Fractal art is a form of algorithmic art created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still images and media. Fractal art developed from the mid-1980s onwards, it is digital art which are part of new media art. The mathematical beauty of fractals lies at the intersection of generative computer art, they combine to produce a type of abstract art. Fractal art is drawn or painted by hand, it is created indirectly with the assistance of fractal-generating software, iterating through three phases: setting parameters of appropriate fractal software. In some cases, other graphics programs are used to further modify the images produced; this is called post-processing. Non-fractal imagery may be integrated into the artwork; the Julia set and Mandelbrot sets can be considered as icons of fractal art. It was assumed that fractal art could not have developed without computers because of the calculative capabilities they provide. Fractals are generated by applying iterative methods to solving non-linear equations or polynomial equations.

Fractals are any of various irregular curves or shapes for which any suitably chosen part is similar in shape to a given larger or smaller part when magnified or reduced to the same size. There can be subdivided into several groups. Fractals derived from standard geometry by using iterative transformations on an initial common figure like a straight line, a triangle, or a cube; the first fractal figures invented near the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries belong to this group. IFS Strange attractors Fractal flame L-system fractals Fractals created by the iteration of complex polynomials: the most famous fractals. Newton fractals, including Nova fractals Quaternionic and hypernionic fractals Fractal terrains generated by random fractal processes Mandelbulbs are a kind of three dimensional fractal. Fractal Expressionism is a term used to differentiate traditional visual art that incorporates fractal elements such as self-similarity for example; the best example of fractal expressionism is found in Jackson Pollock's dripped patterns.

They have been analysed and found to contain a fractal dimension, attributed to his technique. Fractals of all kinds have been used as the basis for digital animation. High resolution color graphics became available at scientific research labs in the mid-1980s. Scientific forms of art, including fractal art, have developed separately from mainstream culture. Starting with 2-dimensional details of fractals, such as the Mandelbrot Set, fractals have found artistic application in fields as varied as texture generation, plant growth simulation and landscape generation. Fractals are sometimes combined with evolutionary algorithms, either by iteratively choosing good-looking specimens in a set of random variations of a fractal artwork and producing new variations, to avoid dealing with cumbersome or unpredictable parameters, or collectively, as in the Electric Sheep project, where people use fractal flames rendered with distributed computing as their screensaver and "rate" the flame they are viewing, influencing the server, which reduces the traits of the undesirables, increases those of the desirables to produce a computer-generated, community-created piece of art.

Many fractal images are admired because of their perceived harmony. This is achieved by the patterns which emerge from the balance of order and chaos. Similar qualities have been described in Chinese painting and miniature rockeries; the first fractal image, intended to be a work of art was the famous one on the cover of Scientific American, August 1985. This image showed a landscape formed from the potential function on the domain outside the Mandelbrot set. However, as the potential function grows fast near the boundary of the Mandelbrot set, it was necessary for the creator to let the landscape grow downwards, so that it looked as if the Mandelbrot set was a plateau atop a mountain with steep sides; the same technique was used a year after in some images in The Beauty of Fractals by Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Michael M. Richter, they provide a formula to estimate the distance from a point outside the Mandelbrot set to the boundary of the Mandelbrot set. Landscapes can, for example, be formed from the distance function for a family of iterations of the form z 2 + a z 4 + c.

Notable fractal artists include Hamid Naderi Yeganeh and musician Bruno Degazio. The British artist William Latham, has used fractal geometry and other computer graphics techniques in his works. Greg Sams has used fractal designs in T-shirts and textiles. American Vicky Brago-Mitchell has created fractal art which has appeared in exhibitions and on magazine covers. Scott Draves is credited with inventing flame fractals. Carlos Ginzburg has explored fractal art and developed a concept called "homo fractalus", based around the idea that the human is the ultimate fractal. Merrin Parkers from New Zealand specialises in fractal art. Kerry Mitchell wrote a "Fractal Art Manifesto", claiming that Fractal Art is a subclass of two-dimensional visual art, is in many respects similar to photography—another art form, greeted by skepticism upon its arrival. Fractal images are manifested as prints, bringing fractal artis

"Big Al" Szolack is a retired American basketball player best known for his time spent on the Washington Generals, the traveling exhibition team who plays against, always loses to, the Harlem Globetrotters. He played for just the 1974 -- 75 season. Szolack became a favorite among the Globetrotters and was selected as the "unwitting" participant in many of their pre-determined entertainment plays. Szolack was raised in New Jersey, he was described as "reed-thin" but was a "sniper" on the basketball court while playing for Woodbury High School, from which he graduated in 1968. His ability earned him all-conference and all-county honors, Szolack continued his career at Atlantic Cape Community College for two years. After community college, Szolack attended Glassboro State College, a then-NAIA school located in Glassboro, New Jersey, he was an integral player on the team, serving as one of their best substitutes off of the bench for head coach Jack Collins. In both seasons the team qualified for the national tournament.

