March 12 Update: Glitch Fixed

Thanks to the Powers That Be, the mysterious video problem I was experiencing on my blogs has been repaired.

To celebrate, I was inspired to upload something for your viewing pleasure. I spent about 4 hours searching through YouTube fractal videos looking for something beautiful, lush, cool, unique, under 5 minutes, with a soundtrack that wasn't distracting, irritating, or downright obnoxious.

I found two, possibly three... and all of them can be found on Truman Brown's YouTube channel. The one above is Plantes d'Absinthe.

(Links to all three will have a permanent place in the Mandelbox section of the sidebar.)

Thanks, TB, you don't know it, but you saved my day!

PS  You'll note a new fractal link has been added, too: Frax... an awesome fractal generator designed by Ben Weiss,  Kai Krause, and, someone you might know from a previous post, Tom Beddard.

Artifacts from an Ancient-Future... Featuring the Fractals of Tom Beddard (Updated)

Faberge Fractal (from a series) - digital 3D Generative - Tom Beddard, 2012

“I still believe the universe has a beginning in real time, at the big bang. But there’s another kind of time, imaginary time, at right angles to real time, in which the universe has no beginning or end.”

 - Stephen Hawking, from Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, 1984,

Oxford University Press

"The creative process is akin to an exploration into a space that can dramatically change with a slight tweak of one parameter. A fundamental feature of fractal algorithms is recursion, where the output of one iteration is fed back as the input of the next, so often certain features can get ‘amplified’ leading to unexpected and delightful results."

- Tom Beddard via this 1.4 interview, 2012

"Fractals, in other words, bridge the micro to the macro, and do so by the marriage of mathematics to the language of form. Symmetry, on the other hand, has become the catch-word across the board; in all areas of science, as well as art, music, history and societal analysis. Symmetry, in other words, is a very transdimensional term. It describes both the singular entity and the encompassing field. It can take us from a simple geometric figure to a parallel universe. We can follow it from the atomic to the galactic, from the child's "cat's cradle" to the Super-string universe and beyond."

- Dia Sobin, from the post: The Language of Form (Part 2): Fractals, Form and Symmetry

Faberge Fractal (from a series) - digital 3D Generative - Tom Beddard, 2012

It doesn't always work, but, sometimes, when one is looking for a clue to some personal dilemma, or some creative "fix" to jump-start the little grey cells into up-and-running mode, the internet proves to be The Great Provider. It's almost uncanny. At least, that's what I thought when I stumbled upon a post by Cory Doctorow, at the irrepressible, irreplaceable boingboing, the other day.

I'd been mulling over my Ancient-Future meme, having, to some degree, lost my original thread from an idea that originated weeks ago, when, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but actual artifacts, embodiments of just what I'm attempting to illuminate!

The artist: Tom Beddard, an English web-developer currently operating his own company Hyper Digital Ltd. out of Edinburgh, Scotland. The artifacts: a series of 3-D generative renderings he refers to as "Faberge Fractals". It was love at first sight.

Naturally, I wasted no time in visiting Tom's Subblue studio, where I was delighted to find more 3D generatives, and, better still, a whole slew of animations, which he describes as: "rendered using raymarching in the same way as the Mandelbox and Mandelbulb fractals. The formulas follow similar processes of folding, scaling, rotating and inverting the space to give the final shape."

Soon, links to his animations will be embedded on the sidebar of this blog, but, for now, Tom has kindly allowed me to include two of his animated gems... which appear at the end of this post. (Note: I've switched out the 2nd video, and replaced it another - I'm a sucker for soundtracks with my fractals - but, have left a link to the previous.)

In Tom's words, taken from Subblue: "I have a fascination with the aesthetics of detail and complexity that is the result of simple mathematical or algorithmic processes. For me the creative process is writing my own software and scripts to explore the resulting output in an interactive manner. The best outcomes are often the least expected!"

Hmmm... well, from the point of view of a primarily analog digital artist - which is, alas, what I am (out of sheer fear and laziness) - my question would be: but, where exactly does the muse crawl in? Because, you know it must.

Ah, well, I did find this quote from Tom (from this article): "You get an intuition about what equations lead to interesting results," he says. "Everything in 'Surface Area' comes from slowly changing just one parameter. And when it moves in and out of phase with some of the other parameters, certain structures pop out: some organic, some geometric, some classical and tree-like."

My guess: the intuition.

