invisible visibility / mathematical portraits
In the mid-1980s, the first scientific PHSColograms were created with Donna Cox and her team at NCSA, and visualized four-dimensional mathematical models of the Etruscan Venus. Additional PHSColograms were created with Dan Sandin and John Hart of fractals and strange attractors. These PHSColograms uniquely explored the beauty of mathematics as abstraction found in nature and in relation to ornamentation and architecture.
Selected works were shown by Hudson at Feature Inc. in Chicago, at Fermilab in 1987, and in the Science in Depth traveling exhibition, sponsored by ACM that premiered at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and toured to the Computer Museum Boston and NASA Ames Visitors Center, concluding at SIGGRAPH ’92 Chicago in which 40 PHSColograms were installed around the Electronic Visualization Lab’s VR CAVE debut.
Forms generated by elliptic ovals have fascinated geometers, artists, and astronomers ever since Appollonius, da Vinci, and Kepler. These “ovalesques" come from Topology and began their computer graphics existence on an Apple program in Forth.
-George FrancisNational Center for Supercomputing Applications,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fractal Forest
This is a forest that existed only inside of a computer. It is made out of highly detailed (fractal ) shapes that look like objects in the real world, such as trees and grass. The elm trees are trunks with smaller elm trees growing out of them. The branches of the pine trees are smaller pine trees themselves. Each blade of grass is actually a tiny field of grass—so tiny that you cannot see them here. These objects are constructed from smaller copies of themselves. This is called "self-similarity", and is the way most fractals are made.
Detail from John Hart's Fractal Forest animation shown at the SIGGRAPH '91 Electronic Theatre.
Fractal Forest, 1991
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Stephan Meyers, Janine Fron and Craig Ahmer
John Hart
Virtual Photograph/PHSCologram: Cibachrome, Kodalth, Plexiglas
24 x 20 inches
Fourplay
A juxtaposition of four related fractals, each of which has a certain "four-ness" about it. The fractal in front is a "Quaternion Julia Set," and in back we see the "Mandelbrot Set" and the "Complex Subset Julia Set." A Julia Set is a sort of Strange Attractor. A Mandlebrot Set is an encyclopedia or map of all possible Julia Sets. This map is a fractal, and it may be the most complex shape in mathematics.
Fourplay, 1990
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Stephan Meyers
John Hart
Virtual Photograph/PHSCologram: Cibachrome, Kodalith, Plexiglas
(24 x 20), (48 x 40) inches
See: Virtual Sculpture: Chaos/Information as Ornament: A Tribute to Louis Sullivan
Stacked Julia Set I
Stacked Julia Set I, 1989
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Stephan Meyers
Dan Sandin, Electronic Visualization Lab, School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago
Virtual Photograph/PHSCologram: Cibachrome, Kodalith, Plexiglas
24 x 20 inches
See: Virtual Sculpture: Chaos/Information as Ornament: A Tribute to Louis Sullivan
Strange Attractor
Strange Attractor, 1989
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Stephan Meyers
Dan Sandin, Electronic Visualization Lab, School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago
Virtual Photograph/PHSCologram: Cibachrome, Kodalith, Plexiglas
24 x 20 inches
See: Virtual Sculpture: Chaos/Information as Ornament: A Tribute to Louis Sullivan
Julius Loves Mary
Julius Loves Mary, 1988
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Stephan Meyers
Mary Rasmussen
Dan Sandin, Electronic Visualization Lab, School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago
Virtual Photograph/PHSCologram: Kodalith, Kodalth, Plexiglas
14 x 11 inches
Fractal Pleasure
A virtual photograph of a fractal.
Fractal Pleasure, 1988
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Stephan Meyers
Dan Sandin, Electronic Visualization Lab, School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago
Virtual Photograph/PHSCologram: Kodalith, Kodalth, Plexiglas
14 x 11 inches