Michael Angelo Gomez – Exegesis

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CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

Fractal Imaging: A Mini Exegesis

Michael Angelo Gomez

10445917

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

Project Exegesis

Christopher Mason

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

Table of Contents

I. Introduction ...... 4

II. Purpose and Application...... 4

III. Theoretical Context ...... 6

IV. The Creative Process ...... 10

V. Conclusion ...... 18

VI. Appendices ...... 19

VII. References ...... 21

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

I. Introduction

Upon the completion of my proposed creative project, a number of insights have been unearthed in light of the perception of my work now that it has reached its final stage of presentation and display. This reflection will be expounded upon by way of critical analyses, contemporary applications, and the evaluation of the creative process. It shall also examine the pieces individually, elaborating on the design principles and ideas behind them.

This creative project has culminated into seven images exhibiting the outcome of fractal imaging through the practice, creation, and manipulation of various creative methods and tools. The end result has been made accessible through the web with the use of Wordpress technology. As blogs have been incorporated to document the numerous phases of the project, all written entries have been made for public viewing and feedback at angelogomezblog.wordpress.com. A .pdf file entitled Fractal Imaging containing the finished images has also been made available for download on the blog post dated 1

November 2017.

II. Purpose and Application

On a personal level, I have endeavored to execute the practice of fractal imaging as

I deemed it as a versatile method of exercising and honing my creative processes. It is effective in a number of aspects that are vital to my growth as an artist such as harnessing 4

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History appropriate rendering software, structuring developmental phases of the work, and elaborating on the concepts present in my artistic products. It allows me to further solidify my artistic identity as I have always possessed a penchant for abstract paintings and digital rendering.

Aside from the manifold personal benefits gained from this project, I ultimately strived to introduce the untapped potential of fractal art to my audience by displaying it as a form of Abstract Expressionism in a contemporary setting. This project aspires to draw familiarity and appreciation towards an unconventional medium. I deemed it as unconventional as the Abstract Expressionist movement made use of traditional techniques with the paintbrush and physical canvasses in contrast to my purely digital approach. The

Art Story Contributors (2017) note that these traditional methods exhibited by renowned painters such as Rothko and Pollock are characterized by the use of vibrant color paints textured by principles of angles, asymmetry, and shapes as a form of personal expression. I have attempted to employ these same principles for a series of end results that aim to elicit and evoke a number of varied subjective responses from the viewers. This means that during the pre-production phase, I did not concretely establish specific emotions to the pieces so as to leave it open-ended as an avenue to stimulate subjective interpretations.

Specifically for this project, my intent is to bring awareness towards the beauty of mathematics and art intertwined. The application of creative software such as Apophysis

7X, Chaotica, and Adobe Photoshop have made this all possible. This beauty is further expounded upon from the knowledge that the manipulation of fractals are virtually 5

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History limitless similarly to how numbers achieve an infinity. It aims to inspire the creation of artistic works that encourages a boundless mindset. Be it a from an emotional or technical standpoint, I want my viewers to be able to appreciate the essence of abstract art as they abandon reality and rationality for a brief moment and appease to their imagination. In addition, key figures in the world of abstract art, namely Gottlieb, Newman, and Rothko, have collectedly said the following statement in a letter to the New York Times:

To us, art is an adventure into an unknown world of the imagination, which is

fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense (1943).

III. Theoretical Context

In order to further dissect the role of fractal imagery under the scope of sciences and its emergence into art, this section shall consider the principles of the Chaos Theory.

Fractals display behaviors of unpredictability and complexity in natural systems ("What is

Chaos Theory? – Fractal Foundation", 2017). As it deviates from the linear characteristics of traditional science, these unexpected behaviors display the transition from order to disorder. In order to harness and take advantage of this phenomenon, software such as

Chaotica and Apophysis 7X generate and endless loop of fractal geometries dictated by parameters that can either be random or controlled.