Faberge Fractal (from a series) - digital 3D Generative - Tom Beddard, 2012

Then again, looking at Tom's work, my inuition is that the muses - with Tom at the helm - have fashioned themselves ingenious little abodes... or, perhaps complex mechanisms which accomplish strange things when held in ones hands or above ones proverbial noggin. My suggestion to Tom? In two words: 3D printing!

When it comes to the sheer mechanics which produce fractal patterns, however, I am as much in the dark as anyone else. But, I find, the best way to approach fractal art, geometry, or anything else that smacks of complex mathematics, is to simply allow oneself to respond in much the same way as one might when gazing into the bifurcating whorls of a particularly intricate seashell... the awe, the palpable wonder... because the body can subliminally and inherently grasp what the mind - with all its pre-conceived notions and emotions - cannot. The body understands all geometrical configurations because its ability to function depends upon them; from the division of a cell to the algorithmic arrangement of atoms, the body is a complex, exquisitely fine-tuned geometrical expression in motion. In other words, truly "seeing" is a holistic, whole-body experience.

And, a body loves fractals. They are keys to the Transdimensional, and, hence, keys to the Ancient-Future I've been grappling with.

But, you're going to have to read between the lines on that one. I think I've left enough clues. Meanwhile, forget all of that, and let your aetheric body and/or your pineal body (via your eye-sockets) wander amid the fractal animations below. They will thank you for it.

Welcome to an Ancient Future!

Music Box by Tom Beddard - Soundtrack by J. Saunders

Surface Detail (& soundtrack) by Tom Beddard - Previously shown: Window Well 

For more of Beddard's fractal animations, go here... or, visit his blog, and/or his pages on Twitter, and Flickr.

And, do keep an eye on his sites Subblue, and Fractal Lab; he's promising "some very big new stuff " in the near future!

Thanks, Tom!

Next in the Ancient-Future series: More artifacts!

Casey Kotas... Amid the Streams of Consciousness

Leitmotif Number Four - Digital -  Casey Kotas

"When man (and woman) first picked up a charred piece of wood to make a mark on a cave wall, the idea of artistic expression came into being. Some time later, the sister concept of philosophy materialized and humanity sped off into what we call civilization and culture. The reason I consider philosophy a sister to artistic expression is that they both deal with the expansion of consciousness and the illumination of spirit, through self-expression and self-awareness. These are probably the two most transcendent attributes exhibited by Homo sapiens and, to a large extent, have been responsible for the progress that we have demonstrated as a species."

- Casey Kotas, excerpt from his essay Analog versus Digital Art, 9/7/2009

***

I've been off on a tangent for the past few months - half a dozen of them (months and tangents), actually - to the degree that the original purpose of this blog, i.e., to explore Transdimensionalism and Transfigurativism in digital art, has been almost completely compromised. A large part of the problem, and it should be fairly obvious by now, is that I have something I refer to as Multiple Muse Disorder (MMD). One can flatter me and refer to me as a "Renaissance woman". Detractors may describe my modus operandi as a bad case of dilettantism, but, essentially it comes down to this: despite how disparate the forms of ones output seem to be, they all originate from the same integrated source, and often reflect an ability to express the same essential "message" in a variety of different ways. (And, keep in mind, "dilettante" originated from an Italian word meaning nothing more than "loving the arts".)  Ultimately, I'm of the opinion that if one can't translate ones expressions into varied disciplines, it represents more of a deficit than a virtue.

It was In an effort to get back on the track, however, and having little new work of my own to exhibit, that I came upon the work of Casey Kotas - via this MOCA page -  a digital artist working out of Chicago, Illinois. Interestingly enough, Casey notes in his biographical sketch, that after some formal art training, he left school to become a musician, before returning to the visual arts via the computer; and it may very well be that his work as a musician enabled him to express himself so eloquently, so harmonically, in the visual arts.

Doctrinal Entrapment - Digital - Casey Kotas

Kotas describes his images as "stream of consciousness", which, if you've read the term definitions on the sidebar of this blog, falls under "Transfigurativism". It was also the favored "automatic" technique of the Surrealists. His use of fractals, on the other hand, automatically defines his work as Transdimensional as well, because while fractals describe phenomena in the natural 3-dimensional world, they do so by interpreting the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm - that is to say, they describe how one dimension is enfolded in the other. So fractals are a type of "magical wand" for the Transdimensionalist, whereby many dimensions, both mathematical abstractions and the rarefied dimensions of the psyche are able to interweave, creating an homogenous, holistic fabric, an electronic tissue which, in itself, can reflect all and anything to the observer.

