|
shadows of shadows
fall across eyes
within eyes.
Fractal art uses several effects that are not generally found in other art
techniques. These unique effects, when skillfully used, produce images that are important
advances in contemporary art. These effects can be used to explore fresh
areas of human
perception.
Self-similarity is a well known property inherent in fractal imagery. What is perhaps not
as generally appreciated is how this effect actually works in physical
reality when viewing large fractal art prints.
A very finely detailed and complex fractal when printed at a large print size may
display many different image compositions, each image appearing as one moves closer to the print
surface. Physically moving closer to the print is analogous to virtually zooming in on a
fractal with a computer fractal program. The change depends on the scale of your
viewpoint, on how far you are from the fractal print and the resolution of the print.
I call this self-similarity and its persistence over scale ranges the
Fractal Perspective.
The fractal perspective can be illustrated as follows. Imagine a fractal printed at a size of 10 feet by 10 feet in an art gallery. When you
walk into the gallery you see the fractal print on the far wall about 50 feet away. The
fractal image will appear to be a cohesive shape or composition. As you approach the
fractal this shape will appear to change. As the detail of the image becomes
apparent, (your view is going into the fractal), the overall perception of the image changes.
This image is very different than when viewed at 30 then 20 then 10 then
3 feet away from the surface of the image. This effect, which I call the fractal
perspective effect, is a new type of aesthetic experience.
For an example consider one of my Divine Symmetry series of fractals. These fractals are
of high iteration, that is, that when you zoom within the fractal
ever more defined detail is revealed.
 |
 |
 |
| 50 feet away |
20 feet away |
3 feet away |
The first image is what you would see if you were 50 feet away from a
10 foot by 10 foot printed image of Divine Symmetry II. The second image is from
20 feet away. The third is 3 feet away from the image.
The fractal perspective effect occurs for an appropriately constructed fractal
print on a gallery wall as it does for a fractal in the virtual reality of the
computer zoom. If you are walking toward a print in a gallery or zooming in on a
fractal with a computer the effect is essentially the same. Of course the
physical print in a gallery will involve more of your senses and attention and depends on the size and resolution
of the actual print. The effect is more visceral when seen in physical reality than in
virtual reality and is a completely fascinating experience.
The ideal situation to demonstrate the fractal perspective would be to display a fractal
print large enough to exhibit large scale self-similarity. The image you would see at
the greatest viewing distance would be the same image you would see at the closest
viewing distance.
This ideal situation is hard to achieve in practice for all but the most
simple fractals. The degree that the work deviates from this ideal
situation is the degree to which it is similar to a normal but very
large and detailed geometric, non-fractal drawing. The degree of fractality
involved in the different viewpoint images should also be considered.
Fractality is a measure of the fractal's dimensional (scale) complexity.
It can be a precisely defined value. It is determined by imposing ever
smaller grids onto the an image. Fractality is another aspect of fractal
art that will be discussed in the future.
|