Creating an aptly named .chaos file in Chaotica shows an offering of randomly generated worlds that the user may manipulate. The user can opt to generate sets of worlds, shaders, and selectors in a limitless fashion to prepare on a digital canvas. The image 6

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History below illustrates the unexpected nature of fractals wherein randomly generated parameters have resulted in stills that each contain set of color palettes and properties:

Chaotica’s world editor and palette editor serve as tools to approach the unpredictable nature of fractal in a systematic way. As the Chaos Theory is not centric on disorder alone but the transition into it (Complexity Labs, 2016), it is in the artist’s power to guides these computations to a desired outcome.

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

Abarim Publications describe Professor Edward Lorenz as the father of the Chaos

Theory which was birthed in 1960 (2017). Unexpected transformations are highlighted by the observation that “A tiny difference in initial parameters will result in a completely different behavior of a complex system.” Visually, the accumulating complexity of repeated patterns undergoes a transformative process that clearly affects the overall composition:

My artistic inspiration can be attributed to artists Sam Himes and Karuna who perform abstract art-making through software and traditional methods respectively. By observing their execution of abstract elements such as amorphous forms, color contrast, striations, and textures, I have been able to implement these characteristics in my own personal style.

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

“Dreamscape Series” by Karuna.

Image source: https://www.artbykaruna.com/

“The Earth Fighting Oceans” by Same Himes.

Image source: https://chaosfissure.deviantart.com/

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

IV. The Creative Process

This section shall delve into the technical aspects of the work while providing an analysis of the elements and principles of design that have been applied. As geometric patterns are versatile enough to be manipulated into different forms, I have narrowed my approach down to amorphous forms of color and texture rather than identifiable and repeated geometric shapes. Since the movement of Abstract Expressionism served as the basis for composing the images, I touched upon figures that contained “non-objective imagery, lacked a clear focal point, and [showed] visible signs of the artist’s working process” ("Abstract Expressionism, an introduction", 2017) in most cases.

Due to Chaotica’s constraints to image resolution being at a maximum of roughly

500 by 850 pixels, I was forced to work around this limit and figure out a method of producing high-resolution fractals that were roughly five times larger than the imposed parameters. I deemed this as a necessity should I opt to reproduce these fractals in print in the future and to avoid low-quality pixelation for viewing on the web. Solving this problem required me to utilise other resources, namely Adobe Photoshop. By way of dividing the fractal image into 9 separate images at their highest resolution in Chaotica, I stitched them together in Adobe Photoshop to create a cohesive image that ranges from 3,500 to 5,000 pixels on the longest side. This method of combining nine rendered segments into a whole has been applied for all images in this project, taking a substantial amount of time to

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History perform but has produced favorable results.

Note: Refer to Section VI. Appendices for the final images

In retrospect, the first production piece Neon Scoop has undoubtedly pioneered much of the design fundamentals considered during the world building and color palette construction phases project. It is characterized by highly contrasted vivid colorations of which animation frames have been created to select from varied composition drafts. After being satisfied with the color choices, I moved the animation slider to roughly 20 seconds and adjusted color channel curves.

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

The second piece Arcazel took twice as long to create as it was a result of combining a background render with an initial focal point characterized by a golden sphere. This piece along with Prisma Ultra and Velveteen Galaxy are the only works in the project that possess a clear focal point by introducing a singular spherical shape that draws attention more than its surrounding components. The first component was rendered as an alpha and as a version with a black backdrop:

As I was satisfied with this element, I have decided to enhance it further by filling the void space with a complimentary red backdrop of wave-like forms:

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

The third still image entitled War Paint is highlighted by the use of continued experimentation defined by boosted hues accompanied by low-value outlines and spaces between varying colors. This is led me to decide that the primary appeal of the work shall come forth by the manipulation of color with Chaotica’s curve adjustment for color channels and tone mapping. The following foundational image has been produced where animation tehcniques have been used to generate iterations of the fractal world:

By further examining various iterations through the world editor and the animation slider, a rough draft of the image started to form. It was a dilemma whether to stick to the composition or to crop the result and focus on a particular color zone. I ultimately zoomed in and chose a desired focal point and composition for the final image.

