easily rendered in multiple and selective ways.\u00a0 Fractals have an inherent tendency to create symmetrical, highly structured and in particular: organized imagery<\/em>.\u00a0 It won’t ever compete with Picasso, but fractals do complement the fields of design and decorative arts.\u00a0 Fractal “art” is really just fractal “design” but these days the word “art” is applied in a broad way to any kind of visual imagery regardless of its status or merit.<\/p>\n

To say that fractals are limited to creating design work rather than art<\/em> -work is not as insulting as it may sound.\u00a0 Bauhaus, Art Nouveau and Art-Deco, to name just a few 20th century examples of design and decoration all share the same category and have considerable popularity and respect within the art world.<\/p>\n

It wouldn’t be such a bad idea to compare the “fractal arts” with those of the famous design art movements of the 20th century.\u00a0 Bauhaus had a lot to do with beautiful kitchenware and innovative architectural styles, something that today’s high brow fractal artist may not want to be associated with, but that’s where I think “fractal design” fits.\u00a0 It’s an applied art form, a type of mathematical design: decorative, ornate and beautifying; but not really capable of depicting the kind of mentally stimulating content that has sometimes been created exclusively within the domain of the traditional art mediums (painting, drawing, sculpture..).<\/p>\n

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The Peacock Skirt by Aubrey Beardsley (1892)<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s another good example of what fractal art, ironically, can and can’t do.\u00a0 Can you imagine a fractal art image like this?\u00a0 Well, the shapes and designs in the image look very fractal like indeed, so in that respect I guess I’d have to say I’m wrong about all this.\u00a0 But the picture is all about the “skirt”.\u00a0 Fractals don’t make “skirts”, they make abstract\/organic shapes.\u00a0 And the skirt forms an extension of the woman’s form contrasted with another woman’s form which together are depicting some very meaningful scene from Oscar Wilde’s play Salome (according to the Wikipedia where I got this).<\/p>\n

Once again we bump into that persistent language rich in symbol and story, that being the human form.\u00a0 How can you create such an artwork in the abstract?\u00a0 And not just the abstract, although that’s hard enough, how about with fractal –exclusively geometric– imagery?\u00a0 You see what I mean?\u00a0 Fractal imagery just doesn’t do the sort of things that the traditional art mediums do.\u00a0 It can’t.\u00a0 But it can produce rich, in fact, even richer<\/em> designs and ornate imagery than the human mind can.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Art Nouveau doorway c 1905, Photo by Siren-Com (2009-Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

Again, this Art Nouveau example is more like what fractal art looks like than the Mona Lisa or a Salvadore Dali painting. \u00a0 Fractals belong in the design arts category and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.\u00a0 It’s not second-rate art, it’s just a simpler, more basic form of graphical works.\u00a0 Anyway, it doesn’t really matter what I think, it’s the truth.\u00a0 Fractals are<\/em> design works; decorative works.\u00a0 Pawning them off as a rich, expressive medium is just delusion.\u00a0 And when the practitioners of fractal design pawn themselves off as artists it’s self-delusion.\u00a0 Accept yourself as you are and just concentrate on creating good work; work worth looking at.\u00a0 The pompous “fractals as art” posture is just a distraction and presents fractals in a context in which they fail to impress.\u00a0 It’s pretentious.<\/p>\n

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An example from Tierazon, processed a little...<\/p><\/div>\n

I made this as an example of the design potential and decorative characteristics of fractals.\u00a0 There is nothing terribly expressive or thought provoking about this image; it’s just a nice collection of shapes, textures and coloring and it was so quick and easy to make because it’s the kind of thing fractals are good at doing.\u00a0 It comes natural to fractals.\u00a0 This is what fractal art is and this is all fractal art is ever going to be because fractal imagery just doesn’t possess the realistic or symbolic elements that traditional art mediums can.\u00a0 Even competing with abstract art is a bit of a stretch for fractals.\u00a0 But when we present fractals as just plain fractals, they results are much more pleasing and natural..<\/p>\n

There’s a few other aspects of fractal art that keep it out of the “serious art” category: such as they’re way too easy to make.\u00a0 This is much more insidious than you might think.\u00a0 After all, what’s wrong with an art form that isn’t hard?\u00a0 Wouldn’t it mean there’s much more of it and it will soon become a rich and thriving genre?\u00a0 But what it means for fractals is that any new innovation in rendering or formulas soon becomes common place and cheap –everybody’s making it.<\/p>\n

The result is that there’s a thousand examples of everything.\u00a0 This has got to have some impression on outsiders who may at first marvel at the rich detail and slick forms in fractal art until they see how normal and simply average they are.\u00a0 In fractal art everything soon becomes cliche.<\/p>\n

Unless of course one can get creative with it.\u00a0 But here again fractals have a limitation that traditional, hand-made mediums don’t: fractals are made by remote control; hands-off rather than hands-on.\u00a0 Of course, photography is like that too, but photography has the richly expressive world of real life to draw on and that makes all the difference.\u00a0 With fractals, it’s just fractals.<\/p>\n

I really like the Indra Pearls series<\/a> by Ultra Fractal artist Jos Leys.\u00a0 They have real style even though they appear to be rigidly mathematical and simply rendered.\u00a0 The simple rendering and bright colors enhance the appealing mathematical design and don’t distract from it; each complements the other.\u00a0 But I seriously wonder how much they’d be admired if they were as common as today’s mandelboxes, which were just as impressive when they first appeared.\u00a0 Jos’ work stands out because it stands alone.<\/p>\n

