Disappeared Art

Disappearing should be an art form, a seductive way of leaving the world. I believe that part of disappearing is to disappear before you die, to disappear before you have run dry, while you still have something to say...
--Jean Baudrillard

As Tim noted yesterday, the online images for the 2009 and 2010 editions of the Fractal Universe Calendar have disappeared.

Continuing their unbroken pattern of maximum secrecy, neither the current editor nor the publisher -- Avalanche Publishing -- apparently feels the fractal community deserves any explanation for this sudden turn of events. The FUC folks certainly weren't shy about asking fractal artists to go to the trouble of making and submitting work -- even if those who administer the calendar will no longer go to the trouble of displaying the contest's winning images -- and, of course, certainly can't be bothered to explain the reasons for their abrupt change in policy. I suspect Tim's speculation is on target. It's a deliberate move designed to soften criticism from guess who.

So, isn't it at least a little ironic that the only current online source to showcase a number of the winning entries for the 2010 Fractal Universe Calendar Contest is -- wait for it -- Orbit Trap?

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Yes. I know. It is tiring when the FUC's myopic critics just can't grasp that the Fractal Universe Calendar is (to quote its website) *not* a contest -- especially critics like Diane Cipollo over at Bella Online. She was more than jubilant (although probably supernaturally pre-influenced by Orbit Trap via a time traveling wormhole) back in 2004 to be one of the town criers for the 2006 edition of the Fractal Universe Calendar. Why she even seemed to be on a first-name basis with the editors for that year: Tina and Linda. And what was the title of her article? As Condi Rice once said -- I believe the title was:

Open Call for Fractal Universe Calendar Contest

No doubt OT's former hecklers will immediately begin armoring up (in a strictly semi-rhetorical fashion) and making plans for invading Cipollo's comments section to verbally set her straight. I guess she didn't get the talking points memo.

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And inquiring minds might be asking why Damien M. Jones is pushing the Fractal Universe Calendar hot and heavy over on his Fractalus main page -- announcing first the submission deadline and now noting that submissions have closed. Is he merely a concerned citizen? Perhaps, but an examination of the site shows the only fractal art contests announced and archived on Fractalus are those Jones hosts on his own server and plays some part in administering.

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Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, fractal art contest, art criticism, fractal universe calendar, avalanche publishing, disappeared art, hypocritical hecklers, damien m jones, fractalus, cruelanimal, orbit trap