But even "Fractal" does not have a Universally Agreed Upon definition!
i don't think there is ANYTHING
universally agreed upon... however, the word fractal has a really clear definition which only fools would refute.
"a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (
at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole" (emphasis mine)
the reason behind the emphasis is because that is both a necessary and sufficient condition; self-similarity is the core of what fractals are about.
I mean... Color Maps.
When does use of a color map make a fractal become something other than Fractal Art?
some dude froze a cow, chopped it in half, put it on display and it was hailed as high art. in light of this, i have no idea what art is (to most people).
what i can say is that colour maps do not fractal art make... (in fact i really dislike colourmaps, they are a very one-dimensional way of colouring an otherwise colourless image - i like to make my images with colour directly, colourmaps are a bit of an afterthought dating back to when we all had only 256 colours in a palette; i miss those days but we can do better now)
I say Mutatorkammer is using a Photograph as an RGB Color Map. Therefore EVERYTHING it does with pictures IS Fractal Art!! Unless we choose to limit the kinds of color maps which are acceptable.
again, it's got a lot more to do with the definition of what a fractal is than the colour map.
actually, just because an image was made by a program calling itself a fractal generator doesn't necessarily mean it truly is fractal in nature. a new friend of mine from deviantart has recently begun experimenting with apophysis, and her first "fractal" isn't really fractal:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/59920774/what i'm getting at here is that a image's "fractalness" should be judged directly, not which program(s) were used to make it. mutatorkammer is at its core an expression evaluator, which is engineered to be able to make many self-similar patterns, much like apophysis, but also like apophysis they are so powerful and general as to potentially create some non-fractal images.
Others would Vehemently Disagree.
They are free to do so - as long as they don't try to tell me what to believe, do, or post.
easy now tiger, this is fractal forums and not orbit trap