7 min 10

Fractals That Suck

We by silwenka Happy Valentine’s Day.  By the way, as fractal art, this piece, allegedly, sucks. There’s an oddly fascinating feature currently on display on deviantART called “People Who’s [sic] Fractals SUCKED!”  I’ll let the…
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4 min 3

Jpeg Engineering

Now, we all know that it’s our DNA that controls our physical characteristics.  DNA contains the information which determines how we develop from fertilized egg to adult.  DNA, in turn, is literally coded instructions similar…
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7 min 0

A Dozen by Daniel

I don’t like slick computer art but I like Daniel Eaton’s Incendia gallery. The more polished and “professional” computer art gets the more it reminds me of advertising and other kinds of soulless, slithering graphical…
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3 min 1

Fractal Fields of Lightning

Lightning Fields 128 by Hiroshi Sugimoto I learned to capture the lightning shock… —Roger McGuinn, “Lover of the Bayou” The fractal properties of lightning have long been evident in dramatic photographs of self-similar jagged bolts…
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12 min 7

Fractal Animation: Reel #2

Allow me to play Film Class Professor.  Before we dim the lights and roll the film I will give a short lecture which hopefully will enlighten our understanding of these short animations posted below, or,…
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4 min 5

The Big Flat Plateau of Fractal Animation

A few years back I was excited about the possibilities of fractal animation.  Fractal animation, as I saw it, would be literally living and moving fractals.  Fractal artists were about to become fractal film makers…
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3 min 0

Selected Shorts

[Photograph seen on Manshion.] Here are some selected shorts. Apparently, I have no grand vision to impart to start the New Year. ~/~ Orbit Trap has published several recent posts exploring the nature of fractal…
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6 min 0

Fractal Land has seen the Light!

Here at Orbit Trap we’ve been accused by some of being too “preachy”.  Maybe it’s true.  Consider this:  A recent reader and veteran fractal artist, Marcos Napier, has credited Orbit Trap with helping him to…
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4 min 2

Assumptions About Art

I was reading a very erudite New York City art blog a few months ago. One of its postings came up in the results of a Google search I made. As is often the case…
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1 min 0

E-hell – enough, Guido!

Good evening, and welcome to This Week In Opera.  Tonight’s special offering comes from the world of fractal art, an email list for the fractal program, Ultra Fractal.  What makes this opera so avante garde…
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14 min 3

On Making Prints

A framed print of To the Joust.  My cat studies its intricacies for hours. I’d like to talk about my experience with making prints.  Let me begin by making clear that I’m not claiming to…
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6 min 0

Java Applets: Superintelligent Shades of the Color Blue

“Somewhere in the cosmos, he said, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids and superintelligent shades of the colour blue…” –Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy What could…
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9 min 2

Beauty Is Not Enough

La Pietà (1499) by Michelangelo Michelango’s statue is beautiful and well-crafted.  But it is also a widely recognized example of representational art. It can also be interpreted as meaningful.  Even Wikipedia gets it: The Madonna is…
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9 min 5

More Phase Two Thinking about Fractal Art

Art and photograph by adak’76 Repeat viewings of the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest winners consistently leave a bitter aftertaste. I’m convinced, especially after reading Tim’s latest OT series on the distinctions between art…
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4 min 7

Presenting… Fractal “Art”

I think the recent image by Guido Cavalcante, made in Ultra Fractal and used in a posting to illustrate the oceanic garbage dump phenomenon, is a good example of the contrast between art and craft,…
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4 min 1

Let down and disappointed about the contest…

Wait!  It’s not me.  And it’s got nothing to do with Orbit Trap this time either. Curious who could be having seconds thoughts about the glorious Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2009 besides Orbit Trap? …
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5 min 5

Art, Craft and Fractals: Part 2

I got a couple of comments to my previous post, Art, Craft and Fractals, which raised an issue which I think needs to be clarified.  The term, Craft, is used in many ways and most…
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10 min 3

Art, Craft and Fractals

Art is a term that is used very loosely these days.  I happen to think that this casual application of the label, “art” to everything graphical has produced some confusion in the digital art world…
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10 min 3

Scams and Viruses

Have we got a deal not for you… Photograph: The Scam Truck by jepoirrier I know how exciting it is when someone contacts you and wants to purchase your work. Who among us doesn’t want…
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8 min 5

Talking Tall: Final Chapter

“I had to stand up for myself alone, and you saw what they did to me… Until all men can stand up for what they believe in, THE SAME DAMN THING CAN HAPPEN TO ANY…
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5 min 1

The Fractal Art Guild: How it works

In Part 1 I had said that Part 2 would be the Guild in action, but I think I need to clarify this whole notion of a Fractal Art Guild a bit better before going…
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4 min 0

Understanding Fractal Art: The Guild

In order to understand the current fractal art world you need only to learn a bit about the concept called a guild.  I believe the majority of fractal artists are members of a rather pervasive…
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5 min 1

Have they no shame?

Yes, the winners of the Benoit Mandelbrot 2009 Fractal Art Contest are now out (and this time it’s final).  I’m skipping the usual clever art critic review for now because there’s something that’s just too…
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16 min 2

A History of the Orbit Trap Blog

All about the first year of the Orbit Trap fractal art blog. Candid, behind the scenes commentary never before published. Initial planning; Exciting launch of the group blog; Things get rather quiet; Cut bait or…
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3 min 10

Welcome to OrbitTrap.ca!

OrbitTrap.ca is our new address. Update your bookmarks and check out the new site! Actually, it’s all older stuff transferred from our archives over at the old, Blogger site. Why did we move Orbit Trap…
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4 min 0

Sailing into the Horror

The Garbage Path by Guido Cavalcante [Click on the image above to see a large-scale version.] Editor’s Note: This is a guest posting by Guido Cavalcante. His image was made using Ultra Fractal. Excerpts in…
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9 min 1

Force 10 from Navarone!

In keeping with the Phase 2 idea that the essence of fractal art is found in the imagery and not in the tools that made it, I present a mixed bag of things I found…
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3 min 2

Dan Wills: Fractal Columbus

halleyDetailTwoPointNine… by Dan Wills, 2008-Click for larger view- Like a needle in a haystack, or a glowing needle in a fractal formula, is the rumor of a continent over the horizon or the possibility of…
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5 min 0

Meanwhile, back at the Academy…

lesson_2_atmosphere_isolation_for_janet Click to Enlarge I found this in the Student Galleries section of the Visual Arts Academy.  There’s no name or date but it’s filed in the Ultra Fractal Artistry section of the gallery, a…
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8 min 5

The Damien M. Jones Fractal Art Contest

“I’m the decider!” Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.—Lord Acton The recent revelatory leak that a pre-sorted “winners page” was being built by the director of the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest…
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6 min 0

Winners First. Contest Later.

Verdict first. Trial later. I showed in my last post what OT found: a winners page for the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest that displayed current contest entrants placed into three categories: exhibition winner,…
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