Orbit Trap

I find this work menacing/playful because of the way the optical suggestions of the purity of line makes resonant the larger carcass. Review courtesy of the The Instant Art Critique Generator. The 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot…

Is DNA an algorithm?  Can its renderings be presented as Algorithmic Art?  Will they jump down off the wall and attack the well-dressed gallery patrons? Consider the humble jumping spiders of Oklahoma: As always, click…

Macro photography and fractals have a lot in common.  I don’t know what that is, but I just sense that they have a “family resemblance”.  Imagine you’re trying to put together a jig-saw puzzle but…

My blogging slows down in the summer when other projects get moved to the front burner. But I’m still lurking around. The 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest exhibition begins in a little over a…

Many people have a favorite sport.  Some follow soccer, others american football or hockey, basketball, baseball, cricket…  I follow hurricanes, the tropical storms or cyclones that form in the Carribean during summer and fall of…

I've been surfing. From the noisey beaches of Deviant Art to the silent shores of guano islands. Every one here's a gem to me. Each one gleamed in its own way when I saw it.

I don’t play video games much; just an hour every day of Star Wars Battlefront (original one).  I have friends in Mos Eisley and although they always lose –horribly– they’re always asking me to come…

There’s actually a lot of goldmines out there in the outer reaches of our computer system.  None of us have been to all of them, but we’ve all been to some of them.  I don’t…

I’ve been reiterated from the undead. [Image seen on Amazon.com.] The Fractal Universe Calendar (FUC) returns with a makeover. Previously put out by Avalanche Publishing, it is now under the aegis of Mosely Road Publishers…

Such simple rendering and yet, such powerful rendering.  Remember, most of MC Escher’s great drawings were done in pencil, so there’s no reason why a grayscale or monotone image has to be dull.  Just look…

Dear Diary, I’ve been thinking recently about the creative explosion of Mandelbulbs and Mandelboxes.  Sometimes, I think they represent the latest new wave in fractal art.  Other times, I wonder if they are just the…

What exactly does it mean to be un-Cola?  Cola drinks, like Coca-Cola, are dark-colored and contain caffeine.  The opposite would be light-colored without caffeine?  But both of them are sugary, carbonated drinks sold on the…

I’ve been looking at some mash-ups lately on Flickr ….and I was browsing around on Samuel Monnier’s site ….and July 4th, Independence Day in the States is coming up, …which is similar to Canada’s own…

I don’t dislike everything.  The OT faithful probably know from past posts that I often see fractal art works I find interesting. When Tim and I were first forming Orbit Trap and discussing its possibilities,…

The first time I saw an image made in FractalWorks it was in the gallery section of Fractalforums.com.  I was impressed and yet, I couldn’t quite figure out why I was so impressed.  There wasn’t…

I want to talk about the money in fractal art. Where in the fractal world is there any sort of commercial success?  I don’t mean someone making some trivial amount of money, I mean someone…

Did you miss me? Shot of the 2011 Infinite Creations calendar. [Image seen on BarnesandNoble.com.] Just when you thought it was once again safe to enter your local chain bookstore… The Fractal Universe Calendar (FUC)…

I’m just like the Olympic torch.  I travel the world, and no one knows my route in advance. [Promotional poster for the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Exhibition.  Image seen on Sandra Reid’s blog.]…

Dance first.  Think later. It’s the natural order. —Samuel Beckett [Photograph seen on Janet Parke’s Sketchblog.] In a post to the Ultra Fractal Mailing List, Janet Parke describes a recent project mashing fractal art with…

Have I mentioned what a great addition to the fractal world Fractalforums.com is?  As someone who likes to review exciting new things in fractal art it’s really made my job much easier.  Before, I used…

A review of the new Kaleidoscope (escape-time) IFS fractals posted to Fractalforums.com by the user Knighty. Superb coloring and seemingly endless variations of this formula make Knighty's work well worth looking at as well as…

It’s mine!!  All mine!! [Image seen on nikadon.com.] Can one patent abstract ideas?  Or claim equations as intellectual property? The U.S. Supreme Court will likely make a decision in the near future concerning the constitutional…

I often find myself preoccupied with justifying fractals (and other types of computational imagery) as art; trying to link fractals with the larger stream of visual art that has flowed and enriched (and provoked) our…

For his work in discovering the Mandelbox formula of 3-D fractals, the winner is Tom Lowe, better known on Fractalforums.com as Tglad. Now some might ask why Daniel White and the Mandelbulb Team weren’t this…

I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden there's a new crop of 3-D fractals sprouting up and they're seriously amazing. I've seen 3-D fractals before but these Mandelbulb and Mandel-box things have…

I found this email in my inbox just yesterday and quickly felt my fractal art commentary sap rising boldly in my branches.  Here, read it carefully and see if it has the same Spring-Time for…

Another program from the extensive digital treasury of Terry Gintz.  Unlike Fractal Vizion which contains, metaphorically speaking, a full fractal orchestra, Hydra is a solo performance where the star is the quaternion, a richly talented…

Detail of Tuna by Chris Jordan I thought it might be fitting to once again examine pushing fractal art into its second phase.  Tim laid the initial groundwork for a Phase Two approach to our…

Of all the things that the Genetic Art java program Kandid does, I had always found (until recently) it’s cellular automata features to be the most enticing and the most disappointing. The cellular automata, true…

Subtext by EssG This is the conclusion of a series that began with a review of an article on deviantART entitled “People who’s [sic] Fractals SUCKED!!!”  The series focuses on responding to criticisms raised by…

For those of you young-er folks who have grown up with computers and the internet and consider all that technology and online media to be normal, you don’t know how really dull and boring things…

“I know you are but what am I?” Photograph seen on SodaHead. This is part of a continuing series that began with a review of an article on deviantART entitled “People who’s [sic] Fractals SUCKED!!!” …

Bad ol’ weviewer! You fwighten me! You make my widdle heart quiver! Image by James Cauty.  Seen on Uncertain Times. Well, I certainly started a buzz with my last post.  I feel like I kicked…