First of all: I find it a great idea to elaborate on the topic of gnomons that you brought up in other posts.
Very intersting and a crucial element of fractals, i think. It's the first time I heard a proper desciption of the phenomenon of recurring shapes in fractals like the seahorse or the 2-3-4-.. folded spirals.., the minibrots themselves
this seems very important.
and (as so often with such things) I'm surprised it hasn't been seen/discussed for such a long time.
but I need to make a little detour because of some of your statements:
At first glance, it seems odd that people generally do not value or appreciate many beautiful images generated fractally .
For those who do not understand this issue, it is a matter of nerds and actually is something that computers do , and for those who understand , it is clear that it is mathematically very simple...
until here, well said!
..and artistically worthless
From here I disagree.
Not because I'm 'insulted' as an 'artist'. I see myself as a novice explorer. I find stuff that is already there.
The actual artist probably is the formula. Nature. Everything around us.
Some might call it god (I don't)
I think to bring out art, to show it, craftmanship is needed.
Take a stone block.
Every thinkable form is already in there. The artist 'just' has to set it free. Is Michelangelos David not art? The form (human body) existed long before.
Yet we clearly classifie this 'simple, accurate depiction of a man' as art.
ok, for fractals, the entry point is much easier, as all the beauty is obviously already there, calculated by some 'mindless' programm, a simple formula...
but still, it takes time and craftmanship to really show all the beauty that it contains in places that need to be discovered.
the images of paudelbrot are a perfect example. they are not simple snapshots anyone can do.
i tried.
i can't..
Because for something to be art, an artist must do it.
And you must have a content , an idea, a meaning, without it , there can be no art .
I'm a professional musician.
When I make music it often just happens. It's a flow. It starts with a small idea, the flow takes over and a few hours later I 'wake up' and the layout is done.
Sometimes when a song is finished and I hear it some months later I wonder if it was really me who did this.
It's like my concious mind wasn't involved, except for working out the details. Besides playing a minor and G major on a guitar.
Maybe this is similar to zooming into the m-set.
I might have had a short musical idea "that sounds good" in the beginning (like "I'll zoom here in the m-set that looks interesting") but when the result is about to become really good, 'subconciousness' takes over. whatever that is..
the melody has already been there, in theory.
the picture also is already there. but hidden.
All this reminds me on the quote "We're all standing on the shoulders of giants" (by whom I forgot).
So now that I've got this off my mind I can proceed to your core idea:
What is at issue, then, is to increase the control of the artist on the generation, allowing you to introduce your ideas to direct fractalisation .
I have no idea how to implement this, but I can not believe that there is not an interesting challenge for matemathics .
This is the tool true artists will need if fractals have to be artworks.
To this I can strongly say YES! I agree!
I approached this from a different side, biomimicry-style.
I was wondering, do we know the exact formula for romanesco brocolli, or for mushroom gills ...natural fractals.
and could we invent new ones?!
this is where it becomes incredible interesting!
I think jesse did this on a large scale. and others did it(and keep doing it) with contributing new formulas.
combining these formulas into new stufff
I can only say, I wish I could do that(besides random strikes of luck).
I'd love to see an inspiring shape in nature, find the formula, vary it, explore it, do "my own" little evolution and then finalize it with a little personal touch.
or even come up with totally new formulas...
after all.. if new stuff comes up, I'm pretty shure we're at the best place to find out first..
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sorry& back to gnomons!
edit: to avoid anymore offtopic, regarding great krams video in the following post:
vsauce, a great science channel also has a video about this:
youtube.com/watch?v=DAcjV60RnRw
"will we ever run out of new music"
thanks kram for your video! i never got into 12tone music, it's too far out for me.. but her little example at 12:30.. interesting, and more important, one can listen to it, without aching ears
I should give that music a second chance.. thanks!
edit 2: wow! i love that sentence 14:50
"creative people are just skilled at navigating an exponential tree of possibilities..."