{"id":4428,"date":"2013-01-16T00:33:19","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T05:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4428"},"modified":"2013-01-16T00:33:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-16T05:33:19","slug":"food-for-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4428","title":{"rendered":"Food for Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

I travel the internet, I make “Viewmarks<\/a>” of artwork worth reviewing, and sometimes I end up with little scraps of things that I just can’t seem to fit into a proper blog posting.\u00a0 But I keep them around anyhow because they’re food for thought, so to speak; singular ideas with potential.<\/p>\n

Here are a few of these favorite things.<\/p>\n

I found this great image, below, on Deviant Art.\u00a0 Then, for some strange reason I browsed through the comments, which I rarely do, and stumbled on something –special.<\/p>\n

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

\"mb3d_under_construction_by_viperv6\"<\/a>

mb3d_under_construction_by_viperv6<\/p><\/div>\n

Check out the added lights and other details which are best seen in the hi-res version.\u00a0 There’s some new formulas or variations out there that are interesting like this one.<\/p>\n

And then this comment:<\/p>\n

\"Comment

Comment from the above image on Deviant Art<\/p><\/div>\n

Most comments however, follow this simple, straightforward, business-like style.<\/p>\n

\"41\"

Comment from Deviant Art<\/p><\/div>\n

And now for something completely different:<\/p>\n

\"26\"<\/p>\n

I forget where this one came from.\u00a0 Sometimes that’s a good thing.<\/p>\n

Now here’s something I quite like which I found, and probably would never have found unless it hadn’t been in Haltenny’s Deviant Art favorites collection:<\/p>\n

\"U.F.I.-015-020512-020<\/a>

U.F.I.-015-020512-020 by GhostWriterSociety<\/p><\/div>\n

Nice colours, high contrast, simple but interesting colour combinations and a great use of symmetry, something which works so well in design although I can’t figure out why.\u00a0 It has a golden, polished sense to it (if that makes any sense).\u00a0 I thought perhaps it was a collage because of the wide variety of imagery, but the image notes didn’t give any hint as to how it was made, only this:<\/p>\n

MNDB3D\/ U.F.I.-015-020512-020 is a Fractal Art Image, created and owned by Peter Spangler, PRSJ22, GhostWriterSociety. It is protected under Copyright: MCN C4TIH-T2YA1-HKHS6<\/p>\n

I hope that you enjoy these images.<\/p>\n

P.Spangler<\/p>\n

Founder of #Fractal-Group-UNLTD<\/p>\n

You are invited to stop in, take a look around, and see if you would like to submit to one of our galleries. Our membership is open to all artists, upon request; send me a personal note as to your interest in becoming a member.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interesting.\u00a0 But not as interesting as this from the main gallery page:<\/p>\n

\"ghostwritersociety<\/a>

ghostwritersociety notice<\/p><\/div>\n

I hope the image gave you “PERSONAL ENJOYMENT”.\u00a0 Because if it didn’t, you’re in big trouble.\u00a0 But take heart, “YOU ARE VERY ‘WELCOME’!”\u00a0 It’s\u00a0‘WELCOME’ in quotation marks.\u00a0 Could that be different than the regular welcome which doesn’t have quotation marks around it?\u00a0 (Is whatsoever really spelt with hyphens?)<\/p>\n

Anyhow, lets not stand around here, I think I hear dogs barking.<\/p>\n

\"Autumn's<\/a>

Autumn’s Smile by Marty Strutt<\/p><\/div>\n

They put warnings on cigarette packs here in Canada.\u00a0 They take the form of horrific images of cancer patients and other scary things along with some sobering statement about the risks of smoking.\u00a0 This image would go great on any pack of oil paints or beginner’s art kit to warn users of the long-term risks of painting.\u00a0 In fact, it ought to scare digital artists too.\u00a0 Sorry it’s out of season, but I suspect the type of audience this is aimed at is in a perpetual “autumn frame of mind”.<\/p>\n

\"fractal<\/a>

fractal pattern doodle from doodlerblog.com<\/p><\/div>\n

What’s fractal about it?\u00a0 That is the entry-point to a very profitable discussion.\u00a0 Has the artist captured something of the nature of fractal art?\u00a0 Or at least, fractal art as it commonly appears.\u00a0 Is it “better” than fractal art?\u00a0 I can see infinity –and more.\u00a0 Thought snacks.\u00a0 Crunch, crunch.<\/p>\n

\"Hafnium<\/a>

Hafnium crystal bar by Alkemist-hp<\/a> on Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

This was featured on the front page of the English Wikipedia a few months ago and I immediately saw a resemblance to Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings.\u00a0 I don’t think this is technically a fractal thing, although perhaps closer inspection of the crystal might reveal something of that nature.\u00a0 There’s movement, there’s all sorts of things suggested, even some colors, which might be reflections of things outside the view of the photograph.\u00a0 But none of those things are really<\/em> there, which makes us feel insane.\u00a0 If any art form can have ready-mades, fractal art is it.<\/p>\n

