{"id":373,"date":"2009-03-03T01:54:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-03T05:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=373"},"modified":"2009-03-03T01:54:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-03T05:54:00","slug":"fractal-guernica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=373","title":{"rendered":"Fractal Guernica"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Fractal Guernica<\/i>, by Pablo Picasso II<\/a>
(guernica03.loo<\/a>)
<\/center><\/p>\n

In the same category as room-temperature fusion, perpetual motion and the age-old alchemical quest to turn lead into gold, is added yet another bold and fearful challenge: to make a piece of fractal artwork that rivals the depth of expression of Picasso’s famous painting, Guernica<\/a>.<\/i> I threw down this challenge recently albeit in a very off-handed way, via a blog posting and near the end of it, suggesting it was merely something mythical and hypothetical which would be good for one to contemplate and aim at, even if it was out of human reach.<\/p>\n

Well, wonder of wonders, here it is — all algorithm and all art.\u00a0 You could call it an accident, I suppose, but that’s the whole point of the hitherto mythical Fractal Guernica concept: algorithms don’t express anything other than algorithms.\u00a0 If algorithmic art is just an accident then fractal art is all about chasing ambulances and spotting crash scenes.<\/p>\n

For those of you who like big art, or are just getting old and need to see everything large, here’s a large version<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, let’s get the discussion of rich, visual symbolism started, the kind which only a really great work of art can provoke.\u00a0 Hopefully we’ll be able to decode everything the artist is trying to say, because these things can be pretty complex and convoluted.\u00a0 And that’s without even attempting to psychoanalyze the artist or take a Marxist perspective.<\/p>\n

What’s it all about?\u00a0 Hey, slow down.\u00a0 How about, what’s that bull with the half-moon head all about? \u00a0 That’s what I saw first too (foreground, left).\u00a0 Did the artist rip that right off Picasso or what?\u00a0 Actually, we ought to get something straight, right off the bat: the artist is the algorithm<\/i>.\u00a0 What does an algorithm know about that?<\/p>\n

The bull is actually a cow (unimportant) and is an allusion to the cow jumped over the moon nursery rhyme.\u00a0 But the moon has now obscured the cow’s head and left it confused and blind.\u00a0 This is a direct reference to the space race and how it got bogged down once it actually landed on the moon subsequently losing it’s direction and which since then has literally gone nowhere.\u00a0 The strength of the space age has become deluded by it’s own achievements.\u00a0 The big green thing beside it comes later.<\/p>\n

Background, left (top,left) is one of the most shocking off all images.\u00a0 It represents aircraft and perhaps bears some similarity to the original Guernica.\u00a0 The airplane has a huge mouth and is attempting to consume the Earth (the blue round thing).\u00a0 While in most of the world aircraft represent modern, advanced transportation, in other parts of the world aircraft are entirely different and play the role of the most voracious of all war machines.\u00a0 Don’t think Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet; think Mig-29 or F-18.\u00a0 If you’ve ever seen, and particularly heard, a modern fighter jet maneuvering in the sky above you, the deep rumble, the sound of the sky ripping apart and your chest reverberating, ear drums rattling — then this image is easily understood.\u00a0 The aircraft is depicted not as a gleaming white bird, but like a crocodile, an ancient lizard with a long, teeth-lined snout, pursuing the Earth itself.\u00a0 Snake of the sky, King of the Air.<\/p>\n

Bottom, right.\u00a0 It is modern man himself (herself).\u00a0 Notice how long the arms are; very long, they’re extended.\u00a0 Technology has extended the arms of modern man but at the same time weighed them down and reduced their choices.\u00a0 The golden glow (a recurrent theme, representing technological enlightenment) distorts his face and his head is turned at an angle which is out of sync with the things around him.\u00a0 There’s more, but it’s obvious.<\/p>\n

Middle, right, above modern man.\u00a0 The volcano has a strange eruption on top of it because it’s not a volcanic eruption at all — it’s an allusion to the Biblical tower of Babel on top of a natural tower, a volcano.\u00a0 The tall structure is a broadcast antenna.\u00a0 Broadcasting what?\u00a0 Babel sounds.\u00a0 The communication that links and informs so many all over the world is ultimately a source of confusion and something which discourages people from cooperating: propaganda; biased news reporting; stock manipulation, liar-mercials.\u00a0 Well, it’s a small part of the total work, so let’s not dwell on it.<\/p>\n