Dream Journey - digital - Casey Kotas

I've included a few examples of Kotas' work here, but these merely partially represent the magnitude of his abilities to translate the multi-dimesnsional reality of the psyche into two dimensions. There are hundreds of images in his galleries. But. all of them do have one thing in common, and I think this is represented by the images here; that is, there is refined intricacy of line and form, as delicate and pure as Mother Nature's finest works.

Enjoy!

A Transdimensionalist's Dream

Art & Science... featuring the work of Renata Spiazzi

"The idea of cross-disciplinary exchange seems to be catching on again. SEED, a NYC-based science magazine which pairs essays on genetics, geology, and history's most infamous math problems with knock-your-socks off design has partnered withThe Museum of Modern Art to host a salon aimed at sparking collaborations between designer, architects, and scientists.

'At the beginning the spheres can be quite separate,' MOMA's Curator for Architecture and Design, Paola Antonelli told Big Think. 'But when they discover each other and start talking the same language, it's really unstoppable.' One information architect offered solutions to help deliver accurate and readable data, a significant challenge to geneticists. Architects and scientists share an obsession with the building blocks of the world (and the universe), says Antonelli. 'Give them a push, and then they come together.'"

The quote above is from a recent Big Think article, The Beautiful Universe: A Convergence of Art and Science, that addresses a topic I've always been fond of: the dimension or discipline where art and science meet. For myself, that place has always been geometry. A mathematician operates and excels with numerical patterns, whereas the artist visualizes and utilizes actual patterns... in other words, a similar landscape described in two different languages. For the digital artist the two languages begin to meld into one via the fractal, and often by methodology, depending upon how the artist approaches the computer. Then again architecture, sculpture, and science are married through physics, inevitable matches. Archaeology and medical research are dependent upon physical pattern recognition... and the list goes on.

Perhaps, inside every artist is a scientist struggling to emerge, and inside every scientist is an artist following his or her own artistic muse. Art is a science, science is an art. The real question is, why would we ever think otherwise?

***

"When people ask me what I think about while I am creating, my answer is: I am dreaming of a new world, a new landscape, a new place no one has ever been to."

- Renata Spiazzi, via this MOCA page

The beautiful Julia Set that begins this post is by digital artist, Renata Spiazzi. I planned to do a post devoted to her work last year, but, in my usual haphazard way, this never came to pass. Sorry, Renata, it was nothing personal; just the chaotic reality that I call home.

Two of my favorite images by Renata are below... click on them for larger views.

For more of her amazing work, go to her website, and, for a MOCA article featuring Renata Spiazzi from last year, try here.

For a Digital Art Guild article on art and science, see The Art of Science by Annie Cavanagh.

Of Mandelboxes and Mandelbulbs

"Cave of Lost Secrets" - Daniel White - via Skytopia

I've decided to break away from the "Patron Saints" series for a bit, and fast-forward to the present, specifically addressing some wonderful aspects of the new technology now at a digital artist's disposal. This blog, Trans-D, theoretically has Trandimensionalism at its core, so, what better way to illustrate the possible expressions of this idea than to display the kinds of "dimensionalizing" innovations already available in digital formats and formulas?

Benoit Mandelbrot, of course, is our demi-god in the field of trans-geometry. He was the man who single-handedly pulled those Euclidean cobwebs from our eyes, allowing us a new view and a new terminology of geometrical possibilities. From the dull wasteland of mathematics, Manedlbrot presented us with the lovely and enigmatic Julia Set, and a dizzying array of fractal dimensions leading eventually to a new art form - via the computer - never before conceived of. For example, there are the fractal "quilts" created by artist Rose Rushbrook, and the mind-blowing fractal worlds of Krzysztof Marczak - whose work also appears below, and on this site - and the amazing work of Daniel White shown above. His site, Skytopia, is both a treasure trove of information and examples of new fractal forms. 

Fractal forms have, indeed, evolved in recent years, enabling us to view the multiple dimensions of fractals enfolded in 2-D, thereby explicating the visual aspects of mathematical equations and setting them in motion. The techniques used to create the wonderful videos below are found under two key headings; Mandelboxes and Mandelbulbs. Observe the two videos below and hold on to your proverbial hats!

The first is entitled "Like in a Dream II" and is the work of Jeremie Brunet from France.

The second is "Trip to the center of a Hybrid Fractal"  by Krzysztof Marczak.

Apart from the sources already mentioned, Mikael Hvidtfeldt Christensen has a blog, and there is also this informational resource, and a forum.

