{"id":4287,"date":"2012-12-04T21:04:56","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T02:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4287"},"modified":"2012-12-04T21:04:56","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T02:04:56","slug":"the-varieties-of-fractal-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4287","title":{"rendered":"The Varieties of Fractal Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a theme that binds all these images together but I can’t seem to find the right words for it.\u00a0 Freaky; harmonic; other worldly; sacred symbols; journey into mystery: they all fit for some but not for all.\u00a0 I guess variety is best; with a play on the famous book by Henry James, The Variety of Religious Experience<\/em>.\u00a0 There’s a cult-like, mystical weirdness to these –an attractive kind of quicksand.\u00a0 Perhaps it can’t be described.\u00a0 Perhaps it shouldn’t — it mustn’t!<\/em><\/p>\n

~Click on images to view full-size on their original site~<\/em><\/p>\n

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Some old thing by Brutaltoad<\/p><\/div>\n

Description: I had this old picture lyin’ around an I thougt it would make a great present for the mandelbulb’s birthday <3<\/p>\n

happy birthday, Mandelbulb!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s from the gallery page on Fractalforums.com.\u00a0 It never ceases to amaze me how often the folks at Fractalforums.com (FFs) stumble across great looking artwork and then casually move on to some deep technical discussion. \u00a0\u00a0 I call this one, Return of the Overlords<\/em>.\u00a0 Ancient astronauts; landing pads in the Andes; road to the moon.<\/p>\n

This was posted in Nov. 2011 and even then was considered retro by its author.\u00a0 I think it’s one of the best of the early mandelbulb images.\u00a0 The mandelbulb wasn’t anywhere as interesting, visually, as the things it gave birth to.\u00a0 But BrutalToad has managed to nudge it into a higher orbit, primarily, it seems, through color and background texture in addition to the nice scene selection as well.\u00a0 The shadow is a nice touch.<\/p>\n

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Sacred Maths by Tabasco Raremaster<\/p><\/div>\n

This one inspired the theme for the whole posting.\u00a0 Posted just a few weeks ago on FFs it suggests a mathematical, geometrical religious icon.\u00a0 You’ll note that the five “snowflakes” are each different and yet a variation of the same theme.<\/p>\n

Normally fractals produce similar things since that’s one of the main, expected characteristics of fractals.\u00a0 Of course, things have gotten much more sophisticated lately and this is a good example.\u00a0 The different shapes suggests human and not algorithmic creation which again gives it a strange feel for a fractal.<\/p>\n

Back in classical times geometry and other mathematical subjects were seen by some as semi-religious topics and became part of the culture of a number of religious cults and societies.\u00a0 It seems ironic to our modern minds that science would inspire thoughts of the supernatural but the topic does pop up from time to time in online discussions about fractals and so the theme, and the title of this image, needs little explanation.<\/p>\n

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Chinese Royal Doll by Milan Dobrojevic<\/p><\/div>\n

The alien-ness of fractal art can be clearly seen in this image.\u00a0 I’m guessing that it was either made in Steven Ferguson’s Sterlingware or Fractal Explorer using one of his formulas.\u00a0 I’ve never been able to understand why programs like Sterlingware (Sterling; Sterling-Ware…) are used so little by fractal artists since they produce such creative imagery and do it so easily too.\u00a0 It’s another one of those fractal art things that requires deeper explanation and contemplation, I guess.<\/p>\n

From the phone number on his website, 011art.com<\/a>, Milan is located in Serbia, part of the former Yugoslavia.\u00a0 He seems to be very active in a number of fractal related activities and businesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s a joke now to say that one could stare at an image all day, but for this one by Milan it’s almost true.\u00a0 Of course, if you have the program you can zoom into it and explore it in great detail which is what people do in art galleries when they move in and look closely at artwork.\u00a0 One of the things that makes fractals so unusual is this visual playground aspect to them.\u00a0 It’s almost as if they’re a landscape and the images we see of them are mere snapshots.<\/p>\n

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Cover Photo 1 by Fractal Art Gallery<\/p><\/div>\n

I found this one on Facebook, a rather new source of fractal art for me.\u00a0 This is a brilliant example of how accidentally wonderful 2D fractals can be.\u00a0 Eyes, hair, fingers; and all that simply from the isolated context all three of these elements find themselves in, in this one selection.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t figure out who actually made this image and I had to make up a title for it as well.\u00a0 Despite the endless self-promotion on Facebook and the flood of junk one has to wade through to find something interesting, I found this and the author is anonymous.<\/p>\n

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The Paper Caper by Pauldelbrot<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the gallery page, this is a 2D Mandelbox.\u00a0 The intriguing details are not so easily seen in this low-res version but it’s good enough to display the contrasting patterns that make this image so… mysterious.<\/p>\n

It’s like a big fractal web press printing out little fractals.\u00a0 Pauldelbrot specializes in these “retro” type images but he gets interesting results because he explores advanced variations of them.\u00a0 The old style, flat fractals were never a dead end, creatively, they simply require artists with a good grasp of their 2D potential.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, Pauldelbrot has flattened the mandelbox.\u00a0 It’s forwards and backwards at the same time.\u00a0 Just goes to show there’s always something new and exciting in fractal art if you can think creatively.<\/p>\n

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The Wall at Sunrise by Tim Emit<\/p><\/div>\n

Do you think this thing is fascinating?\u00a0 If you don’t then we clearly don’t share the same tastes in fractal art.\u00a0 I was stunned when I first saw this on FFs.<\/p>\n

To me it’s a stage, and in some strange way that defies logic, there are two lights shining on it.\u00a0 The patterns and wide variety of them make this one that’s well worth taking a closer look at.<\/p>\n

But even in large view the image is great.\u00a0 Maybe that’s what a great fractal image is: good art at every scale.\u00a0 The name, “Tim Emit” rings a bell.\u00a0 Could he be the famous “timemit”?\u00a0 You can see now why the fractal world needs a phonebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s a stage that needs no performers because the show is the concert hall itself.\u00a0 The audience; the orchestra; the curtains; even the backdrop are part of the show.\u00a0 Should I mention that it didn’t get a single comment on FFs and I was the only one to rate it?\u00a0 Another mark of greatness in the fractal world.<\/p>\n

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crystalRock by Tom Lowe<\/p><\/div>\n

I think I was doing the right thing when I gave Tom Lowe the very first Nobel Prize for Fractal Art<\/a>; now he’s gone on to create 3D cellular automata.\u00a0 If you click on the image up there you’ll go to the page that talks about it on his own website for Automata Finder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cellular automata are extremely weird as well as being a natural phenomenon<\/a>.\u00a0 Seeing one in 3D, or what appears to be 3D is disorienting in a wonderstruck way.<\/p>\n

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Advantages of this algorithm over standard cellular automata:<\/div>\n