{"id":6069,"date":"2018-02-28T21:32:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T02:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=6069"},"modified":"2018-03-10T10:06:19","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T15:06:19","slug":"fractal-art-is-all-about-nuance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=6069","title":{"rendered":"Fractal Art is all about nuance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I read an interesting article by Rhiannon Cosslett in the <em>The Guardian<\/em> entitled, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2018\/feb\/08\/art-nuance-censorship-outrage-painting\"><em>Art is all about nuance. Let\u2019s not lose it in the alarmist censorship debate<\/em><\/a> (Feb 8, 2018).\u00a0 In attempting to explain the real source of the controversy behind the removal of a Victorian era painting from display in the Manchester Art Gallery, she appeals to a premise about art that I think not only succeeds in resolving that particular controversy but also resolving just about every other controversy there has ever been about the nature of art.\u00a0 And furthermore, what she says about art is even more relevant in the context of fractal and algorithmic art because of its abstract character.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Article&#8217;s Main Points<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The article is quite short and very well written, so I won&#8217;t bother summarizing it here.\u00a0 However, for discussion purposes, here are the main points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Art is not about one thing or the other, art is all about nuance.<\/li>\n<li>Your interpretation of a work of art is profoundly influenced by who you are. Famous art with sexual overtones demonstrates this.<\/li>\n<li>There is no such thing as a correct interpretation of art.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Nuance is the key to understanding art<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the surface the article is just saying:\u00a0 It&#8217;s all about nuance and there&#8217;s lots of those so don&#8217;t get hung up on any one interpretation of anything.\u00a0 But underneath, there is the implication that art is not something that can be objectively studied, discussed or even evaluated because people&#8217;s impressions of it are not comparable; being formed primarily not by <em><strong>what<\/strong><\/em> they see, but <em><strong>how<\/strong><\/em> they see it.<\/p>\n<p>But the conceptual implications of nuance go even further than that.\u00a0 They suggest that any image of anything at all is really just a collection of visual elements whose order, significance and meaning are products of the eccentricities of the viewer&#8217;s mind rather than fixed properties of the image or the intentions of the artist.<\/p>\n<p>Art is undefinable and not only that, it&#8217;s uncontrollable and unpredictable.\u00a0 Small changes in the mind of the viewer will have enormous consequences for the interpretation of art.\u00a0 Some little thing or aspect of an image can have an effect on your overall impression similar to how, in Chaos Theory, a butterfly beating its wings in one place can cause a hurricane somewhere else.\u00a0 Those <em>little things or aspects<\/em> are called &#8220;nuance&#8221;.\u00a0 Whether nuance springs from the mind of the viewer, or the art, makes no difference because ultimately the substance, medium and domain of all art is the human mind and thus the only thing you can hope to be objective about in art is your own opinions.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Nuance is&#8230;the site in which most art resides&#8221;<\/em> writes Cosslett.\u00a0 The easiest way to show this is by reexamining the controversy that Cosslett&#8217;s article deals with: sexual themes in art. These themes make the role of nuance appear not so nuanced.<\/p>\n<p>Cosslett&#8217;s impressions on this painting by Degas is a good example of art being all about nuance.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6085\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Dancers-on-a-bench-1898-Degas.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6085\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6085\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Dancers-on-a-bench-1898-Degas.jpg?resize=500%2C356\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Dancers-on-a-bench-1898-Degas.jpg?w=500 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Dancers-on-a-bench-1898-Degas.jpg?resize=150%2C107 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Dancers on a Bench,<\/em> 1898 by Edgar Degas<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Filthy old pervert Degas and his pre-teen ballerinas&#8221; is how Cosslett captions this image.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why would Cosslett say that?\u00a0 I asked that question too until I sensed the nuance that she was alluding to.\u00a0 Do you see it, too?<\/p>\n<p>You probably don&#8217;t see anything &#8220;wrong&#8221; with Degas&#8217; painting because you haven&#8217;t paid much attention to the ages of the &#8220;women&#8221; in the painting.\u00a0 They&#8217;re all young girls and here we have a voyeuristic &#8220;look down the top&#8221; view of three of them tightening their point shoes.<\/p>\n<p>But have you changed your view of the painting now?\u00a0 Or has nothing changed except that now you want to vigorously defend your own interpretation against her &#8220;revisionist&#8221; one?