Michael and I recently spent an intriguing afternoon at Artechouse in Houston, the
same place we took the grandkids when they visited after Christmas. Artechouse
is a fascinating and fun immersive art-and-technology environment with interactive
exhibits. We saw the holiday special with Felix and Gabe and enjoyed it so much
we had to go back.
This time, we saw the exhibition Fractal Worlds by acclaimed
Dutch artist Julius Horsthuis. I know what fractals are and have even put
together jigsaw puzzles of fractal images. That doesn’t mean I understand them.
To my eye, they are fascinating swirls of colors—usually, but not always—repeating in ever-diminishing patterns.
Imagine sitting on a riser in a room so dark that you
aren’t sure where your feet are. All around you—floor, ceilings, and four walls—images are spinning and
eddying, larger renderings breaking into ever-smaller variations of the
original elements.
The more I tried to focus on those elements, the faster
they seemed to whirl away and become something else. But were they actually different?
My mind boggled to the point that I stopped trying to see and just enjoyed
experiencing the pageantry of motion.
What is a fractal, really? The Fractal Foundation
explains them like this: “A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are
infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They
are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback
loop…” The definition goes on (and on) and you can read the full version using
the link I’ve provided. The bottom line is that fractals use complex math.
That wasn’t helpful, because recursion was its own
mystery. When I tried to get a definition, my search engine offered me a lot of
coder-worthy gobbledygook that made no sense either. After several unproductive
stabs at it, I finally typed, “Explain recursion to me like I am a
fifth-grader.”
That did the trick. The actual definition didn’t help so
much: “Recursion is when something solves a problem by asking
a smaller version of itself to help — and it keeps doing that
until the problem is so small it’s easy to solve.” Huh, what?
But boy oh boy, did the example ever help! A teacher
hands a stack of test papers to the first kid in a row of desks and says, “Take
one and pass them on.” Every kid takes one, hands them on, and repeats the
instruction to the next kid. By the end of the row, the last kid gets the last
test paper. Recursion complete. That I understand!
The delightful, unpredictable (to my eye) series of
images surrounding me in the dark were created with a particular fractal
equation called a Mandelbrot Set. It’s not just the complicated mathematics or
the images the equations create that make the results so mesmerizing, but also
the cinematic filmmaking Horsthuis employs to present his work.
There were four different rooms of fractal images, each
unique. In one of them you stood, in another one you could stand, sit or lie
down, one simply had benches, and a fourth one had large bean bags to lie on
while you watched the fractal film on the ceiling. Michael and I used those
beanbags when we visited with Felix and Gabe. To our dismay, getting back on
our feet was an embarrassing spectacle neither of us wishes to repeat.
In addition to the room displays, there were about ten
large, interactive wall displays where you could make the fractals bend and
move, shrink or grow, recede or advance by moving your body. Each one had a
different image and it was a lot of fun to be in control of the action, so to
speak.
The final area of Artechouse is a suite of rooms with complex
laser displays. I found them fascinating, but hard on my eyes, with vivid red
lasers or very bright white light lasers, sometimes in combination. After
making the rounds of that area briefly, I decided to call it a day and get a
soda at the lobby bar. Watching fractals is very dry work, probably because
your mouth is hanging open in awe so much!
That show is now over and the new one—Blooming Wonders: A Celebration
of Spring—is coming soon, with pricing specials
available. I haven’t seen it, of course, but I highly recommend the experience
at Artechouse, whatever the show. Go out and have a little fun!
Ciao
P.S. They have locations in New York City and Washington,
D.C. as well as in Houston.
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