Have you ever seen a pendulum swinging over a pit of sand, tracing patterns as it moves? The results can be simple or complex, depending on the forces generating the motion. In a truly chaotic system, a strange attractor represents this final state, and can be visualized using surprisingly simple mathematical equations. Initially inspired by Clifford Pickover’s Chaos in Wonderland, I have been experimenting with chaotic attractors since 2001. I call this series Aesthetic Explorations of Attractor Space. For more technical and mathematical information, view the Tech Notes.
A 4×4 matrix of high quality images, representing a small portion of the parameter space of these particular attractors. This large monoprint was part of my BFA exhibition at the University of Central Florida, where I first started developing artwork from strange attractors. You may recognize some of the individual images, as I have since taken them out of their original context in this work to reinterpret them.
Ice and Reach were my first two strange attractor artworks in color. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this dendritic form, with its spirographic detail.
I first generate my strange attractor artwork with a custom program written using C++, OpenGL, and GLUT. The basic algorithm I use for generating the attractors is set forth in Clifford Pickover’s Chaos in Wonderland; the equations I use are iterated functions that plot between a hundred thousand and a few billion pixels, depending on the final size of the artwork. I colorize the attractors by with gradient mapping in Photoshop (the initial renders are 16 bit grayscale images).
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© 2012 Nathan Selikoff. All Rights Reserved.
The Art of Nathan Selikoff is produced by DAS and Creative Outsiders.