A Goblet Emptied by clifftoppler As I predicted, the boundaries of what is and what is not fractal art would have to be reshuffled once the Fractalbookers shelled out for Ultra Fractal 5. I said UF5 could be downgraded to a Photoshop plug-in, and here we see the proof. A digital reproduction of a detail … Continue reading
Sterli30.loo I made this image in Sterlingware with only a slight hue shift in XnView, my trusty side-kick. Although Sterlingware is now over 10 years old, which is pretty old by software standards, and lacks many of the new features that extend the rendering powers of fractal programs (i.e. user formulas and other junk) I … Continue reading
Get back in your seats! First I have to show the Image of the Week: Wood Fractal by Skepsis, 2006 Flickr comments are a whole new genre of writing — and state of mind too! I found this thought provoking. Obviously, you can see this is a photograph of a piece of a sawn tree … Continue reading
[Photograph seen on Memory and Desire.] The “jury” is still out as to whether the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest will be held again this year, so we don’t yet know whether its judges will once more give themselves a free backstage pass to hang their own art next to the “winning entries” they select. … Continue reading
Alright. Sure. The swastika is an ancient symbol found in a number of cultural contexts and therefore has more than one meaning and significance. It also, I suppose, could be described as a simple geometric shape… But really, couldn’t they have come up with a better name? Did they have to use the word, “Swastika”? … Continue reading
Evolving by Maria K. Lemming Lines. Motion. Color. Perspective. Whimsey. Wonderful. X09202 by Joseph Presley Whose woods these are? Don’t ask! Undone by Joel Faber Let’s see my brother top this. Calla Lily by Susan Gardner I know what Freud would say. Dead Wood by Michael Faber Let’s see my brother top this. Unknown Fractal … Continue reading
I think the developers of Ultra Fractal 5 have fallen into the trap that has plagued fractal programs from the earliest days: overly complicated, user-dependent configuration. I have always gotten the feeling, the several times I’ve tried out Ultra Fractal, that it was designed for people who weren’t like me. With Ultra Fractal 5 this … Continue reading
I thought I’d try writing a post, in a straight-forward and non-sarcastic manner, that tries to clarify my concerns about Ultra Fractal 5. Here goes. I believe UF5 has brought fractal art to a critical crossroads. UF5 will almost certainly kick-start a paradigm shift as to how fractal art is seen and will raise serious … Continue reading
Emergence by Mark Townsend 2006 While writing a recent posting, I was Googling to find Mark Townsend’s orbit trap works done using the image importer, Sprite, and I surfed head first into a coral reef of Neo-Pollockian Artworks at his gallery site, Fractal Dimentia. Like Odysseus from the old Greek stories, lost again on his … Continue reading
I’ve had a little more time now to reflect on the implications of the digital image import features added to Ultra “Fractal” 5, so I hope I can clarify some of my initial observations. I’d also like to address some of the points made in the comments about my previous post on UF5. When the … Continue reading
“See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” That Biblical quotation is where the expression, “gilding the lily” comes from. To “gild the lily” is to obscure the natural beauty of … Continue reading
Moment in Blue by Paul DeCelle Right now I’m having deja vu and amnesia at the same time.—Steven Wright Regular OT readers, at least those who haven’t burned out their memory circuits with illegal substances or labored in their studio garrets to produce ten spirals to submit to this year’s suddenly slimmed-down Fractal Universe Calendar, … Continue reading
I stumbled on another interesting find over at Flickr.com: Fractal Origami. fractal by polyscene Although I’m sure work like this is painstaking and requires considerable skill in the more advanced origami techniques (there’s a special technique involved in making some of these folds), what caught my interest was its artistic appeal. In the hands of … Continue reading
I’ve been experiencing hot flashes around the ears lately. I think a round-up of the latest buzz reactions to Orbit Trap might be in order. Let’s start with Keith MacKay’s most recent exercise in pouting: It looks like Orbit Trap is taking credit for ridding the Internet of the most recent calendar images. I suppose … Continue reading
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 and 2010 editions of the … Continue reading
Funny, I was Googling something a week ago, and while following a link to the 2009 gallery of winning images for the Fractal Universe Contest I found myself looking at an error page. These things happen, of course, so I went to the main page and noticed that both the 2009 and 2010 galleries — … Continue reading
My apologies to jamfancy, Funny Bunny and tibiloo, but I found this online vignette was just too precious not to share it with the loyal, die-hard, though thick and thin, grassroots supporters of Orbit Trap — the greatest thing since sliced Mandelbrot. (That’s a joke on the German word for “bread”). Want a link to … Continue reading
Shield by Tamrof Boynton Superb minimalism. Careful composition. So lovely. Dog03 by Cornelia Yoder Please. Merciful God. Make it stop. Signal by Earl L. Hinrichs Coming through clearly for ten years. Shroomies by Stan Hood Shroomheads understand why Stan is God. Bird’s Eye Primrose by Harmen Wiersma Absence makes the fractal grow fonder. deepnessinthesky_nuked by … Continue reading
“After 85 gazillion fractals, I broke the camera out.”-Manas Dichow on his Flickr site Egold: “Love this one but it’s pity that yo’ve gone into “fractals” dream.” Manas Dichow: “egold, Photography isn’t dead yet. Fractals are just a current obsession.” “It’s amazing to me that this software can continue to produce such a broad range … Continue reading