Above the moon which is on top of the cow’s head is a series of legged creatures enveloped in a golden glow (remember the golden glow?).\u00a0 Bonus marks to the art history students who guessed, Bruegel’s Blind Leading the Blind<\/a>.\u00a0 Except in this case it’s the technologically enlightened who are blindly stumbling, one after the other.<\/p>\n

Finally, the main element in this work, the golden glob of stuff dropping down (mid-picture) colliding with the green glob rising up.\u00a0 The golden glob is filled with things coming down from above — space industry spin-offs — biotechnology, genetic engineering, creatures dark and intriguing.\u00a0 The golden glob is the descending technological world which should be ascending, but has reversed direction and now comes into sharp conflict with the green movement of environmental responsibility and technological restraint.\u00a0 (Notice the purity and simplicity of the green glob as contrasted with the complexity of the golden one, although there is something like a red scorpion with his tail sticking out, in the green glob.)<\/p>\n

On the large scale, note how the elements are at the same time detached from each other and yet in collision with each other.\u00a0 It suggests that their movements or trajectories are conflicting but not intentionally conflicting.\u00a0 Instead, the collisions come from the expression of their nature and not any sort of conscious will — a sort of Babel like manifestation of decay through mental confusion rather than through conflicting or competing desires.\u00a0 Everything just falls apart because it no longer has any connection.\u00a0 The modern world is freedoms in collision. <\/p>\n

Stepping back even further, there is some irony here that a work that depicts technology as some horrible thing destroying people and their relationships was in fact made using a fractal generator, one of the most technological of all things I would say.\u00a0 In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this artist is in fact a hypocrite; demonizing technology and yet at the same time using it to to make art just for fun.\u00a0 Is he blinded by that golden glow too?<\/p>\n

Whoa.\u00a0 Far out.\u00a0 That is so<\/i> 21st Century.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fractal Guernica, by Pablo Picasso II(guernica03.loo) In the same category as room-temperature fusion, perpetual motion and the age-old alchemical quest to turn lead into gold, is added yet another bold and fearful challenge: to make a piece of fractal artwork that rivals the depth of expression of Picasso’s famous painting, Guernica. I threw down this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":370,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=370","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":0},"title":"Challenges for Fractal Artists","author":"Tim","date":"24 February, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Under Red Sea, by maruscyaI think working with fractals is very much like the art of nature photography.\u00a0 Nature photography tends to be descriptive, showing what things look like and focusing primarily on the form, color and interesting situations that one finds in the natural world.\u00a0 Sometimes you see a\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=370#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":369,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=369","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":1},"title":"It’s all about avoiding the insulting label "Eye Candy" isn’t it?","author":"Tim","date":"23 February, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mona Lisa is famous for her \"mysterious smile\"; but is that enough to make it a great work of art?Isn't it just old-fashioned eye candy and in fact (I deal in facts), not much different than the portraits produced by the famous photographer, Yousuf Karsh -- and perhaps not\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3324,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3324","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":2},"title":"Why the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 Won’t Work","author":"Tim","date":"21 October, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\u00a0 I didn't understand this myself until just this past year.\u00a0 Fractal art is a limited medium and it\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3324#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Capture01.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3613,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3613","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":3},"title":"Phase Two: Byte 1","author":"cruelanimal","date":"12 December, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/GustavKlimt_PepperSprayingCop_sm1.jpg?fit=450%2C338&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":546,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=546","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":4},"title":"More Phase Two Thinking about Fractal Art","author":"cruelanimal","date":"6 December, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Art and photograph by adak'76 Repeat viewings of the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest winners consistently leave a bitter aftertaste. I'm convinced, especially after reading Tim's latest OT series on the distinctions between art and craft, that very little of what BMFAC will exhibit next year merits being called\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 5 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 5 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=546#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fractal Thong","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/FractalThong.jpg?fit=450%2C450&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":923,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=923","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":5},"title":"Kandid’s Cellular Automata and the Creativity of Computational Art","author":"Tim","date":"13 March, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Of all the things that the Genetic Art java program Kandid does, I had always found (until recently) it's cellular automata features to be the most enticing and the most disappointing. The cellular automata, true to their synthetic, space age name, looked very computer-ish and although the high contrast color\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=923#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/DirectLca_RGB_g6okgclp_g6okgd84_x427_y427.png?fit=427%2C427&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\/373","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=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}