Landscape - The Future

IS THIS THE FUTURE OF ART?

Great art evolves either slowly,  through the accumulation of thousands of tiny yet innovative changes, or dramatically over a short period - as with Cubism

Today we are experiencing rapid changes, often driven by technological innovations and developments that previous artists could only dream of

Take Fractal Art, for example!

 These extraordinary images are created solely within the computer, using - or so I understand - mathematical algorithms (polynomial equations) to generate complex shapes that replicated and extend to infinity

In the above example there is a degree of photoshop manipulation in the addition of a watery lower frame and a sunrise but the image itself is otherwise unique

The detail is also extraordinary - something found in nature itself but here captured within the computer - a progression of layers and textures endlessly repeated

We are increasingly exposed to such images, often as 'backdrops' within fantasy or science fiction film narratives but the dramatic potential of such vistas is endless

Salvador Dali may have been the first to explore such extended, elongated forms but here (above) the computer and its creative programmer have generated images of exquisite beauty and elegance

Max Ernst was one of the first of the Surrealists to use Decalcomania to produce complex, plant-like shapes that he could manipulate and reform but here the fractal artist can produce images of extraordinary complexity

True, we invest such images with our own preconceptions or understanding, turning (for example) the above 'landscape' into an exotic, alien 'garden' but that is part of the seductive quality of fractal art

Shapes that have the suggestion of 'man-made' architectural structures (see above) and the texture of exotic 'concrete' give otherwise abstract forms an anthropomorphic allure and identity, pulling the image into a human world that we can relate to

Again, the addition of human elements - here (above) clouds, a wet 'floor' and even tiny human figures - give strange, alien landscapes a familiarity they might otherwise lack

The implications here for future film or even stage 'sets' is enormous

 The addition of digital animation - an underground, futuristic train, for example hurtling through these underground 'tunnels' - can turn the above image into a hugely dramatic scene  from a futuristic film

 There are implications here too for stage design - a mixture of constructed elements and back or front digital projection

I can readily see the above image as the setting for Prospero's island in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' for example

Similarly, the image (below) could be the setting for 'King Lear' or Sondheim's 'Into the Woods'  or a 'Midsummer Night's Dream' - digitally generated imagery yet recognizably plant-like; an exotic 'wood' bathed in moonlight

In short, we have glimpsed perhaps the very future of art in which new, vastly complex technologies and computing power undreamed of hitherto will create images of breathtaking complexity and beauty - forming, in the process, an entirely new kind of aesthetic

The future is here. The future is fractal!

MIKE HEALEY

If you would like to see more examples of these artists' work, please visit my Pinterest site and where full attributions are given (where known)

You can find a link to my Pinterest by scrolling down the right-hand column of this blog You can also find out more about Fractal Art by clicking on the link below:

FRACTAL ART