12 min 1

Never a Discouraging Word

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…
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3 min 0

Geomo de la Fyre

  • Tim
  • 21 April, 2008
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…
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2 min 0

The Inner Workings of Walls

  • Tim
  • 18 April, 2008
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…
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3 min 0

The Arabian Nights

  • Tim
  • 14 April, 2008
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…
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7 min 0

An Open Letter to Avalanche Publishing

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…
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3 min 0

Ich bin ein Bernini!

  • Tim
  • 11 April, 2008
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,…
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6 min 0

Snorkeling in Wool

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…
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4 min 0

The Prose Poem

  • Tim
  • 8 April, 2008
I remember the great arrival of the prose poem. I was taking a poetry “workshop” and there, suddenly, on a page in the poetry anthology was a clump of text without any explanation. This fragment…
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1 min 0

The Continued Fall of the House of Usher

  • Tim
  • 4 April, 2008
All text taken from The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe, more or less… Technorati Tags: Fall of the House of Usher, Illustration, gothic horror, gothic lying, Edgar Allan Poe,…
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1 min 0

Crumblescape

  • Tim
  • 2 April, 2008
All text from The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe (in case you thought I wrote it…) Recipe for Crumblescape-Take any image, process 7 or so times with multicrystal.8bf (by…
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2 min 2

Better than Escher?

  • Tim
  • 30 March, 2008
Yes, but let’s give the old guy credit for having to work with such primitive tools — like himself. That’s right; I don’t have to calculate or plan anything in my own head like what’s-his-name…
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2 min 0

Nobody said a word, but I knew

  • Tim
  • 29 March, 2008
There was a time when the radio made pictures. There was a time when you could see the sounds you heard. You could look at the radio waves. Abandoned now, the memories still exist. Ask…
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2 min 7

Are you ready for bubbles?

  • Tim
  • 27 March, 2008
bubbles03.loo I don’t know what made me pick up Sterlingware again. After a year or two of experimenting with the formula parser in Inkblot Kaos and Tierazon and a whole bunch of photoshop filters, Sterlingware…
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12 min 0

Incoming

Incoming (1999) Duck and cover, Orbit Trappers. There’s been some shelling this week on the Fractal Universe Calendar front. Although I noted that the current Fractal Universe Calendar editor should presume she has been contacted…
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1 min 0

Post-Card

  • Tim
  • 18 March, 2008
Technorati Tags: fractal art, digital art, illustration, postcards, say it with flowers, say it with insects, slugs, confucious, art judges, contest judging, art contest,
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7 min 1

Facelift

Facelift (2008) The call has sounded again for the 2010 Fractal Universe Calendar. And the website for all things FU has been given a text-heavy facelift. But peel away the new cosmetic facade, and nothing…
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1 min 0

Secret, Invisible and Ever-Unknown

  • Tim
  • 17 March, 2008
Photographed by Sterlingware, the Hubble Telescope of Fractals (Sterli12.loo) Technorati Tags: fractal art, great fractal art, really really good fractal art, the best fractal art, the apex of fractal art, greatest fractal art ever, bow…
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3 min 0

The Bird That Gave Birth to the Moon

  • Tim
  • 16 March, 2008
Click for Sterlingware Parameter File There is a new legend that tells how a bird gave birth to the moon. For thousands of years the bird had laid eggs and all of them had been…
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2 min 0

Temple of Saturn

  • Tim
  • 12 March, 2008
Brought to you by the proud sponsors of the 2012 Olympic Clickism Team! [Your Company’s Name Here] I’m trying to get Clickism recognized as an official Olympic sport. Of course, if that happens I probably…
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6 min 0

Troll Prima Donna

Troll Prima Donna (2000) Another paradigm shift: trolls are hecklers. They aren’t satisfied with the nearly infinite opportunities on the Internet to build their own spaces and places and express their views. They’d rather steal…
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3 min 0

Whistleblower

  • Tim
  • 5 March, 2008
Another paradigm shift: This blog, Orbit Trap, is a whistleblower. I think that’s why there’s been such hostility to it and such little open support. That’s always the way it is with the unpopular role…
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2 min 4

Fractalbook

  • Tim
  • 3 March, 2008
Hi, my name’s Suzyfrak745632 My latest paradigm shift: The online fractal “art” world is primarily a social network where one’s “art” is used to gain admission to, and build a network of friends. My impression…
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7 min 2

Us and Them

Aigaios (2008) All I want is some good Clean Fun All I want is some Good Clean Fun–Descendents, “GCF” It’s not torture when we do it… —Bark of the Moonbat (and countless others) When so…
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1 min 0

The Algorithmic Circus

  • Tim
  • 28 February, 2008
TieraZon, uscomic.8bf, XnView text – all three-rings Technorati Tags: fractal art digital art tierazon algorithmic art circus balloons popcorn candy floss…
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3 min 0

I’ve got a new filter!

  • Tim
  • 23 February, 2008
From Terry Gibbons’ The Visual Index of Science Fiction Cover Art I don’t know exactly how it works, but where there’s math… there’s fractals! Sure, the math folks will argue with me, but like all…
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3 min 0

Ashes to Ashes, Pulp to Pulp

  • Tim
  • 18 February, 2008
From Frank Wu’s collection of Frank R. Paul’s Golden Age Sci-Fi Pulp Covers “The sages of Calisto were super-intelligent and had become so far advanced in the Sciences that there was nothing more for them…
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4 min 4

"The Best Fractal Art Ever Created"

Well, it’s an exciting neck and neck (sea)horse race over at the idreamincolor forum where the locals are busy buzzing and definitively storming the hive while answering this honey-dripping question: What Is the Best Fractal…
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3 min 1

Painting With Power!

  • Tim
  • 15 February, 2008
“Great art picks up where nature ends.” -Marc Chagall.8bf “One small step for a fractal artist; one giant leap for Fractal Art” -Neil Armstrong.8bf “The aim of photoshop filters is to represent not the outward appearance of…
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3 min 2

Art Without an Audience

  • Tim
  • 12 February, 2008
Fyre 1.0.1 embedded parameter file When Orbit Trap was started, back in August of 2006, it had always been foremost in my mind that it would be a positive contribution to the fractal art world.…
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9 min 1

Leave a Light On

Leave a Light On (2008) Reader Toby, in our comments section, has finally taken up the challenge to address some of the points Orbit Trap has raised about the two major fractal competitions. He also…
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2 min 3

Epilogue

  • Tim
  • 9 February, 2008
The Persistence of Comments In case there’s anyone still following this latest comment “thread”, here’s the final chapter. Toby sent us his final remarks which he said we could post if we wanted to. Unlike…
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1 min 0

Read-only Moon

  • Tim
  • 3 February, 2008
Technorati Tags: digital art terraform read-only moon space exploration space cadet space in my head
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1 min 0

Looking for Arrowheads

  • Tim
  • 1 February, 2008
Made with Fyre 1.0.1. Embedded parameter file. Click, click, click, done. I read onceabout kids who would go lookingfor arrowheads I was a kidso I went looking for arrowheadsalso The arrowheadsare in the groundor just…
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