{"id":2476,"date":"2011-02-07T00:14:10","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T05:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2476"},"modified":"2011-02-07T00:14:10","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T05:14:10","slug":"the-art-of-the-strange-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2476","title":{"rendered":"The Art of the Strange Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

~ Click on any image to view full-size on original site ~<\/em><\/p>\n

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Spiny Newton Julia Disc by Erisian<\/p><\/div>\n

Although it’s probably been a perennial theme in fractal art from the beginning, the recent 3D fractal explosion has greatly increased the number of images whose main impression is that of The Strange Place<\/em>.\u00a0 Because of this, I think it’s only appropriate to examine more closely this reinvigorated sub-genre of fractal art.<\/p>\n

Fractal<\/em> art? Actually, Strange Places often feature what could be called foreign objects and elements, producing what in traditional art circles is vaguely referred to as Mixed Media.\u00a0 Erisian’s image above, which the author says was made with Bryce and Tiera-Zon is a good example of this.<\/p>\n

Bryce is a well established 3D graphics program that gave birth to the computer graphics “artform” of fairy tale landscapes encased in shiny glass balls, floating on beautiful oceans at sunset.\u00a0 Erisian’s parched landscape and departure from “glass-ball-ism” is a refreshing thing to see associated with Bryce.\u00a0 The use of Tiera-Zon<\/a>, a classic 2D fractal program by Stephen Ferguson, on the other hand, was a genuine surprise to me.\u00a0 I thought it had to be something made in one of the Mandelbox programs.\u00a0 But no, Tierazon has entered the 3D universe (via Bryce, I assume).<\/p>\n

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MandelForest 1 by MarkJayBee<\/p><\/div>\n

This one here by MarkJayBee (on Fractalforums.com) is pretty old by mandelbox standards, dated at\u00a0 May 4, 2010 (seems like a decade ago).\u00a0 Mark specializes in sci-fi mandelbox panoramas so it’s not surprising he’s captured what I would call a Strange Place<\/em>.\u00a0 What could be a better use of Strange Places<\/em> than sci-fi environments?\u00a0 It looks just like a scene out of the movie, Avatar, with its floating pinacles and dangling vines.\u00a0 What makes for a Strange Place is such an alien panorama as this: realistic, and yet un<\/em>real.\u00a0 You feel like you’ve been someplace.\u00a0 A Strange Place<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Sierpinsk Temple detail by MakinMagic (Dave Makin)<\/p><\/div>\n

Did I say MarkJayBee’s mandelbox was old?\u00a0 This Sierpinski Temple by Dave Makin actually predates the 3D Mandelbulb\/Mandelbox arrival.\u00a0 Of course, you can see that in Dave’s conveniently located watermark in the bottom left corner.\u00a0 Someday, perhaps, the only digital artists that will ever be remembered are those who wrote their names on their work.<\/p>\n

This is a real sci-fi city Dave has created.\u00a0 Richly detailed, majestically lit, it’s a city of Empire State buildings<\/a>, each one half statue and half office building.\u00a0 Actually, they’re nicer than the Empire State building.\u00a0 And here we are, perched like eagles, looking into these crowded canyons of sacred architecture.\u00a0 That counts as a Strange Place<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Museum Secret Passageway by janetino<\/p><\/div>\n

Janetino (Deviant Art ID) creates some of the most vivid mandelbox renderings I’ve ever seen.\u00a0 If this was a high resolution, professionally taken photograph of the real thing it wouldn’t look as good as this.\u00a0 Most of the time perfect renderings like this look plastic-y and lifeless but not here.\u00a0 These are heavily ornamented metal doors leading to some of the greatest rooms in the king’s palace.\u00a0 Or are they the lavishly crafted doors of the king’s treasure vault?\u00a0 This is as close as we’ll get, but we’ve been there<\/em>.\u00a0 We’ve been to this Strange Place<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Grotto by The Rev (Fractalforums.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s a slightly different one but nonetheless characterized by the quality of an alien view, The Strange Place<\/em>.\u00a0 The Rev really shows some style here in this one: nice composition, coloring and that special something that you just can’t describe but can see so well –style.\u00a0 This looks very mandelbulbish; I see those round fuzzy things on the walls.\u00a0 It’s always a minor triumph to make something this appealing from that old pollen spore, the mandelbulb.<\/p>\n

We’re crouched in a cave and looking out onto the golden rockwalls of the Valley of the Kings in Egypt or maybe one of the many niches and cavities surrounding Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.\u00a0 Ancient and alive forever looking into the Sun.\u00a0 Or is that just me?\u00a0 I’m a million words rolled up on papyrus and a I don’t ever want to be found.\u00a0 The world is not worthy of my secrets.\u00a0 This is a fine Strange Place<\/em> if there ever was one.\u00a0 I’m going to hang out here for a while; you can head off to YouTube if you like.<\/p>\n

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The Lair of Ananta-Boga by Lenord (2011)<\/p><\/div>\n

Are they hoops, tunnels, giant wicker honeycombs?\u00a0 There’s a Victorian, Steampunk look to it; wrought iron or Eiffel Tower-esque?\u00a0 And I keep thinking what a cool racecourse this would be for the video game, MX Unleashed<\/a> or Off-Road Fury<\/a> because there’s something in this that says roadway.\u00a0 How’s that for a Strange Place<\/em>?\u00a0 Driving is believing.<\/p>\n