\"Wavy.gif<\/a>

Wavy.gif by someone at NASA<\/p><\/div>\n

Thanks to Alef over at Fractalforums.com I found this scary octopus creature.\u00a0 It’s just a demonstration of some wave formula, but look how weird and other worldly such humble things can be!\u00a0 Worthy of any TV sci-fi episode.\u00a0 Speaking of which…<\/p>\n

\"Space<\/a>

Space 1999 screenshot (1976)<\/p><\/div>\n

Dig the groovy op-art or math thing on the wall.\u00a0 It may surprise some of you youngsters to know that there was a time when mechanical looking artwork was considered cutting edge and not primitive or retro as it is in today’s millions of colours, photorealistic Disneyland kind of world.\u00a0 Somebody in set design thought this was likely to be the kind of thing people in the future would consider decorative.\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 Nobody at the time thought it was any good.\u00a0 It must have been ahead of its time.\u00a0 There’s was more to the 70s than Planet of the Apes.\u00a0 By the way (btw) click on the image to go to the YouTube channel which hosts the entire two seasons of Space 1999.\u00a0 The year, 1999, used to be the unimaginable future.\u00a0 Now it’s the unimaginable past.\u00a0 But I still love the lunar scenery.<\/p>\n

\"untitled<\/a>

untitled by Dan-Florian Nitoi on Facebook<\/p><\/div>\n

I like it.\u00a0 A fine example of how a simple fractal shape can become something greater than a great fractal shape.\u00a0 There’s no explanation or notes about it.\u00a0 I’m not even sure the guy who posted it actually made it.\u00a0 Perhaps it’s only a fractal in name.\u00a0 A secret fractal.\u00a0 Can you tell?<\/p>\n

\"Digital<\/a>

Digital Dharma Buddhabrot by Alef<\/p><\/div>\n

Alef kind of apologizes for the rough look of this image, “My quasijulia mandelbrot buddhabrot brahmabrot. It lacks glamorous touch of photoshop, so watch it a bitt away from monitor, > 1m.”\u00a0 But that’s one of the reason’s I happen to like it.\u00a0 That, and the radioactive pink, red and blue color scheme.\u00a0 And the wispy, shadowy, “memories” of fractals.<\/p>\n

\"Land<\/a>

Land of Layers by dainbramage<\/p><\/div>\n

Dainbramage (not his real name) says this: “Nothing special. \u00a0Came across this in a negative Amazing Box using _RotatedAbs as formula 2.”\u00a0 I’ve been seeing it in my Viewmarks, thumbnail bookmark collection for quite a few months now and always stopped to look at the exquisite use of black and white, light and shadow, and of course, depth and levels.\u00a0 This is Geometry made flesh.\u00a0 Naturally, it’s even more impressive full-size.\u00a0 And the shapes, both the shapes themselves and the empty spaces between them.\u00a0 We should all suffer from this sort of braindamage.<\/p>\n

\"Untiled<\/a>

Untiled Faces by Nathan Selikoff<\/p><\/div>\n

You fiddle with the stick controllers for one display and it changes what you see in the others, with the right one being a zoom of what you select with the stick in the first display.\u00a0 Notice the wierdo retro monochrome dislay, not unlike some of the mini monitor screens in Space 1999.\u00a0 The artist explains it better, perhaps:<\/p>\n

Untiled Faces is an interactive sculpture that mixes a chaotic dynamical system with its “meta” representation, allowing the viewer to explore the four-dimensional parameter space by moving a series of levers. The left pane of Untiled Faces<\/i> shows a 32 by 32 grid of images. As the left lever is moved, a red square over one of the small images moves, updating two variables that affect the center and right panes. The right pane shows the selected image from the left pane at a larger size. The right lever moves a small red target within this image, updating another two variables that affect the center pane. The center pane shows a chaotic attractor, whose four coefficients are taken from the positions of the left and right levers. The center lever adjusts the virtual camera viewing this strange attractor. Thus, all three images are linked, and in a somewhat mysterious way show the relationship between a strange attractor and its Lyapunov exponent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It won the “Most Innovative” award at the “Bridges” conference.\u00a0 But that’s not too surprising when you see the other entries<\/a>.\u00a0 The math and science crowd seem to have a whole different perspective on “art”.<\/p>\n

