Jeanette Powers
“The Path Crumpled Paper Takes;”
Ink and Paper, 11" x 15", 2008.
A classic example to explain fractal dimension is the piece of crumpled paper. In this example, one takes a sheet of paper to be 2 dimensional (ignoring the very thin thickness). This then is a good representation of the mathematical plane. However, if we crumple the paper into a ball, as seen below the frame, it seems to take on a volume, or third dimension. Now, there is a meta-level to the inter-dimensionality of this system. If one flattens the paper back into the two dimensional sheet of paper, then one can draw a continuous line ( in blue) of all the folds that happened during the crumpling process. Now a line is considered to be one dimensional, but is the space this line takes up really best described with only one dimension?
“Pulse”
Acrylic, 6" x 24", 2008.
This piece explores Hausdorff Dimension. Chaos and dynamical systems
collapse in ordered ways. A nebula coalescing into a galaxy, a frozen
molecule tossing through the tumult and falling as a six-sided crystal,
the Mandelbrot Set. As an artist, I've tried to use chaotic interactions
as a tool to express the limitations of our control and the beauty of
chaos. This painting uses cellophane crushed into wet pigment to create
the random patterning of the surface. The result is a chaotic landscape
reminiscent of leaves, cells, rivulets, the cracked dirt of arid lands.
All chaotic processes which leave a recognizable mark. The pattern is
not exact, but exhibits self-similarity.
Jeanette Powers, student with Math/Physics majors, Physics and Math Department Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
"Spontaneity and chaos are the ideas I chase as an artist. To be able
to create a controlled madness, to allow the paints to express their
unique fluid dynamics while still creating a beautiful and meaningful
piece of art is the ultimate challenge. I've developed many different
techniques to express this dynamical behavior, including crushing
cellophane into an extremely wet surface, then forcing thinned paint
down into the rivulets and letting gravity pull the paint through the
system. Since entering college and beginning to learn mathematics, I've
found that many of the techniques I'd implemented were based in math and
physics, and that my work exhibited fractal qualities and the physics of
fluid dynamics. I hope to create art based on math and physics which is
still warm and human and approachable by every person."
PowersJ@rockhurst.edu
http://www.rumathphysics.org/FractalArt/