Fractals: A Resonance between Art and Nature

The discovery of fractal patterns was an interesting advance in the understanding of nature [1, 2]. Since the 1970s many natural scenes have been shown to be composed of fractal patterns. Examples include coastlines, clouds, lightning, trees, rivers and mountains. Fractal patterns are referred to as a new geometry because they look nothing like the more traditional shapes such as triangles and squares known within mathematics as Euclidean geometry. Whereas these shapes are composed of smooth lines, fractals are built from patterns that recur at finer and finer magnifications, generating shapes of immense complexity. Even the most common of nature's fractal objects, such as the tree shown in Figure 1, contrast sharply with the simplicity of artificially constructed objects such as buildings. But do people find such complexity visually appealing? In particular, given peo-ple's continuous visual exposure to nature's fractals, do we possess a fundamental appreciation of these patterns – an affinity independent of conscious delibera-tion? The study of human aesthetic judgement of fractal patterns constitutes a relatively new research field within perception psychology. Only recently has research started to quantify people's visual preferences for (or against) fractal content. A useful starting point in assessing people's ability to recognize and create visual patterns is to examine the methods used by artists to generate aesthetically pleasing images on their canvases. More specifically, in terms of exploring an intrinsic appreciation of certain patterns, it seems appropriate to examine the Surrealists and their desire to paint images which are free of conscious consideration. Originating in Paris during the 1920s, the Surrealists developed their painting techniques more than fifty years ahead of the scientific discovery of nature's underlying fractal quality. Yet, remarkably, our recent research shows that fractals could have served as the foundation for Surrealist art and, in particular, the drip paintings of their artistic offspring, the American abstract painter Jackson Pollock. The Surrealists' approach to painting deviated radically from the care and precision traditionally associated with artistic techniques. The Surrealists believed that premeditated, conscious actions hindered the liberation of pure imagery from deep within the mind [3]. They thought that the key to releasing this imag-53