“Fractal” as it derived from the Latin word “fractus”, defined as broken or shattered glass.
That there are some geometric shapes, which called “fractals”, that are equally “rough” at all scales. No matter how close you look, they never get simpler, much as the section of a rocky coastline you can see at your feet looks just as jagged as the stretch you can see from space.
Fractals are my heart affairs since my student days when I met that area for the first time in a technical magazine. This simple information immediately provoked my imagination. But on the first realization of my dream, I had to wait for a good 20 years. When appeared appropriate software functioning on my favorite Apple PowerBook first generation I managed to tame wild horse and after a series of attempts I finally generate something usable and capable of independent life.
It took another 16 years until I started fine printing of Fractals using the longevity inks on premium heavyweight gallery paper. About digital art I had lengthy discussions with proponents and opponents of this creative method. One of the most fundamental problem seems to be originality and reproducibility. I have always argued that the photographs can be easily reproduced. Number of copies are still mainly moral problem of the author.
Today I can confirm that the question of originality and repeatability of Fractals making process is solved:
- results of generated fractals were so unexpected that every step was a voyage to the New World
- software, the runaway horse (but incredibly slow) practically did not compel to repeat the results. Any, even a slight change in one of several parameters has led to a completely different and unexpected results
- the latest hardware on which the software worked and generated fractals was Apple’s first metal housing PowerBook – Titanium with operating system 9
4. Titanium is 10 years dead and his backup HDD is broken too. R.I.P.