Wassa Matta U???

Boomslang

What's the matter with us???
I just got done reading a thing in Science News that Heather Lamb sent
me where there is this big argument as to whether the paintings - and a
large found cache of them - of Jackson Pollock are "fractal".Here's a link - http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070224/bob9.asp

Embrace
The provocateur, a Ms Katherine Jones-Smith, (no relation to Ms
Nickle-Smut) and her accomplice, a mathematician aptly named "Harsh"
Mathur, claims that she can make random scribbles that display "fractal
dimensions" and that either her "work" is worthless or worth $40
million like Pollock's.

mARThematics
The article was summed up with the statement, "The difference between
math and art is not as great as people think," Farid says. "There is an
art to mathematics and a mathematics to art."

I Read the News Today...
(or, Whatta Mess)

I read thru and came up with the after-taste that basically "we know a
fractal when we see it". Apparently, fractals and what qualifies as one
are still a loosely defined science. She described Pollock's paintings
by exclaiming, "They look like a complete mess, as far as I'm
concerned". A typically robo-human reaction to abstract and/or fractal art that I
am well familiar with, considering my line of work and the cultural
wasteland I call home. I'm probably a gross aberration within the
engineering community here...

Tribute to Guido
So then what, indeed, is the matter with our brains that we can look at
fractals or "fractal paintings" and SOMETHING speaks to us at a
visceral level and whispers, "coooooolllll", that a great many other
folks don't hear??? Are we mildy but harmlessly insane???

Cool as Jesus
Are we
"enlightened" and possibly channelling the creativity of God and we somehow, unconsciously "grok" the essence of the vibe of the forms of His Creation??? (Does that sound a bit over the top?) Does the math "speak to us" in some subliminal way?

Flashback

Are some of us
possibly suffering from damage to our grey-matter inflicted by too much
indulgence in the drugs that were a rite of passage in our, for some,
distant youth???

Snake-charmer

Have we been evilly charmed and lost our souls in the miasma of some fractal
pergatory and in dire need of absolution and a working copy of Terragen??? (no disrespect to those who've mastered that program!)

---------------------------

As they say nowadays, Wassup wit dat??? Why are we so "down wit the sickness" of fractal art when many others aren't??? Are we illin' or are we chillin'? Are we hip or are we square? Are fractals really so "sick" or are we just....to use an antiquated term....weird and they are a "complete mess"???? (Do I need to spend more time with my oldest nephew so as to get my modern, hip-hop slang straight?)

Why do we call it "art" when others just go "huh"? when they see a fractal. Is it just "elitist" to even ask these questions? (BTW - probably none of these pieces could pass the test as "fractals" but they're what I had on hand... :-)

BTW2 - this "dashboard" thingie is a bear to figure out. Hopefully I haven't got as many big gaps between things as my last shot at this...
Rick