Fractal art

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The interior side view of the main dome of Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, Turkey (vaguely resembling some types of fractals, but not necessarily a fractal).
A piece generated in Apophysis.
Showing breakage in space in non integer Multibrot set
A Fibonacci word fractal by Samuel Monnier

Fractal art is a form of algorithmic art created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still images, animations, and media. Fractal art developed from the mid-1980s onwards.[1] It is a genre of computer art and digital art which are part of new media art. The Julia set and Mandlebrot sets can be considered as icons of fractal art.[2]




The Fractal Art Manifesto

As stated by Kerry Mitchell in The Fractal Art Manifesto,[6] "Fractal Art is a subclass of two-dimensional visual art, and is in many respects similar to photography—another art form that was greeted by skepticism upon its arrival. Fractal images typically are manifested as prints, bringing fractal artists into the company of painters, photographers, and printmakers. Fractals exist natively as electronic images. This is a format that traditional visual artists are quickly embracing, bringing them into Fractal Art's digital realm. Generating fractals can be an artistic endeavor, a mathematical pursuit, or just a soothing diversion. However, Fractal Art is clearly distinguished from other digital activities by what it is, and by what it is not." According to Mitchell, fractal art is not computerized art, lacking in rules, unpredictable, nor something that any person with access to a computer can do well. Instead, fractal art is expressive, creative, and requires input, effort, and intelligence. Most importantly, "fractal art is simply that which is created by Fractal Artists: ART."


A 3D Mandelbulb fractal generated using Visions of Chaos




Fractal image generated by Electric Sheep
A fractal image made with Sterling


Fractals are sometimes combined with human-assisted evolutionary algorithms, either by iteratively choosing good-looking specimens in a set of random variations of a fractal artwork and producing new variations, to avoid dealing cumbersome or unpredictable parameters, or collectively, like in the Electric Sheep project, where people use fractal flames rendered with distributed computing as their screensaver and "rate" the flame they are viewing, influencing the server, which reduces the traits of the undesirables, and increases those of the desirables to produce a computer-generated, community-created piece of art.


Some of the most popular fractal rendering programs used to make fractal art include Ultra Fractal, Apophysis, Bryce and Sterling. Fractint was the first widely used fractal generating program.


A 3D landscape generated with Terragen





The British artist William Latham, has used fractal geometry and other computer graphics techniques in his works.[12] Greg Sams has used fractal designs in postcards, t-shirts and textiles. American Vicky Brago-Mitchell has created fractal art which has appeared in exhibitions and on magazine covers. Scott Draves is credited with inventing flame fractals. Carlos Ginzburg has explored fractal art and developed a concept called "homo fractalus" which is based around the idea that the human is the ultimate fractal.[13] Merrin Parkers from New Zealand specialises in fractal art.[14]


There have been fractal art exhibits at major international art galleries.[15] One of the first exhibitions of fractal art was called Map Art. It was a travelling exhibition of works which originated from researchers at the University of Bremen.[16] Mathematicians Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Michael M. Richter discovered the public not only found the images aesthetically pleasing but that they also wanted to understand the scientific background to the images.[17]

In 1989, fractals were part of the subject matter for an art show called Strange Attractors: Signs of Chaos at the New Museum of Contemporary Art.[10] The show consisted of photographs, installations and sculptures designed to provide greater scientific discourse to the field which had already captured the public's attention through colourful and intricate computer imagery.

See also


  6. ^ Kerry Mitchell. "The Fractal Art Manifesto". Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  7. ^ [1].Quaternion Julia Fractals.
  8. ^ Basic fractal information. Fractal Art FAQ.
  11. ^ Wang, Hongyu (2005). "Chinese aesthetics, Fractals and the Tao of Curriculum". In Doll, Jr, William E.; Fleener, Jayne; Trueit, Donna et al.. Chaos, complexity, curriculum and culture. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. p. 301. ISBN 978-0-8204-6780-1. Retrieved 28 October 2011.

Further reading

External links