\"Pink<\/a>

Pink Hibiscus by Amanda Moore<\/p><\/div>\n

Very nice “colorama”.\u00a0 The image tags for this on Fineartamerica.com include the word fractal and useful combinations of “canvas prints”; also, apophyis.\u00a0 It could be processed but what does that really mean anymore in the world of advanced fractal features?\u00a0 I had to fish this out of my browser cache because the site disables all the right-click functions on the mouse and the image was too tall for a screenshot on my laptop’s short screen.\u00a0 No threatening copyright notices written with barbed wire, though.\u00a0 But I suppose most of you artists reading this think all those things are good ideas.<\/p>\n

I’m still hunting around Fineartamerica.com for fractal images; it’s always exciting to find a new online art venue.\u00a0 So far it looks to be suffering from the same malaise as Deviant Art and all the rest.<\/p>\n

\"Poelzig<\/a>

Poelzig Hans (1869-1936), Gro\u00dfes Schauspielhaus in Berlin (1919): Innenr\u00e4ume im Bau. Foto auf Papier, 18 x 24 cm (inkl. Scanr\u00e4nder). TU UB Plansammlung Inv. Nr. F 1600.<\/p><\/div>\n

All that text was in the meta part of the jpg file, I guess.\u00a0 Pretty convenient.\u00a0 Note the groovy Greek capital beta letter and the double dot, umlaut things.\u00a0 It’s going to be a dull world when everyone learns English.<\/p>\n

This was how the Mandelboxes of the past were rendered.\u00a0 There really is a fractal aspect to this one.\u00a0 And that’s precisely what the architect was trying to depict, I’m guessing.\u00a0 Things like this are planned out carefully ahead of time.<\/p>\n

The fractal art world, on the other hand, is different:<\/p>\n

\"Deviant

Deviant Art is practically a mountain of art!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Somewhere

Somewhere on Facebook<\/p><\/div>\n

\"If

If you build it they will come!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"From<\/a>

From the National Post newspaper<\/p><\/div>\n

This isn’t a fractal, obviously, but then again it really isn’t not a fractal, either.\u00a0 It suggests fractal to me.\u00a0 It has all the attributes of a nice 3d fractal to it: depth and layers; nice surface texturing which repeats the forms from the large scale view; basic geometric shapes -circle, line, rectangle, symmetry, curves; a nice little bit of realism added in to enhance the context of the image.\u00a0 Oh, I forgot; it’s ornamental<\/em>, that makes it very fractal too.<\/p>\n

\"chaoscope_24___orange_by_mario837\"<\/a>

chaoscope_24___orange_by_mario837<\/p><\/div>\n

This on the other hand is definitely in the fractal\/chaos theory realm of imagery.\u00a0 Mario837 says this about it: “Made with Chaoscope 0.3.1 – Lorenz-74 attractor, Solid render.”\u00a0 I like the shape and also the color.\u00a0 Very few fractal artists experiment with color, in my opinion.\u00a0 Color can transform things –for better or worse.\u00a0 In this case it’s for the better.\u00a0 Nice simple piece of algorithmic artwork, even if it does resemble a cross between a Cuisinart blade and a toilet seat.\u00a0 Simple shapes can be not so simple sometimes.<\/p>\n

\"ultraLucia<\/a>

ultraLucia 667 of 760 by Dan Wills<\/p><\/div>\n

I don’t know if the link will take you directly to the full size image, but it’s worth a try.\u00a0 Dan’s in a category all his own.\u00a0 To really appreciate his work you have to stroll through it like one would a large exhibition.\u00a0 Then I think you begin to see things the way he does.\u00a0 Sometimes making great fractal art can be as simple as just wandering around in a formula and letting your eye set the course.<\/p>\n

\"ultraLucia<\/a>

ultraLucia 634 of 760 by Dan Wills<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s been a lot of talk (by me) about whether or not fractals can ever produce artwork that has as much substance and expressiveness as what is called (by some) to be Fine Art, Mona Lisa kind of stuff.\u00a0 I’m of the opinion that it just doesn’t have the basic ingredients and structural requirements to do the job, but this image comes close.\u00a0 It’s almost a Mona Lisa like thing, but the greenish shape is the mysterious, smile element of the art work.\u00a0 Just as viewers stare at Mona’s smile to carefully read it’s subtleties, something’s there in this image, a mandelbrot man, probably, but the coloring is spread over an uneven surface which makes one have to look carefully to make out the faint outline of …what?<\/p>\n

\"celestia_by_dorianoart\"<\/a>

celestia_by_dorianoart<\/p><\/div>\n

Am I dorianoart’s greatest fan now?\u00a0 Maybe some of you think that all these are just variations on a theme, but then of course they are: variations on a great theme!<\/em>\u00a0 Nobody else makes images like this.\u00a0 I don’t think they have the “vision” to do it.\u00a0 It’s a subtle style and in the world of art subtlety is a powerful thing.<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/a>