Lenord likes symmetry and I’d say this is his best symmetrical work, yet.\u00a0 Strong design and rich depth and detail to the imagery.\u00a0 Dream-like and surreal.\u00a0 Made with the Mandelbulb 3D.\u00a0 Hey, he’s included the parameter file along with it on the gallery page at Fractalforums…<\/p>\n

Strange Place<\/em> is type of artwork that expresses wonder and mystery via a language of physical environment –scenery.\u00a0 You could say it’s the computer version of landscape art, but that’s putting it mildly.\u00a0 There’s commonly a surreal tone to Strange Places<\/em> because computer algorithms, like fractal formulas, don’t create wall calendar nature scenes, they make freaky stuff.\u00a0 In fact, the parameters that render a Strange Place<\/em> image might just as easily render something entirely different with a few minor adjustments.\u00a0 That’s the magic of fractal algorithms: you don’t know what’s around the corner until you go there.<\/p>\n

Strange Places<\/em> are vacation snapshots of digital places.\u00a0 They’re as real as any other place you can take of photograph of, and now with the current 3D fractal developments including actual stereo video rendering (3D glasses), they’re almost as real as it gets without actually being in<\/em> the picture.\u00a0 Rathinagiri’s cross-eyed stereograms that I posted about before, show how vivid the digital world can be.\u00a0 The digital world is the Strange Place<\/em> I’m talking about, I guess.<\/p>\n

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fractal20110127 by Rathinagiri<\/p><\/div>\n

3D stereo fractal imagery just might be the ultimate level to the art of the Strange Place<\/em>.\u00a0 When I look at Rathinagiri’s image in cross-eyed mode, it’s like these swirly clay shapes are right in front of me and I could reach out and touch them.\u00a0 I’m practically in the picture, the illusion is so strong. Rathinagiri hasn’t just given us an image of something to look at, he’s given us the real object itself. You just can’t touch it; no different than being in real world museum or art gallery. I’ll bet it’s that intense reality that motivates him to keep creating stereograms.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, that’s the art of the Strange Place<\/em> and I think it’s a sub-genre that will only grow and develop the way things seem to be going in fractal art these days.\u00a0 So if you find there’s something powerful and compelling about a fractal image but you just can’t fit it into the regular categories of visual art or find the words to explain what’s so good about it, it’s probably this Strange Place<\/em> thing I’ve been talking about here.\u00a0 A fresh wind of surrealism.\u00a0 For the true eye-ball enthusiast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although it’s probably been a perennial theme in fractal art from the beginning, the recent 3D fractal explosion has greatly increased the number of images whose main impression is that of The Strange Place. Because of this, I think it’s only appropriate to give some thought to this reinvigorated sub-genre of fractal art. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2476","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\/2011\/02\/Spiny-Newton-Julia-Disc-by-Erisian.jpeg?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5625,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5625","url_meta":{"origin":2476,"position":0},"title":"Place: Where Art and Fractals Overlap","author":"Tim","date":"23 June, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As I concluded in my previous posting, there are only two art genres which fractals are capable of contributing to: Abstract Expressionism and Landscape\/Place. Everything else created with the fractal medium is what I would call snapshots: interesting, even fascinating imagery but lacking in expressiveness or the portrayal of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":362,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=362","url_meta":{"origin":2476,"position":1},"title":"Fractal Woodburning","author":"Tim","date":"28 January, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not making this up.\u00a0 I went surfing about to see what I could find in the fractal world and lo and behold at Flickr, a couple of pages into a search on the term \"fractal\", I saw wires, boards and strange, curly burn patterns.photo by AetherPhoto caption from Aether's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5613,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5613","url_meta":{"origin":2476,"position":2},"title":"Why can’t fractals do what art does?","author":"Tim","date":"2 June, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the years I've come to see this as the perennial problem in fractal art. Naturally there are many other perspectives regarding the \"art-worthiness\" of fractals, among which the most common seems to be that they're essentially no different than any other medium that artists work with. But this doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/freak07.jpg?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2769,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2769","url_meta":{"origin":2476,"position":3},"title":"Will the Old-Timers at the BMFAC accept the new breed of 3D fractal artists?","author":"Tim","date":"16 July, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Responses at Fractal Forums.com to the recent announcement of the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 suggest to me that a lot of things have changed in the fractal art world since the BMFAC was initiated back in... \u00a1Ay, caramba!\u00a0 --2006! ~ Click on images to go to original site\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2769#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/comment1.png?fit=580%2C244&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/comment1.png?fit=580%2C244&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/comment1.png?fit=580%2C244&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2863,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2863","url_meta":{"origin":2476,"position":4},"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":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2863#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2875,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2875","url_meta":{"origin":2476,"position":5},"title":"Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 5","author":"Tim","date":"15 August, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The future of fractal art Well, bluntly stated, there is no future in fractal art.\u00a0 At least not in the kind of fractal art that most artists are making today.\u00a0 That's the stuff I called Parameter Art in my last posting, Part 4.\u00a0 What we've all seen is what we're\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2875#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2476"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2514,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions\/2514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}