Action Painting, is a type of abstract expressionism that was based on quick execution.\u00a0 It often met with a similar quick execution from its audience.\u00a0 One of the main reasons was because it was, apparently, so quickly and easily made.\u00a0 Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings met with similar criticism.\u00a0 But unlike fractals, these artworks were deliberate constructions and expressions of the artist’s mind and the Action Painter could render almost anything a regular painter could and wasn’t constrained to the shapes and forms drawn by a fractal algorithm.<\/p>\n

Fractals are not products of the human mind and so they lack such human expression.\u00a0 It is, however, possible to manipulate (by hand) fractal imagery via layering or other graphical techniques; Ultra Fractal is well known for these kind of enhancing features.\u00a0 But you can’t draw with fractals, just enhance them.\u00a0 The creative scope gained from such features doesn’t make up for the limitations that fractal imagery already imposes.\u00a0 Confined to using a “palette of fractals” or “toolbox of fractals”, any artist is limited to producing works of design and decoration; the kind of imagery that is composed entirely from shapes, colors and patterns –fractal-like things.<\/p>\n

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Only an idiot would ever expect to make art of this magnitude with Ultra Fractal: The Fate of the Animals, by Franz Marc, 1913<\/p><\/div>\n

A word about “abstract photography”: fractal art could be described as fractal photography, but photography captures realistic imagery which has greater symbolic expression and subsequently greater creative options when it comes to making thought provoking imagery, the kind of imagery which I’m saying fractal art can’t produce.\u00a0 Abstract photography (although there really is no such thing, strictly speaking) would theoretically be common ground between the fractal genre and those serious art categories like photography because capturing abstract imagery is what fractal art really is.\u00a0 I\u00a0 mention this because it appears to be such a great loop hole for the apotheosis of fractal art, it’s entrance to the higher worlds of Picasso, Dali, da Vinci, etc…<\/p>\n

But it’s really just a type of regular photography where simple shapes and weird close-ups are the preferred subjects.\u00a0 It’s stuff that features the simple, almost geometric beauty of things like frost crystals and satellite photos.<\/p>\n

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Ice Patterns by Jessica Rosenkrantz, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

We can make some pretty wonderful things with fractals.\u00a0 A lot of the newer software like Ultra Fractal allows for greater complexity of fractal compositions beyond the simple, single-layer screen-saves.\u00a0 But none of that has done anything to change the perennial problem in fractal art which is that fractals have such limited expressive potential that they are unable to create works that rise any higher than that of the decorative art and graphical design categories.\u00a0 Using fractal software to create the more serious types of art work, the kind of works that have defined the apex of art –portraying challenging ideas and big time intellectual things like zeitgeist–<\/em> is simply impossible and out of reach for fractal artists no matter how high they try to leap and jump.\u00a0 You just can’t make serious art with fractals.<\/p>\n

(Next week’s episode:\u00a0 Part 4: Pixels vs. Parameters)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What fractals fail to do… You can’t make art with them.\u00a0 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”.\u00a0 I mean the thinking man’s stuff.\u00a0 The kind of image that provokes your mind to complex, intense thought … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2851,"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-2848","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\/08\/Beardsley-peacockskirt.jpg?fit=400%2C547","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":406,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=406","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":0},"title":"Fractal Art, Phase Two","author":"Tim","date":"3 September, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What? You didn't know even know there was a Phase One? Well, let me begin there, then. At the dawn of fractal art.Phase One, the first stage of fractal art, has been oriented around software. The big developments in fractal art came from developments in the software that made it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=406#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/25\/phase2.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5075,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5075","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":1},"title":"The Synthetic Aesthetic – Part 1","author":"Tim","date":"22 August, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another one of those theoretical postings; you might want to skip it and go look at some fresh fractal art instead.\u00a0 But if you're still interested, in this posting I intend to examine what fractal art has come to be and show that this evolution of the art\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jhl16.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4633,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4633","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":2},"title":"Fractal Artists are Deluded Narcissists","author":"Tim","date":"26 March, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"First, let me explain.\u00a0 I make such a bold statement not because I hate fractals (or fractal artists) but because I love fractals and include myself among the hopelessly deluded. A quaint anecdote I came to this realization in a rather unexpected way: through rediscovering the joy of fractal artistry.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/fracto01.jpg?fit=494%2C599&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5625,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5625","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":3},"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":372,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=372","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":4},"title":"Tim’s Guide to the Fractal Community: a Response to Sherlock Fractal","author":"Tim","date":"26 February, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Terry, much of your discussion revolves around the notion and concept of a fractal art community.\u00a0 I need to address this first because I believe that will clarify this discussion immensely because this community thing complicates everything else.There is no fractal art community.There is no fractal art community; not in\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=372#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":418,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=418","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":5},"title":"Sheets in the Wind and Rings of Gold: The Ultra Fractal Style","author":"Tim","date":"2 October, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Whether you're a fractal artist or simply just a fan of fractal art, you're bound to eventually notice similarities in style and develop preferences for this kind of art or that kind of art. Fractal art is still what I would consider to be something of a niche art form,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848","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=2848"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2973,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions\/2973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}