Orbit Trap

The Jumping Spiders of Oklahoma, and elsewhere

2010-09-08T19:53:35Z

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 on any image to view it on the original web site or in full-size. It’s easy to define (and limit) [...]

Champion Graveyard Sound

2010-08-20T04:48:57Z

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 someone has accidentally thrown in another puzzle with it. While looking for the pieces that match up with the ones [...]

Be Very Very Quiet

2010-08-11T17:31:39Z

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 week in Hyderabad, India, at the 2010 International Congress of Mathematicians, although (so far) publicity for the event has been [...]

Frames, drains and hurricanes

2010-07-29T03:15:50Z

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 every year. There’s never a players strike and you can follow all the action over the internet. In fact, you [...]

Surf’s up

2010-07-22T18:31:48Z

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.

Art imitates Nintendo

2010-07-16T19:33:11Z

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 out and “play”. My nephew loaned us his old GameCube and while I’ve never used it because all we have [...]

Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine

2010-07-10T22:50:15Z

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 know where exactly this one is, but you can find all the scenes from it here. This is what’s written [...]

FUC Redux

2010-07-05T23:36:24Z

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 which describes it as full of the most visually arresting fractals. Let’s see if you agree. Here’s a sneak peak: [...]

Bow the Knee to Blob!

2010-07-03T04:56:32Z

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 at the detail in blob’s image, how it’s all over the place in every nook and cranny and has such [...]

Diaries

2010-07-01T20:32:21Z

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 latest it iteration. After a few thousand bulbs and boxes replete the gallery coffers of Fractalbook, will these once novel [...]

7Up: The Un-Cola

2010-06-28T18:15:49Z

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 same shelf and dropping out of the same vending machine, or at least side by side vending machines (7Up is [...]

Fractal America

2010-06-25T18:18:22Z

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 national holiday on July 1st called Canada Day … I thought, “America Day” …and here’s two images of that great [...]

Photoblog 1

2010-06-21T18:08:18Z

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, one idea we knocked around was to post an occasional fractal art photoblog — that is, allow the blog to [...]

FractalWorks: One Smooth Machine!

2010-06-16T20:15:31Z

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 anything really special about it and yet there was something really special about it. It was one of those “height [...]

Fractal Art: No Money

2010-06-08T20:36:19Z

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 making enough money to, as they say, quit your day job, kind of money. Of all the artists, programmers, publishers, [...]

FUC 2: The Sequel

2010-06-04T16:23:23Z

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) gets a name change and a new coat of renders. But kick those familiar, sappy, spiral tires — and it’s [...]

The BMFAC Exhibition Begins? Who Knew?

2010-06-04T06:16:33Z

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.] Apparently, the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Exhibition has begun. Of course, you’d never know this from checking the [...]

Dance This Mess Around

2010-06-02T19:23:11Z

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 ballet. She links to an entry in her Sketchblog where she outlines the genesis of the mixed-media performance as follows: [...]

10 Fractals and a Movie

2010-05-28T23:36:32Z

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 to wander around Flickr or check out links on the UF mailing list or just stumble on something while surfing [...]

A Knighthood for Knighty

2010-05-25T17:22:25Z

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 an inspiration to others like Subblue, some of whose work is also included.

Privately Owned Algorithms?

2010-05-20T17:08:08Z

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 scope of patents. The decision could have profound implications pertaining to the legality of free software — and possibly have [...]

Fractals Don’t Have to be Fractals

2010-05-14T17:00:14Z

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 culture since pre-history. I don’t know why it nags me so much. I don’t think most fractalists are very concerned [...]

2010 Nobel Prize for Fractal Art

2010-05-12T19:15:52Z

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 year’s Nobel recipients, but while the Mandelbulb discovery was truly the most exciting event in the fractal world this past [...]

3-D Fractals: A Voyage to the Mandel-Worlds

2010-05-13T02:18:48Z

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 taken 3-D to a whole new level of sophistication. The best phrase I can think of to describe them is Majestic Panorama. It's like a glimpse of a new world not merely a new rendering technique or formula.