{"id":5154,"date":"2013-08-29T18:45:18","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T22:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5154"},"modified":"2013-09-18T16:41:20","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T20:41:20","slug":"the-synthetic-aesthetic-2-the-re-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5154","title":{"rendered":"The Synthetic Aesthetic 2: The Re-Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first part<\/a> of this series, I introduced a few new ideas which have a central part to play in my concept of the Synthetic Aesthetic.\u00a0 I believe it might be of great benefit to pause and clarify those ideas before moving on to examples of actual artwork that illustrate these trends.<\/p>\n

Here’s the idea:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fractal art has become progressively ambiguous in terms of what it looks like and depicts (i.e. subject matter) to the point that now it is no longer unique and distinctive and could just as easily be given a generic label like “synthetic” rather than “fractal”.\u00a0 Fractal art is no longer an art form exclusively dedicated to “math visualization” as fractal artists have abandoned that easily identifiable visual theme in the pursuit of a broader artistry defined only by whatever can be done with a “fractal” program.<\/p>\n

While doing so, they have produced artwork with greater artistic appeal but at the same time with less mathematical relevance.\u00a0\u00a0 Although the inner workings of the software still remain fractal formula based\u00a0 –the only thing that distinguishes fractal art as a distinct artistic category in the first place– the role of these fractal algorithms are now largely employed by artists in “anonymous roles”, unrecognizable and becoming mere anecdotes to the finished artwork rather than the essential element.<\/p>\n

This is much the same way that Terragen’s computer generated and photo-realistic landscapes can be said to have a fractal connection because they were “made with fractals” — that is, deep in the inner recesses of their computer code; a trivial distinction which has never made anyone seriously consider them as “fractal” art.<\/p>\n

Four nicely numbered points<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, two things have occurred:<\/p>\n

1) Fractal art has become much broader in scope and now includes artwork which in appearance is quite similar to other computer “synthesized” art forms despite their widely differing software origins;<\/p>\n

2) Fractal art has created a look or visual style that has come to be associated with its fractal algorithms but is really much more a product of its many rendering methods which apply computer graphical rendering techniques and effects, some of which can also be found in computer graphics programs and there used to produce artwork with the same “fractal aesthetic” as fractal art although no fractal algorithms are actually used, only similar graphical rendering methods directed by other, non-fractal methods.<\/p>\n

This has lead to a third occurrence, the logical consequence of the two previous items:<\/p>\n

3) While the term, fractal art might be confusing when applied to those “fractal-looking” artworks made in a graphics program, the term, fractal art is probably just as confusing when applied to those “synthetic-looking” artworks made in a fractal program.<\/p>\n

Which leads us to a fourth item:<\/p>\n

4) If one considers solely the visual style and creative method of artworks and forgets for a moment what they were made with, there will appear a rather logical grouping to a wide variety of artworks which previously had been separated by their apparently distinctive mediums or tools but actually fit together like scattered puzzle pieces when rallied under the simple label of “synthetic” art.<\/p>\n

Fractal art has actually lead the way in all this and stands as the strongest tool for “synthesizing” art.<\/p>\n

Un-defining fractal art<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyhow, the fractal art world has changed.\u00a0 The boundaries are different now.\u00a0 Actually, the boundaries have disappeared.\u00a0 It all happened when, deliberately or not, fractal artists came to define their art form as whatever can be made with a fractal program.\u00a0 With the arrival of exotic rendering functions and graphical features like layering, these new tools redefined fractal art because they redefined the fractal program –the de facto specification for fractal art.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the word is not so much “redefined” as “un-defined” since the results of expanding the toolset of fractal artists has been the creation of\u00a0 artworks characterized by some very “un-fractal” features found in graphics programs like Photoshop.\u00a0 The end result we see today is that the domain of fractal art partially overlaps the domain of what I would describe as synthetic art.\u00a0 A domain distinguished by a style or aesthetic lacking the involvement of the human hand and instead expressing only that of the algorithmic, the accidental or the mechanical.<\/p>\n

In the next part, Part 3<\/a>, I will show some relevant examples of what I’ve been talking about which ought to make things a lot clearer\u00a0 by making them less abstract and more concrete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first part of this series, I introduced a few new ideas which have a central part to play in my concept of the Synthetic Aesthetic.\u00a0 I believe it might be of great benefit to pause and clarify those ideas before moving on to examples of actual artwork that illustrate these trends. Here’s the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5154","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\/2013\/08\/pt2.png?fit=260%2C160&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5075,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5075","url_meta":{"origin":5154,"position":0},"title":"The Synthetic Aesthetic – Part 1","author":"Tim","date":"22 August, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another one of those theoretical postings; you might want to skip it and go look at some fresh fractal art instead.\u00a0 But if you're still interested, in this posting I intend to examine what fractal art has come to be and show that this evolution of the art\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"If I showed you the UF parameter file, then would you believe me?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jhl16.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5109,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5109","url_meta":{"origin":5154,"position":1},"title":"The Synthetic Aesthetic 3: Ultrashop and Photo Fractal","author":"Tim","date":"3 September, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the third part of a series on The Synthetic Aesthetic: artwork which is mechanically made as opposed to handmade ( Part 1 \/ Part 2 ).\u00a0 Fractal art borders on this synthetic realm because it is one of the most powerful tools for the computational generation of imagery.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5109#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"fractal dimentia front page art by Mark Townsend","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/fractal-dimentia-front-page.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5149,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5149","url_meta":{"origin":5154,"position":2},"title":"The Synthetic Aesthetic 4: The Creative Device","author":"Tim","date":"2 October, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Creative Device Synthetic art has only one principle to it: the creative device.\u00a0 As a result, the synthetic aesthetic is not bound to any particular medium but rather is a way of being creative within any medium.\u00a0 The computerized medium holds the most potential for synthetic art because it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/apparatus.jpg?fit=400%2C282&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5462,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5462","url_meta":{"origin":5154,"position":3},"title":"Maybe You Should Stop Calling Yourself a “Fractal Artist”","author":"cruelanimal","date":"17 August, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Oxford Tire Pile 9b by Edward Burtynsky [Click on images to see higher resolution renditions.] \u00a0 Shut up and play your guitar. --Frank Zappa Seriously. I mean it. Calling yourself a \"fractal artist\" could be damaging your fine artistic street cred. On the Wikipedia Fractal entry, as Tim revealed in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/EdwardBurtynsky_OxfordTirePile9b_sm.jpg?fit=450%2C364&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4499,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4499","url_meta":{"origin":5154,"position":4},"title":"Jump into Fractals!","author":"Tim","date":"14 February, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Stop what you're doing, forget everything you know --and just jump into fractals! Synthetic. That's a good word in computer art. You like synthetic things if you like computer art. There's too much color in this? It looks unnatural? It's synthetic, just like those chewy fruit candies that don't really\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4499#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/alienFlower-by-love1008.jpeg?fit=400%2C320&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5552,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5552","url_meta":{"origin":5154,"position":5},"title":"Remembering Paul N. Lee","author":"Tim","date":"23 March, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I should begin by mentioning I never actually met Paul --offline, that is. But I suspect that describes most of the people he knew, since he was so active in the online world. In fact, I was invited to his wake solely on the basis of being in his email\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5552#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Image-06-B-by-Paul-N-Lee.jpg?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154","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=5154"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5190,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions\/5190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}