Project 3: Process

Math = Beauty.

In this project, I wanted to embrace the digital with the theme and expression of fractals conveying the beauty of math. The great Greek artist, Polykleitos, created the Doryphoros (spear bearer) to convey the beauty of mathematical ratios found in the human form. 


I try never to quote wiki-type sources, but here is what wikipedia has to say about fractals -- which I thought was put very well:

"A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole, a property called self-similarity. Roots of the idea of fractals go back to the 17th century. The term fractal was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning "broken" or "fractured." A mathematical fractal is based on an equation that undergoes iteration, a form of feedback based on recursion. There are several examples of fractals, which are defined as portraying exact self-similarity, quasi self-similarity, or statistical self-similarity. While fractals are a mathematical construct, they are found in nature, which has led to their inclusion in artwork."

Here are a few natural examples of fractal like images (found from google):

Basically it is a rendering of numbers in a digital and visual way. In nature viewing a shell or a tree branch one can see a "fractal." There are different kinds of fractals, and different "flames" that create them. 

I decided to use a new program on my Mac rather than a program I found a few years ago that is on my PC. I used "Oxidizer" to render the flames used in my collection. I took these rendered flames into Photoshop and cut out all of the background and made it transparent so I could take the image and lay it over other appropriated images while creating my final pieces. After putting two images together, I adjusted the colors, saturation and layout of the raw files used. Once I had something I liked, I saved the file, and created a 3-D shape in Photoshop from the image I made. Then I took this shape and pasted it back on the complied images. After I put it with the main image I added a "plastic wrap" filter and an outer glow. I also used almost transparent black rectangles to add a little more depth.

Below are the images and screenshots used for the creation of these pieces:

(^this is the only fractal image I used that was made by someone else^)

I used google to get the background image (circuit board) and the Metroid background. 

Link for Oxidizer for Macs