Orbit Trap

Jpeg Engineering

2010-02-09T04:19:35Z

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 to binary computer code. DNA is encoded using sequences of four different amino acids grouped into pairs. The arrangement of those [...]

A Dozen by Daniel

2010-02-06T16:41:45Z

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 lifeforms. But Daniel Eaton (aka “Apophysitis”) has somehow managed to construct creative and appealing imagery with a program [...]

Fractal Fields of Lightning

2010-02-01T06:17:33Z

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 caught in a split-second of illumination. But few have pursued lightning so deeply “to its hiding place,” as Victor Frankenstein once put it, [...]

Fractal Animation: Reel #2

2010-01-26T22:17:27Z

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, at the very least, become the price of admission you will pay to sit in a comfortable seat and watch [...]

The Big Flat Plateau of Fractal Animation

2010-01-18T19:19:55Z

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 and the art form would take on a whole new dimension. And after seeing a couple of very exciting algorithmic [...]

Janet Parke’s Ultra Fractal Courses Available as Ebooks

2010-01-13T18:13:15Z

The well-known fractal artist Janet Parke recently stopped teaching her highly popular Ultra Fractal courses at the online Visual Arts Academy. But just this week she has released them in downloadable ebook form for self-study. You can read all about them here on her website. The ebooks contain the text of the courses and are [...]

Selected Shorts

2010-01-13T22:47:29Z

[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 art, and Tim explicated an image by Guido Cavalcante and analyzed its artistic expression. In response, several commenters wondered why we haven’t [...]

Fractal Land has seen the Light!

2010-01-08T17:04:32Z

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 usher in “A New Era” for his fractal artwork and his website, Fractalland.com. Somehow inspired by things like what has been [...]

Assumptions About Art

2010-01-04T05:24:47Z

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 with websites like this, after reading the initial posting that my Google search had brought me to [...]

E-hell – enough, Guido!

2010-01-08T17:49:21Z

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 is that the performers believe they are actually participating in a online discussion, while only the audience knows they are [...]

On Making Prints

2009-12-17T17:14:39Z

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 be any kind of expert in this area. There are plenty of professionals who know more about the ins and outs [...]

Java Applets: Superintelligent Shades of the Color Blue

2009-12-11T20:44:35Z

“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 be more intelligent and etherial than a clever java applet like this one made by Jerry Huxtable. It’s creative and I don’t [...]

Beauty Is Not Enough

2009-12-08T03:00:46Z

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 represented as being very young, and about this peculiarity there are different interpretations. One is that her youth symbolizes her incorruptible purity, [...]

More Phase Two Thinking about Fractal Art

2009-12-07T05:55:54Z

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 and craft, that very little of what BMFAC will exhibit next year merits being called art. The winning works are, at best, [...]

Presenting… Fractal “Art”

2009-12-04T18:44:59Z

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, two concepts which I discussed in a recent post. In a nutshell, I defined art as expressive imagery and craft [...]

Let down and disappointed about the contest…

2009-11-25T19:04:36Z

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? Well, it’s none other than Mr. Velocipede! Here’s what she says: I’ve finally had a chance to take a better look at the [...]

Art, Craft and Fractals: Part 2

2009-11-23T05:50:43Z

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 of them are probably derogatory in the context of art. But it’s not my intention to bad-mouth craft, only to [...]

Art, Craft and Fractals

2009-11-20T22:25:49Z

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 and obscured what has traditionally been known as Fine Art, submerging it beneath a flood of what I think is [...]

Scams and Viruses

2009-11-17T04:42:12Z

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 to be discovered and sell or display our art? Just make sure those who come knocking have good intentions. In the past [...]

Talking Tall: Final Chapter

2009-11-27T16:59:20Z

“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 ONE OF YOU!” - Sheriff Buford Pusser, 1977, Walking Tall: Final Chapter Okay, I think I’ve got it all figured out now, how [...]

The Fractal Art Guild: How it works

2009-11-10T22:05:38Z

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 on. I really think most of the fractal art world functions like a large association of craftsmen whose closest analogy [...]

Understanding Fractal Art: The Guild

2009-11-09T22:27:33Z

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 fractal art guild. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that almost all of the angst expressed [...]

Ups and Downs of the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest

2009-11-08T17:36:22Z

Ups and Downs. Design by Roller Coaster Tycoon. The 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest results have been announced. If you’re a regular OT reader, you already got this news. We announced it on Thursday — apparently before the contest itself was ready to do so. When, on the UF Mailing List, one of the judges [...]

Have they no shame?

2009-11-06T17:29:07Z

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 outrageous not to comment on right off the bat. If you’ve seen the 2009 winners page you might have missed [...]