Art in the Digital Age:
An excursion into FRACTALS

By Herb Ranharter

Astrology can easily and perhaps rightfully be dismissed as utterly illogical nonsense. Yet it is possible to use astrology to achieve meaningful results. If understood as a set of arbitrary rules (I am paraphrasing Douglas Adams), such rules let personality traits come forth like graphite dust sprinkled on paper makes unseen imprints emerge. Useable patterns are everywhere and can be found by viewing and probing the seemingly unrelated in unconventional ways. Patterns enrich the creative process.

You are already familiar with a similar idea, the "happy accident". Activity beyond our reasons, skills and intentions. Activity that nevertheless managed to produce surprisingly attractive results. Each such accident is an incident of applied chaos, a product of chance. An event occured that could be termed spontaneous self-organization; a useful pattern has emerged. There are surprisingly many ways to conjure up such patterns. A bonanza for the creative individual.

Exhibit one:

A rubber ring rolled from a tubular carrier jumps off onto the floor. Upon examination we come to realize a remarkable transformation has taken place: the ring per chance twisted beyond its relaxed position and assumed an unexpected shape. Repeated experiments can lead to all kinds of discovery: Note: the shadows are yet another noteworthy aspect of these incidents. It should also be said that it is usually useful to view images from different vantage points (e.g. upside down etc.).

Given a fine enough grid and a well chosen formula plus some strategic coloring choices the most astounding results can be obtained.

©1999 Herb Ranharter
(drawing detail)

There are a great many other ways to accomplish such incidental images. Another way would be to simply create an array of lines where every line gets varied in some manner, As the lines overlap horizontally and vertically, their intersections create cells that can then be colored in. You get the point. All of these methods have the distasteful element of being created largely by computer. How to make such arrays your own creative endeavor is the nagging question.

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