2005-10-10

Science imaging: towards new patterns out of mathematical knowledge.

Our worldview is clearly being shaken under the impact of evolving scientific understanding but I think that more than scientific discoveries, the science images in direction of the infinite and those in the direction of the infinitesimal are having a more direct telling impact upon our psyche. Scientific discoveries remain rather abstract but eventually gain in visual strength at the contact of what we make out of those pictures from space and from the infinitesimal.
"Day by day, in a world beyond human vision, we explore fascinating forms and structures write the members of Eye of Science. Space imaging is thus going to directly impact upon humanity's conscience of the interconnectedness and interdependence of life on Earth with the Universe.

The Frenchman Mandelbrot became convinced that a common theme of structures runs through all of these real-world problems. In 1975 he coined the term fractal to describe these structures, and published his ideas in "Les objets fractals, forme, hasard et dimension" (translated into English as Fractals: form, chance and dimension in 1977). He emphasized the use of fractals as realistic and useful models of many natural phenomena and he held the view that fractals were, in many ways, more intuitive and natural than the artificially smooth objects of traditional Euclidean geometry.

Artists sized with enthusiasm on Mendelbrot's approach and they are churning images out of their programs at the speed of breads baked in industrial baking factories. The profusion of fractal images available on the net is simply astounding.
Notwithstanding the popularity of fractals and other pixel manipulation programs artists digital works are still not generally recognized as being art works by the managers and the bureaucracy of the arts. But it makes no doubt in my mind that digital techniques are nothing more than the 21st century brush and pencil of the Middle-Age painter so I do not see how digital techniques could be held at the margins of what is considered art for much longer.

The cultural reassessment of the visual arts, that is engendered today under the pressure of the exponential rise in scientific imaging, is pulling humanity to awaken at the dawn of what will be seen a few centuries from now as the greatest of renaissances, as the unification of humanity under the banner of "citizens for an earth humanity".

In the past tribes have been unified under the banner of Nations and then States today we see the day pointing when Nations and States shall be unified at the level of the earth. How should we coin this new reality of the citizenry of the world, the cells of Gaia?

Some usefull links:
URL: The Fractal Art Manifesto (by Kerry Mitchell)
URL: Fractal Art Contests
URL: Software tools
URL: Fractal links page by Paul Lee

Some fractals.


Rotating Swirls. By Michael Trott, published by Wolfram Research, Inc.


Surface of Revolution of a Logarithmic Spiral. By Sándor Kabai, published by Wolfram Research, Inc.


Inverted Array of Spheres. By Michael Trott, published by Wolfram Research, Inc.


Inverted Periodic Surface. By Michael Trott, published by Wolfram Research, Inc.


Harmageddon. Fractal of the Day by Jim Muth


Mask - Rumored to be a celeb going incognito.



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