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...Has it been done before, and, irregardless, should it be done? A giant convention/conference (not sure what the difference is), all about fractals (not necessarily restricted to art, but that would clearly be a huge part). I bet about four fractal artists in the world have ever actually MET another fractal artist, in person, beyond simply just talking at each other here on the forums, and I am not one of them .

I have two questions, as stated above:

Has anyone done this before? If so, who, when, and where? I know there have been occasional small showings of fractal arts in museums, mostly as novelties, and featuring two or three artists, but I'm looking for a bit bigger than that.

Sure there would be a giant showing of art; artists are as bad as entrepreneurs - put a bunch of them in a room and three things will happen: argument, showing of art, and arguing about art, all of which are amusing to both participate in and watch. But the greater purpose would be to unite the community in a way it seems it has never been. We all have only ever known each other through screens like the one I'm typing in right now, which is a very poor replacement for true interaction. There must be several hundred artists and enthusiasts around the world, at least if P.N.L.'s census thingy is even remotely accurate (I also notice that I am user 364 on this board alone).

On that note, the second question is logistical. Firstly, is the issue of where to hold this thing. I notice that we are pretty well scattered around the world - so far today alone I am in Arizona and I've just talked with people from the Netherlands and Russia....that's just three people, and we probably couldn't be any farther apart. I know we have many Americans and Europeans, with some others in Asia, and some Aussies as well (I don't think we have anyone from either Africa or South America, and I'm certain nobody hails from Antarctica, but I would be happy to be proven wrong). So where to hold such an event, in order to attract the largest audience, would be quite an issue. We would need to get as many people as possible, at least 100, for this kind of event to really succeed - the point being to have a large enough representation so that the community can exist in the conference space independent of the web.

As far as logistics go, conference planning is difficult, but I might be willing to help organize such an event if we wanted to do it and there was a good enough chance for it to succeed. I've always wanted to to attend something like this, it would major be fun. the biggest issue is reaching people. We need to get the message out throughout the web, at places like this forum, Renderosity, the various UF and Apophysis mailing lists, etc. We also need to work out logistics regarding space, cost (sponsorship?), exhibition, etc.

Also, while I'm a fan of un-conference style events (basically anyone can speak, on anything - the entire conference is community driven), I'm not sure the community is really ready for that kind of event, at least not totally un-conference style. I'm totally down with having some open slots and community content, but I think we would probably want to solicit some of the bigger names in the community (Mark Townsend, Janet Parke, Kerry Mitchel, Damian M. Jones, I could go on but you know what I mean), as well as other important figures in the fractal world as well (Scott Draves (Electric Sheep), Frederik Slijkerman (UF), Nicolas Desprez (chaoscape), Sirotinsky Arthur and Olga Fedorenko (FE), etc), and also maybe some math nerds professors who work on fractal mathematics. These types of names would probably bring pretty big crowds, and they also are likely to have lots of really interesting things to say, giving the conference a 'back-bone' of sorts to focus the community driven sections.

Also, while I think it would be cooler if not totally art-driven, it would similarly be a shame for this many really great artists to gather and not show off the fractal world, so we would want to think about that while planning as well - perhaps have two separate events. I'm thinking perhaps the exhibition/art-show could end up funding the whole gig as well as attracting more people to come.

This is all really just early stage theory, however...what I'm mostly looking for is to get a feel of whether it can be done/should be done, and from there we can start down the long road towards actually making it happen...

What??

No Hippies??

Art Shows NEED Hippies!

But seriously, it sounds like a great idea.  But who would finance such a thing?

I suspect you would need to seek a grant from Science, Art, and Math organizations.  Get one to sponsor the event and it would stand a real chance of happening.

Of course, that would also settle the location question.

Near the corporate headquarters of whomsoever puts up the money!!

No.

Money is a HUGE issue.

You can't tell the folks renting you the hall that they can have their money out of the door receipts!

They want it up front.  Usually months in advance.

That take Corporate Sponsorship, or pre sold tickets (which carries the risk of back-firing if not enough sell).

In the absence of independently wealthy members here, I think sponsorship is the Only way this could be made to work.

Prove this Old Hippy wrong!