Love Fractal

My attempt to create a fractal using only the word LOVE. Haven't figured out how to incorporate the Mandelbrot mathematics into the design as yet, but would like to animate it continuously zooming inwards, spirally shifting and morphing into different words and colors.

Nature takes form around the basis of fractals.  However, the smooth triangles, cones, cubes and spheres representative of Euclidean geometry, as archetypal as they are as symbols and commonly found in the world of manufacturing, they do not provide an accurate model the universe. Math for such requires a tad more 'roughness.'

Coined by Benoit Mandelbroit in 1975, the term fractal was derived from the Latin fractus meaning 'broken' or 'fractured.' The fundamental characteristic of fractals is that their structure repeats in a very self-similar fashion at any level of magnification.  This can be found in clouds, coastlines, mountain ranges and lightning bolts, as well as various vegetables and animal coloration patterns.

They are also found within our body as seen with the branching networks of our respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems. From the cells and upward into a fully formed human, fractals may even extend unseen into the social framework of civilizations. They link the ancient mystical understanding "As above, so below" with many of today's mathematical and scientific models.

Further still, language itself could very well be considered a multidimensional fractal. After all, what is any alphabet (or font for that matter) but a set of self similar symbols, combined endlessly through writing or speech to evoke layer upon layer of meaning.

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In the case of a Mandelbrot set, regardless of the extent to which one zooms in on its boundary there is always additional detail to see. During the twelve-second zoom in the animation linked here, the set becomes magnified eleven-million fold. Thus, assuming the first frame is life-size at 45 mm across, a carbon atom would comprise 36 pixels in the final frame.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Mandelbrot_color_zoom.gif

The Wikipedia page on the Mandelbrot set is densely packed with equations, but if you scroll down about halfway there's a beautiful 14 step slideshow of some high res fractal images.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set
This one is the 8th in the series...Illustrated below are 10 simple fractal progressions:::

These and more found at http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Fractal.html

And for some exquisitely rendered fractal designs check out the extensive galleries at...http://www.abstractdigitalartgallery.com/

Youtube has plenty of great fractal vids as well. Here's one that was made with After Effects...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34zPvmNXTYQ

Body Language

This is a project I've been been working on for the last eleven months or so. It's constantly evolving, with no end in sight. I've displayed it in various venues and have received some great feedback. Now I think it's finally ready for an online presentation.

Essentially it’s a collection of positively charged words arranged in the form of a female figure, ultimately designed to be a reflection of the Divine Feminine.

To give credit where credit is due, I’d like to note that the pose I used was greatly inspired by the Sacred Mirrors series by Alex Grey.

http://www.cosm.org/

It's important that I also delve a little bit into the background of my process to give this project some context. It began when researching the power of sigils and repeated affirmations. For those who aren’t familiar with the term sigil, it’s a ‘magical’ device which is frequently used in occult rituals, often times worn as a talisman or placed in and around an alter or shrine. In effect, it’s a symbol containing a message of one’s conscious desires and aspirations, directed at the subconscious mind.

Since the subconscious absorbs and interprets surroundings through the analysis and recognition of symbolic shapes and patterns, a sigil is meant to be put up somewhere you will see it on a regular basis like a mirror or fridge door. The purpose is that through repeated exposure to this intentionally simplified symbol one can more readily manifest their desires. However, there's a catch... for a sigil to be most effective it must be forgotten. To put it another way, first specify the desire and charge it with intent, then let it go. This can be done by designing numerous sigils, putting them away somewhere for a couple weeks (out of sight, out of mind) and then bring them back out once their individual meanings have escaped your conscious mind. Some sigil makers even destroy them in order to fully let go and allow the 'magic' to run its course. Detachment is crucial.

For a more in depth summary of sigils and sigil construction check this out...

http://home.comcast.net/~max555/book/Sigils.html

So after playing around with sigils for a little while I decided to take one word and manipulate it into a pattern. That word was PEACE. While drawing it in my sketchbook I noticed that from a certain angle the words formed what looked like eyes. In continuing with this thread the natural development was to turn it into a face and then incorporate a variety of words into a full body.

With that to springboard from I took to the task of creating a prototype with 66 words.

The most current version contains 161.

For a closer look to see the words I've used, here are some details of the head, hands, torso and legs.

I've also created a color version and have included the seven chakra system. Printed an earlier version at nearly life size (6' x 4') on a vinyl sheet and it looks absolutely stunning. I'm hoping to print it to fit the side of a building someday...

Inverted version

For easy reference, here's a list of the words I'ved used so far.

Super Sigils!

As I mentioned in the above post, this has been a constantly evolving project that began as a somewhat simple design and has grown increasingly complex. While researching Buddhist artwork and digitally mirroring and adjusting fonts I became inspired to create word mandalas at different degrees of rotation. The first one I made was LOVE. After creating dozens of these with the words used in Body Language, I spun full sentences and then sentences within words. Felt an appropriate term to describe them might be “Suggesdalas.”
Will be posting some color versions in the near future...

I’m currently printing Suggesdala posters and t-shirts and am undergoing plans to extend into a whole line of products. Also open to commissions for personalized Suggesdalas and you can have a name, affirmation, quote, poem or song customized into any language. Pricing differs based on word count and print size.

This pyramid is the companion piece to the "Body Language" prototype with the original 66 words.