Szolack graduated from Glassboro State in the spring of 1973. Right after college, Szolack tried out for the Scranton Apollos in the Eastern Professional Basketball League, but he was the last cut and did not make the roster, he came upon the Washington Generals when he went to see the Globetrotters at the Spectrum in Philadelphia and obtained Red Klotz' phone number. Szolack spent the next year playing against the Globetrotters, they played seven days a week and sometimes played twice in a day. After his exhibition basketball career ended, he moved to Fort Lauderdale and became a bartender, his 54-year-old mother—with whom he was close—died from a heart attack. He began to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, admitted to using up to $1,000 worth of cocaine per day for a time. From ages 27 through 34, Szolack's life was in ruins. In an interview, he admitted, "Drugs turned me into a thief, a liar, a cheat... One day I found myself holding a shotgun. I lived the life of a vampire. Sometimes I had only enough energy to get from the bed to the sofa.

I was sick sick. I didn't live... I existed."After not knowing where to turn, he made one last attempt for help by visiting his fiancée's mother. She gave him a hug, he dedicated his life to keeping children off of drugs and alcohol. He now goes by the nickname Al "Hugs Not Drugs" Szolack and serves as an abuse awareness director at Hammonton High School in Hammonton, New Jersey, he is a motivational speaker and runs an annual basketball camp which he calls "Big Al's Basketball Camp." Szolack travels across the United States giving speeches, many times at colleges and universities, he is on the NCAA-approved speaker roster. Szolack is married to Carol Szolack; as of 2011, they reside in Mullica Hill

Shinobu Hashimoto was a Japanese screenwriter, film director and producer. A frequent collaborator of Akira Kurosawa, he wrote the scripts for such internationally acclaimed films as Rashomon and Seven Samurai. Shinobu Hashimoto was born in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan on 18 April 1918. In 1938 he enlisted in the army, but became ill with tuberculosis while still training and spent four years in a veterans' sanitarium. While hospitalized, another patient gave Hashimoto a film magazine; the magazine sparked his interest in screenwriting and he began a screenplay about his army experience, spending three years on the project. Hashimoto was frequent collaborator with Akira Kurosawa, from 1950 to 1970 writing eight screenplays Kurosawa directed, he worked with Hideo Oguni, Ryūzō Kikushima as well as Kurosawa himself on the scripts for those projects. Hashimoto won numerous awards for his writing, including a succession of Blue Ribbon Awards and Mainichi Film Awards in the 1950s and'60s. Hashimoto wrote more than eighty screenplays, including Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress.

He directed three films. Achieving international acclaim, Hashimoto's scripts inspired notable films abroad, including The Magnificent Seven, a remake of Seven Samurai, Star Wars, which George Lucas has described as inspired by The Hidden Fortress. In 2006, he authored a memoir entitled Compound Cinematics: Akira Kurosawa and I. In 2008, Hashimoto wrote a screenplay for I Want to Be a Shellfish, a second full-length film adaptation of the post-World War II-based television series he wrote for TBS Television in 1958. Hashimoto turned 100 in April 2018, he died in Tokyo on 19 July 2018 at the age of 100. In a tribute article for TIME magazine, film director Antoine Fuqua expressed his respect for Hashimoto as a screenwriter stating: " … working with Akira Kurosawa and Hideo Oguni, was so beautiful and poetic and powerful and heartbreaking, it was all about justice, it was all about sacrifice, it made me want to be one of those guys". 1950, Blue Ribbon Award for Best Screenplay for Rashomon 1952, Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for Ikiru 1956, Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for Mahiru no ankoku 1956, Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Screenplay for Mahiru no ankoku 1958, Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for The Chase 1958, Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Screenplay for The Chase 1958, Kinema Junpo's Best Screenwriter Award for The Hidden Fortress 1960, Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for Black Art Book 1962, Blue Ribbon Award for Best Screenplay for Harakiri 1966, Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for Shiroi Kyotō 1974, Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for Castle of Sand 2015, A Special Prize from Mainichi Film Award for screenwriting Hashimoto is credited in the making of at least 85 films.

Shinobu Hashimoto on IMDb