\u00a0 If you don&#8217;t see this painting as the artistic expression of\u00a0 a &#8220;filthy old pervert&#8221; that&#8217;s okay.\u00a0 Your perspective may not take seriously the nuances of &#8220;filth&#8221; or &#8220;pre-teen ballerinas&#8221; or you may not even see any of that at all, but yours is still a reasonable interpretation and the most common one, too, I&#8217;d say.\u00a0 But now, I think you can also see how your reasonable interpretation isn&#8217;t<strong> <em>the only one<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 That is really all I think Cosslett is trying to say on this matter of censorship and alarmist reactions to art: there&#8217;s always more than one interpretation because&#8230; <strong><em>art is all about nuance.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are undoubtedly many possible nuances in the painting depending on how you see these sorts of scenes and subjects, and your reaction to them (or lack of reaction) is really just a matter of who you are and how you see things, your taste in art, etc&#8230;\u00a0 Can you change who you are and how you see things? There&#8217;s more to Degas than his questionable interest in the scene depicted above, and who&#8217;s to say one interpretation is right and the other wrong?\u00a0 If art is all about nuance, then art is not an objective thing.\u00a0 Can it ever be?<\/p>\n<p>Art is all about nuance means artistic interpretation revolves around suggestion and perceived implication: fuzzy stuff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fractal Art or Fecal Art?<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6097\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fractalforums.com\/fractalforums-com-calendar-project\/fractalforums-com-calendar-2-pre-order-now!\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6097\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6097\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/The-Prize-by-Leonard.jpg?resize=500%2C281\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/The-Prize-by-Leonard.jpg?w=500 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/The-Prize-by-Leonard.jpg?resize=150%2C84 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6097\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Prize by Leonard (Fractalforums.com)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6098\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fractalforums.com\/fractalforums-com-calendar-project\/the-world-is-built-on-fractals-calendars-2013!\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6098\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6098\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ff-calendar-2013.jpg?resize=500%2C322\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ff-calendar-2013.jpg?w=500 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ff-calendar-2013.jpg?resize=150%2C97 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fractalforums.com 2013 Calendar in print<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6099\" style=\"width: 442px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4027\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6099\" class=\"wp-image-6099 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ff-calendar-2013-cover-review.jpeg?resize=432%2C285\" alt=\"\" width=\"432\" height=\"285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ff-calendar-2013-cover-review.jpeg?w=432 432w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ff-calendar-2013-cover-review.jpeg?resize=150%2C99 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6099\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from the Orbit Trap review of the calendar and its images<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So what gave me such a different impression of this cover image than that of the awesome, fractal lovin&#8217; folks over at Fractalforums?\u00a0 Well, who&#8217;s to say where our impressions of art come from, or for that matter, our gut feelings about anything?\u00a0 However, the dark, crumbling heap with straw-like things in it and the background of finely rendered, yellowy-brown volumetric fog reminded me -quite vividly- of a horse stable manure pile on an overcast afternoon in late winter.\u00a0 Is that crazy?\u00a0 And even if it was, can I help it?\u00a0 I visited one every day (with a wheelbarrow) for a few years when I was a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>Years have passed since I posted my review but I still see exactly that sort of thing when I look at the image.\u00a0 It leads me to the conclusion that I was objective in my assessment of my opinion about the image.\u00a0 Was I objective about the image?<\/p>\n<p>The folks at Fractalforums generally loved the image and I believe it was mostly because the nuances I described didn&#8217;t seem to be relevant to them even after I mentioned them.\u00a0 The operator of the site even started a thread to post a link to my review of the calendar.\u00a0 He obviously didn&#8217;t see the review in the negative light that the other people responding to the thread did.\u00a0 Another perspective on a perspective.<\/p>\n<p>I consider my impression of the image to be a minority one, but I&#8217;m sure it caused others to reconsider their own, even if it didn&#8217;t change those opinions much.\u00a0 The main point is that, as you can see, there is no correct interpretation of that cover image.