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

The fourth piece, Prisma Ultra, is a departure from my usual style in a sense that it introduces globular and blob-like forms in contrast to the “wavy” characteristics of the other works in the series. I’ve attempted to discover more of myself through the use of fractal iterations that have not been previously used. In this particular example, I have explored the visuals of the “horseshoe” iterator:

As I wanted to steer away from the grainy void present at the lower half of the image, I opted to zoom into the composition. The point of focus is located at the purple spherical shape that existed due to my choice of iterators.

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

After importing the render into Adobe Photoshop, I attempted to add/remove/switch colors to further suit my aesthetic preferences. This involved covering up the orange haze on the right side of the image as the repetition was too obvious and drew away from the focal point of the image.

Versing Tides and an alternate version Versing Tides (Redux) serves as the fifth and sixth entry of the series. My approach was to create a painted feel by characterizing the piece with textures similar to brush strokes and blending attributes of paint. This was also an opportunity for me to experiment and learn the use of a third-party software called

“Chaos Helper”. This tool acts as a hub where gradients for the fractal pieces can be manipulated outside of Chaotica. I found its ability to turn photographic images into gradient samples as a very impressive feature. Although I am new to the application of this software, I am already considering its implementation as a tool to develop my future fractal images.

The initial versions of the piece were high-key, which I eventually transformed into

more color-heavy compositions characterized by a tidal division of warm and cool colors:

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

The final composition took substantially more time with rendering and retouching due to the presence of void spaces. These void spaces are a result of inconsistent render framing as Chaotica does not allow form framing through coordinates, but rather simply by dragging with a mouse.

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

For the alternate art, a new tool that I managed to experiment with were the selector and shader panels that randomly manipulate the composition and color palette respectively to offer more options into the design. The various iterations with the selector tool were as follows, showing 9 out of a virtually infinite number of outcomes:

The final fractal render for this project has been inspired by heavenly bodies such as galaxies, stars, black holes, and nebulas. For Velveteen Galaxy, the “foci” transformer has appended a starry effect to the composition. Early versions of the design appeared as so:

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

I intended to save the violet hue for another project resembling black holes and singularities. In the end, the image produced features a crimson sphere engulfed in gaseous green forms within the expanse of a dark void.

V. Conclusion

Overall, this expression of creativity has been a worthy endeavor in procedurally carrying out the creative process from start to finish. By initially possessing the foundational skills for generating a fractal image from scratch, I can observe how the execution has gradually advanced to a greater degree of efficiency. Fractal imaging is an art form that I will continue to commemorate now that I recognize its roots in art history, formal sciences, and human expression. In my attempts to articulate on my technical approaches and design decisions, I will continue find ways to generate value for my works in a contemporary setting.

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

VI. Appendices

Neon Scoop War Paint

Arcazel Prisma Ultra

Versing Tides Versing Tides (Redux) 19

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

Velveteen Galaxy

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

References

Chaos Theory for Beginners; An Introduction. (2017). Abarim Publications. Retrieved 2 November

2017, from http://www.abarim-publications.com/ ChaosTheoryIntroduction.html

#.Wfr_dHZx3IU

Abstract Expressionism, an introduction. (2017). Khan Academy. Retrieved 1 November

2017, from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/abstract-exp-

nyschool/abstract-expressionism/a/abstract-expressionism-an-introduction

Abstract Expressionism Movement Overview and Analysis. (2017). The Art Story. Retrieved 1

November 2017, from http://www.theartstory.org/movement-abstract-

expressionism.htm

Complexity Labs, "Edge of Chaos," in Complexity Labs. Retrieved August 24, 2016,

http://complexitylabs.io/edge-of-chaos/.

Gottlieb, A., Rothko, M., & Newman, B. (1943). A Letter from Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb

to the Art Editor of the New York Times. The New York Times.

Himes, S. (2017). The Earth Fighting Oceans. Retrieved from https://chaosfissure.deviantart.com/

art/The-Earth-Fighting-Oceans-678583023

CCA1103 – Creativity: Theory, Practice, and History

Karuna. (2017). Gallery Art By Karuna. Retrieved 2 November 2017, from

https://www.artbykaruna.com/

What is Chaos Theory? – Fractal Foundation. (2017). Fractalfoundation.org. Retrieved 2

November 2017, from http://fractalfoundation.org/resources/what-is-chaos-theory/