Sea Dragonfly by Lawrence Morrell<\/p><\/div>\n

Although not exactly fractals, they do depict the fractal like patterns seen in butterfly wings.\u00a0 Of course it’s the transformation these things have when rendered in frosted glass that really makes them interesting.\u00a0 Glass is such a strange medium since it naturally distorts light and behaves with a mind of its own sometimes.\u00a0 You can see more at the Portland Fine Art<\/a> website or on Lawrence’s own website named lawrencemorrell.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Lawrence<\/a>

Lawrence Morrell’s work at Portland Fine Art<\/p><\/div>\n

\"2dbarcode

2dbarcode from Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

This is meatiest of all food for thought bits.\u00a0 Real art in its most energetic, catch it if you can, style.\u00a0 Is this a piece of information, a diagram to explain how to read two dimensional barcodes?\u00a0 Or is it the first step into the world of digital art?\u00a0 The first step which requires your eyes –and the mind they’re plugged into– to be calibrated for the new medium.<\/p>\n

Digital art can be read.\u00a0 This is why mathematicians can get excited over rather dull images that are perfect graphical renderings of mathematical formulas and expressions.\u00a0 That’s a bit of what I meant when I said the math and science crowd have a different perspective on “art”.\u00a0 I’m sure Benoit Mandelbrot went bananas over the first computer printouts of fractal formulas; it was like seeing the face of things he’d only known as expressions of numbers and greek letters.<\/p>\n

I like that “quiet zone”.\u00a0 A digital DMZ?\u00a0 Or is it just the digital equivalent of lawns and parkland?\u00a0 A minefield for rogue pixels?\u00a0 Do not go gentle into that good Quiet Zone!<\/a><\/p>\n

I think the food’s all gone.\u00a0 I’d better stop now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I travel the internet, I make “Viewmarks” of artwork worth reviewing, and sometimes I end up with little scraps of things that I just can’t seem to fit into a proper blog posting.\u00a0 But I keep them around anyhow because they’re food for thought, so to speak; singular ideas with potential. Here are a few … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4464,"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-4428","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\/2013\/01\/2dbarcode.png?fit=400%2C222","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":362,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=362","url_meta":{"origin":4428,"position":0},"title":"Fractal Woodburning","author":"Tim","date":"28 January, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not making this up.\u00a0 I went surfing about to see what I could find in the fractal world and lo and behold at Flickr, a couple of pages into a search on the term \"fractal\", I saw wires, boards and strange, curly burn patterns.photo by AetherPhoto caption from Aether's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":248,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=248","url_meta":{"origin":4428,"position":1},"title":"Spider Writing","author":"Tim","date":"10 November, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Block-waving is all about lines. If there's no lines, then you just end up with a pile of block-waved mush.I was looking through an old book on my computer. It was a series of scanned, tiff images. I noticed the fine lines in the black and white engravings and instantly\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":395,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=395","url_meta":{"origin":4428,"position":2},"title":"Infinite Jest?","author":"cruelanimal","date":"24 July, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Slimazoids Visit Gnarlinspike Badlands by Garth Thornton. Posted to Fractal-World.One of the hardest parts of my job is figuring out what other people will think is funny. You\u2019d think that would be easy, but my own sense of humor is far from the mainstream. I can\u2019t assume others will laugh\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Hurry to Dress by Elenyte","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/hurrytodress.jpg?fit=450%2C450&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":419,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=419","url_meta":{"origin":4428,"position":3},"title":"Meanwhile, back at the Academy…","author":"Tim","date":"8 October, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"lesson_2_atmosphere_isolation_for_janet Click to EnlargeI found this in the Student Galleries section of the Visual Arts Academy.\u00a0 There's no name or date but it's filed in the Ultra Fractal Artistry section of the gallery, a course given by Janet Parke.I like this.\u00a0 In fact, I fished it out of all the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3498,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3498","url_meta":{"origin":4428,"position":4},"title":"Fractal Paintings of Tralfamadore","author":"Tim","date":"21 November, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The intersection of Brummbaer (he doesn't use a first name) and fractal art is something worth taking a second, and more careful look at. Brummbaer brings with him several decades of graphical and artistic experience and his \"Tralfamadore\" series of images are worth studying as well as appreciating for their\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\/11\/tralfamadore01.jpg?fit=400%2C320&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":337,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=337","url_meta":{"origin":4428,"position":5},"title":"My Art is Red Hot, You’re Art Ain’t Diddley-Squat!","author":"Tim","date":"8 August, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bloody SunsetIn the year, 2008, Fractal Art is boring.It wasn't always like that. There was a time when Fractal Art was exciting. But that was just because it was new.Now the excitement is found only in a few enclaves high in the mountains; hard to reach, remote, inaccessible places. From\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=337#comments"},"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\/4428","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=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4470,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions\/4470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}