\u00a0 It&#8217;s as nuanced as Degas&#8217; &#8220;pre-teen ballerinas&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to post another fractal image I saw years ago (somewhere) of a giant, shiny 3D fractal shape situated in a river with water flowing past it.\u00a0 The water was of a thick yellow consistency and the shine on the 3D fractal shape resembled porcelain&#8230;\u00a0 It was disgusting, but none of the comments on the image posting page suggested anything like the impression I had.<\/p>\n<p>Art has a mind of its own: the viewer&#8217;s mind.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It&#8217;s not over&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Part two&#8230; The Nuances of Nuance.\u00a0 For the true enthusiast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read an interesting article by Rhiannon Cosslett in the The Guardian entitled, Art is all about nuance. Let\u2019s not lose it in the alarmist censorship debate (Feb 8, 2018).\u00a0 In attempting to explain the real source of the controversy behind the removal of a Victorian era painting from display in the Manchester Art Gallery, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=6069\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6097,"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-6069","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\/2018\/02\/The-Prize-by-Leonard.jpg?fit=500%2C281","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2798,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2798","url_meta":{"origin":6069,"position":0},"title":"Does the BMFAC get enough entries to be taken seriously?","author":"Tim","date":"21 July, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave Makin tacked the word, \"International\" onto the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 in his announcement of this year's contest at FractalForums.com.\u00a0 And while the contest could be said to span the globe, the word \"International\" suggests a status for the contest that is something of an exaggeration, even\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2798#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/serious1.jpg?fit=500%2C241&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":320,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=320","url_meta":{"origin":6069,"position":1},"title":"Disappeared Art","author":"cruelanimal","date":"16 June, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Disappearing should be an art form, a seductive way of leaving the world. I believe that part of disappearing is to disappear before you die, to disappear before you have run dry, while you still have something to say...--Jean Baudrillard As Tim noted yesterday, the online images for the 2009\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"No Art Is Better Than Bad Art","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/blankjan2010.jpg?fit=450%2C583&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2863,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2863","url_meta":{"origin":6069,"position":2},"title":"Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 4","author":"Tim","date":"11 August, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Pixel Art vs. Parameter Art In my preceding three parts I have dealt with what I see are the limitations of fractals for making artwork.\u00a0 To put it simply, the geometric imagery called \"fractals\" has a natural bent towards the decorative and design type of art work.\u00a0 Artists who attempt\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2863#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6259,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=6259","url_meta":{"origin":6069,"position":3},"title":"Fractal art LIVES!","author":"Tim","date":"4 February, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Why does it still live? What makes fractal art so exciting it doesn't need anything except itself to keep it going? I guess then, the question is: what is exciting about fractal art? I haven't posted anything for 7 years.\u00a0 Maybe 8 years.\u00a0 I'm not sure. So I've sort of\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=6259#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mandelmix_ii_by_hypex2772.jpg?fit=500%2C281&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5434,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5434","url_meta":{"origin":6069,"position":4},"title":"Why doesn&#8217;t Fractal Art have a half-decent Wikipedia page?","author":"Tim","date":"22 July, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's useless, and although there have been efforts\u00a0to build something substantial there, ultimately the page keeps reverting back to a few shallow paragraphs that fail to even offer a basic\u00a0definition. \u00a0I've been going there for\u00a0several years and have always wondered why it never seems to develop into anything, but now\u00a0I\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5434#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/wpfa1.png?fit=378%2C255&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5075,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5075","url_meta":{"origin":6069,"position":5},"title":"The Synthetic Aesthetic &#8211; 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":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6069","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=6069"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6115,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6069\/revisions\/6115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}