I here label as Cyberdelic all human productions which can be approached aesthetically and whose form is distinctively shaped by explicitly mathematical processing. While computers are generally used - thus "Cyberdelic" - it also includes any other works produced using mathematical or stochastic [operating by chance] processes. As defined, Cyberdelia is little different from algorithmic art, though I include by it artifacts of algorithmic processes which may not have been produced as art.
Cyberdelia is currently broken into the categories:
Fractals and Chaos [this page]
Cellular Automata and AI
Miscellaneous Cyberdelia
Algorithmic Music
Algorithmic Text
Some related books, video, music and software are at the Surreal
World Bookstore
Fractals and Chaos
Mathematically, Chaos refers to the unpredictable. Many of the most beautiful cyberdelic forms arise within chaotic algorithms, just as the Cathedral of Notre Dame has coalesced over 10 billion years from an exploding chaotic cloud of subatomic particles.
Okay, these first couple images aren't fractals, but are included as early examples of stochastic art:
The first chance art I'm aware of was the"3 stoppages etalon", 1913-14,
by Marcel Duchamp. [Click the photo to go to a site]. Quoting from
Motherwell's "The Dada Painters and Poets" p.140: "Duchamp took three threads,
each a meter long, and these he let drop successively, from a height of
one meter, on three virgin canvases. He then scrupulously preserved the
contour of the fallen threads, fixing them with a little varnish..."
[Duchamp continued to apply stochastic processes to his work, including
the famous "Large Glass".] Considering his other output - his 1917 non-algorithmic
sculpture, "Fountain", consisted of a signed urinal - it is unlikely Duchamp's
attraction to the chance object was purely sensual.
The Dadaist Jean [or Hans] Arp produced a series of "Collages Arranged According to the Laws of Chance" c. 1917. Again from Motherwell: "putting on a piece of cardboard pieces of paper that he had cut out at random and then colored: he placed the scraps colored side down and then shook the cardboard; finally he would paste them to the cardboard just as they had fallen."
Click the above animated gif to go to the very interesting Sprott's Fractal Gallery, including background fractal music and a number of other animated gifs.
Click the image above to visit the galleries of Terry Gintz, who has created more excellent new [free] downloadable programs which let you make your own. More of his galleries are at the Surreal RAYn site, at Terry's Fractal Mirror, and at Terry's 3D Fractal Gate. [5/2/01]An excellent new site dealing with quaternions and with galleries, info, animations, and [not free] software by Mr. Gintz and Godwin Vickers is now at Hypercomplex. The links page is also well worth checking out.
Click the image to visit the excellent Fractalus galleries. Update 1/00: Fractalus site has been upgraded and apparently expanded. Still a wonderful site I hope just keeps on growing. Recommended are among other things Kerry Mitchell's galleries.
Click the above image to visit the amazing Stephen C. Ferguson's page, with excellent galleries and my favorite [free] downloadable fractal software since Fractint.
Possibly my favorite fractal program is Fractint, a truly wonderful group effort free for the download! Probably the most comprehensive site for Fractint links, info, and the newest versions available for download, seem to be at the excellent
http://spanky.triumf.ca/ [click the image to go there] which also has extensive galleries
Click the above image to visit the excellent site of Scott Draves, with fine galleries. Mr. Draves is also the creator of the marvelous [free, and downloadable] cellular automata program "Bomb", and of the FraxFlame engine in Kai's Power Tools 5. Update 1/00: New Electric Sheep page has great animations [play them as loops], apparently representative of live content you need a faster connection than I've got to see...
The Fractal Art Museum is an excellent and quite large site full of galleries, contests, links to programs, and more. Click the image to visit!
Fractal World on Yahoo is a good posting community of fractalists with lots of interesting images posting constantly, where you might might also find info on programs new to you, etc.
Click the above image to go to the HOP page, where you can download the shareware, as well as good galleries.
Click the image to visit the Flight From Fractal site with free downloadable software and extensive galleries, apparently by Mitsutoshi Naruse and Masako Naruse.
When you see how many [free] programs there are to download here, you will lay down and die.
Click the image to visit Carlson's Fractal Gallery.
Click the image [copyrighted by Cliff Pickover] to visit Clifford Pickover's homepage, where you can view galleries, order his many books, or explore other interesting options.
Click the above image to visit Lifesmith, producer of the Fractal Cosmos calendars and of the single most comprehensive and beautiful book of fractal imagery, "Fractal Cosmos". There you can order merchandise and view extensive galleries, whose images are however unfortunately too small due to Lifesmith's copyright concerns.
Click the above photo to visit the ArtByMath fractal galleries, where you can also order their cd-rom.
Click the above image to visit the excellent galleries of J. P. Louvet.
http://www.ukmail.org/~oswin/ has cool little java applets that let you zoom in fractals. Another is at the Computer Art site.
Chaffey High School Fractal Links Page is an unbeatable compendium, a portal not only to many galleries and programs, but to fractal music programs as well. [5/2/01: the excellent links to software page has been offline for a year now but may yet reappear]. Another page with links to many fractal programs is Paul Lee's compendium.
Click above to go to OrdereD VisioN ,the galleries of David Marx and Todd Wells. Are there no end to the nice fractals?
Click the photo to visit the fractals and computer animation gallery
of Peter Spoecker, where you can also view animations and order videos.
[The rest of his site also contains much of interest, including psychedelic
and visionary art, beautiful nature photography, and lots of stuff about
didgeridoos.]
Click Chris Casaday's picture to visit the galleries at Artmatic, a commercial Mac program. {the best and most fractal programs seem to be pc freeware].
The Synth Art Exhibition