Six Images from The Fractal Universe Calendar 2010 Break out the cheese dip, fractal artists. Your 2010 Fractal Universe Calendar (hereafter known as the FUC) has finally arrived. You might not have noticed, though. Although there was plenty of publicity earlier this spring calling for submissions in various fractal haunts, the announcement of this year’s … Continue reading
Moment in Blue by Paul DeCelle Ultra Fractal is certainly versatile but too often images produced with it quickly lose their freshness to my eyes. The reason is found in its composing process in which striking new formulas are shared and then widely stepped on by the throngs of UF users. Once these variations-on-a-theme floodgates … Continue reading
Chapter One: What is a contest? “an occasion on which a winner is selected from among two or more contestants”wordnet.princeton.edu “A contest, is an event in which two or more individuals or teams compete against each other, often for a prize or similar incentive.”wikipedia “1. A struggle for superiority or victory between rivals.2. A competition, … Continue reading
Welcome back all you faithful Orbit Trap fans to this week’s episode of, “Image of the Week”. Well, as you may have guessed from the title, this review is not going to be pretty. Keep your shoes on. There’s plenty of broken glass around in here. As usual, I was surfing along on my way … Continue reading
A Farewell to Regret by Stacy Reed Popular fractal programs certainly take their share of hard knocks. Apophysis, for example, seems to fiind itself frequently floating in critical backwash, and here on OT we’ve been known to take a few shots at Ultra Fractal (and still have more to say on that subject). But it … Continue reading
Spleen (2008) [Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.] The first section, entitled “Spleen et idèal,” opens with a series of poems that dramatize contrasting views of art, beauty, and the artist, who is depicted alternately as martyr, visionary, performer, pariah, and fool. The focus then shifts to sexual and romantic … Continue reading
To the Reader (2008) [Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.] The poems [in Flowers of Evil] found a small but appreciative audience, but greater public attention was given to their subject matter. The principal themes of sex and death were considered scandalous, and the book became a by-word for unwholesomeness … Continue reading
We’re starting a new weekly feature here on Orbit Trap. Every week we’ll be reviewing an interesting piece of Fractal artwork. This is nothing radical, of course; many sites do this sort of thing, but here on Orbit Trap it’s going to be much more exciting and lively. I thought I would launch this regular … Continue reading
You’ve got to be sharp to win this one! It’s a fresh new year. Who knows what could happen? Although based on previous year’s results, almost half of the exhibition has already been chosen and reserved for the judges, there’s still a good chunk of space reserved exclusively for the contest winners. So get working! … Continue reading
Yes. Apparently all the diseases and infirmities that I’ve been complaining about in the Fractal Art world are widespread and commonplace — in the mainstream. The Fractalbook people that I said were obscuring the really serious Fractal Art “nucleus” like a cloud of mosquitoes are actually what most of the real world is made up … Continue reading
Blue Buffalo (2001) Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiority, then privileges, and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second, and dies in the third.—Vicomte De Chateaubriand It will surprise none of Orbit Trap’s readers to learn we have had no reply to our inquiries about how the Fractal Universe … Continue reading
Fyre embedded parameter file Lately I’ve begun to seriously question whether using the term, “abstract” to describe any piece of artwork can be realistically used. I think the term abstract is itself an abstraction and is hopelessly inseparable from the world of realistic forms and imagery. I think abstract is another way of depicting reality, … Continue reading
Fyre 1.0.1 embedded parameter file Most have never looked beneath the surface of a wall, or even considered doing such a thing. A wall is not seen as an object of substance, and therefore not thought of as having depth, or in this case — inner workings. What walls do, cannot be explained merely on … Continue reading
Sterli18.loo Just like fractals, there is a special allure to the stories of The Arabian Nights. And also like fractals, I think that special quality that makes them attractive comes from their unique origin: fractals springing from a strange new area of mathematics; and The Arabian Nights, from the Middle East. I’m not even a … Continue reading
April 10, 2008 Avalanche Publishing, Inc.P.O. Box 55Delafield , WI 53018 Attention: Publishing Team for the Fractal Universe Calendar Dear Publishing Team: I am writing you out of concern for the protocols used to solicit materials for your annual Fractal Universe Calendar. I co-edit Orbit Trap, a blog devoted to fractals and fractal art. My … Continue reading
The Ecstasy of St Clickism It’s not exactly a single photoshop filter, “bernini.8bf”, but rather a syndrome of filters (to use a pathological expression). The sierpinski effect from multicrystal.8bf (Ilyich the Toad) produces the sharp, stone-like appearance that extractor1.8bf expands upon so well. But it’s the simple mirror,mirror filter that takes it to a whole … Continue reading
Hyperbolic coral forms by Christine Werthiem and Margaret Wertheim. Photo by Alyssa Gorelick. From the “Goings on about Town” section of The New Yorker, 4-7-08: Crocheting the Coral Reef: The Institute for Figuring, a Los Angeles based organization dedicated to bringing fractals, hyperbolic space and other high-flying mathematical and scientific concepts down to earth, has … Continue reading