Can't get enough? I have just posted a series of videos (up to and including those shown above) on the sidebar of this blog under "Mandelbox Videos". I have also posted two more - "Alien Hive" by David Pearson, and "A Journey Through Fantasy - Vorticity" -  on Post-Mac Blues (my other blog) here. Meanwhile, if you happen upon this post and feel that you might have suggestions, corrections, or information worth sharing, then please comment here or email me, Dia, at: araqinta@att.net.

The Language of Form - Part 2

Fractal, Form and Field - the Inevitable Symmetries

The interesting thing about fractals (example shown above) is that they illustrate more than just pretty patterns. They, too, employ the same language of form we're discussing, as well as mathematical equations and/or sequences. A new science - the Science of Chaos - is gradually emerging. and fractal theories have been absorbed within that paradigm. But don't be deceived. "Chaos" in this sense, is really the intimations of a higher order, specifically the orders of symmetry, and the fractal nature of the physical world at large. Fractals, in other words, bridge the micro to the macro, and do so by the marriage of mathematics to the language of form. Symmetry, on the other hand, has become the catch-word across the board; in all areas of science, as well as art, music, history and societal analysis. Symmetry, in other words, is a very transdimensional term. It describes both the singular entity and the encompassing field. It can take us from a simple geometric figure to a parallel universe. We can follow it from the atomic to the galactic, from the child's "cat's cradle" to the Super-string universe and beyond.

Artists, of course, generally take both the fractals, the strange geometry, and the form language for granted in their work - for them it is an instinct - and this has been the case since pre-history. Whether it was a lattice or spiral drawn on a cave wall or the crystalline structures tiled onto the walls of the great mosques, artists, intuitively, have generally "been there first" on an unconscious level.

For another intimation of the modern "fractal" for instance, we need only look at some of the illustrations of German naturalist, Ernst Haeckel, (1834-1919). Consciously, he was "drawing from life"... but, observing his work (an example is shown above), I can't help but feel that, once again, on a more unconscious and metaphysical level he was trying to intuitively connect the dots, so to speak, to a larger, more profound picture... the organization of the organism, if you will, its inherent symmetry, and its relation to all phenomenal form.

When it comes to attempting to define a form language, however, it is a mistake to take any form too literally and so superficially that one overlooks the primary source - and/or the larger picture. I'm afraid that those in scientific fields and mathematical fields often have a habit of doing just this. For example, take the Sierpinski "gasket" (my version) shown above. It needs no explanation for the mathematician, but for an artist, myself in particular, the complexity in which it's presented and the way in which it's developed and described is rather daunting and off-putting. In actuality, this triangle describes a portion of a very simple grid, the very same grid from which the Platonic solids emerge. This grid, in turn, is created from a very simple field of inter-penetrating circles, the very same field from which my geometrical figures - the "Platonic" cyclohedra - arose and/or emerged (in 1984). (A graphic of these figures is shown below. Sorry, I no longer have my documentation of these figures online, as there was a decided lack of interest previously shown; in the U.S.A., that is. Interestingly, some of my related diagrams were published in China in 2007, with my permission.) 

The Cyclohedra

The point I'm trying to make, using simple geometrical observations, is that the language of form is inherently transdimensional. Both figuratively and demonstratively it is an emergent - and yes, I am referring to the theories of David Bohm - and, as such, describe form as both a singular entity and the component of a field. In other words, there is symmetry, and then again there is field symmetry. There is the stratum of one dimension as the component of higher dimensions, and what we "see" and cannot "see" is relative to our placement in that stratum... a sort of "Flatland" fable.


Fractals, and geometric observations aside, the interesting thing about more transfigurative forms in artwork - Dali and H. R. Giger come to mind - alchemical symbols and drawings, even the illustrative work (like Haeckel's) often have a "dirtiness" about them. This type of "dirtiness", I think, is the type of "dirtiness" Matta refers to when he speaks of "hallucinations" - that is, inspired images which are inseparable from the unconscious repertoire from which they arise. That symbols from unconscious and imaginal origins ultimately obey the same "laws", the same unwritten code that is used to represent the actual, phenomenal world, is our "cause for pause", so to speak. In my opinion, it intimates one way in which we might someday come to understand the Transdimensional quality of the form language, whereby shapes, patterns, fractals, and "diagrams of forces" become the keys to unlock perceptional doors to a more profound concept of space - and its hidden symmetries - that is, as a tissue, a fabric, a synchronistic and living connective.


Credits:


Fractal form: found here.
Mosque photo: found here.
Ernst Haeckel illustration: found here.


Also: another Fractal link.


"Language of Form" post links: Part I, Part 3