Nevena Ivanova


SOME AESTHETIC ASPECTS OF CYBERNETIC ILLUSION

Computers and new technologies have changed all fields of human knowledge in the last 
few decades. The Internet and its greater accessibility have made possible the 
development of quite different aspects of human communications. The authors of art do 
not remain unimpressed by the possibilities, which the computer supplies. Many painters, 
musicians and writers experiment with new means of statement and create a nonstandard 
type of art. 


Characteristic Features of Digital Art  

Art in its essence tends to a dialogue relationship with its recipients. Computers and the 
Internet provide such means of statement, which make possible new ways of interaction 
between the work of art, the author and the recipient (who is often a spectator, a reader 
and a listener at the same time). Thus digital art changes the concept of art and creativity. 
In this paper I will consider how creation and perception of digital web-art merge 
distinctions between the author and the recipient. Some examples of art, wholly created 
via a computer, will be provided, so as to illustrate this thesis. They are fractal images 
and 'Conway's Game of Life'.


Fractal Art

A fractal picture is a graphical image, generated on the basis of a mathematical equation. 
The obtained drawing is unusually sophisticated, because all of its parts possess structure 
in different scales of the image.  Structural interrelations are extremely various, but this 
variety is dependent on definite regularity. Fractal images are self-resemble. Every part 
contains the whole in itself or is similar to it. Every element of the fractal drawing can 
become a centre or a periphery of the whole by change of the viewpoint. 

The digital medium enables accessible and facile graphic representation of a structure in 
different scales. It makes possible abstract formulas of mathematics, existing beyond 
sensuality, to be embodied into images and thus to be perceived by sense perception. In 
traditional media for graphic representation, such as the pencil and the paper sheet, when 
the picture is scaled up the image loses its structure. 

Some fractal images are incredibly beautiful and that makes them objects deserving 
aesthetic contemplation.  

Classical pictures call for a definite distance to be observed, in order the whole of the 
image and its aura to be saved. Too great shortening of the distance between the work 
and the recipient merges the image of the picture; single brush-strokes become visible. 
According to Walter Benjamin, a work of art has an aura when it seems too distant and 
unattainable as though it is surrounded by an invisible aureole.  

Beauty in fractal drawings does not come to light through moving away from the work, 
but through infinitely getting closer, 'entering' in it. Here the nearest approach is sought, 
the lack of dark and mysterious distances; not only the whole is contemplated, but also 
the tiniest details are examined. Filigreed interweaving between the geometrical figures 
in sophisticated abstract images is that, which enchants the recipient. Closeness, which 
can be attained in the case of material structure of the image, does not impair the idea of 
harmonic entity, which is present in its appearance. 

When we consider creating fractal images as works of art, we have to think about the 
place of the artist in this process.

The classical authors have a preliminary image of their completed work or at least an idea 
about its appearance. They generalize the spirit of their age, seek to express the secret 
essence of the phenomena, which they recreate in the system of art images.

The contemporary author lives in a postmodern age, which has no universal identity. The 
very authenticity of things and their meaning are put under question. The possibility of 
objective discourse and absolute reality is denied. Roland Barthes speaks about extinction 
of the work of art as a complete entity and instead about endless creative exchange 
between signifiers ("signifiance"), without reducing to an ultimate interpretation; it is a 
free game of words in which all meanings are deconstructed. Signification is understood 
in the infinite process of its 'becoming'.  What is important is not the completeness of the 
text, but the process of its writing, the very practice of art. 

In this context the art is understood rather as a game and a ceaseless experiment. 
Considering creation of fractal images, it is impossible to seek for a preliminary idea. 
Assigning to the computer exact mathematical equations and colours, the authors have no 
idea what image will be displayed on the screen. Their creative part is expressed in 
experimentation with equations and colours, which they give step by step to the computer 
program, until the obtained result meets their aesthetic criteria. 

In the postmodern culture similar aesthetic attitude is expressed in the concept 'bricolage'. 
Making trials and mistakes the bricoleur uses the instruments at hand and becomes 
acquainted with them, only during 'the picking'. S/he explores, arranges and rearranges 
familiar techniques in a new way, without taking an interest in the context in which they 
have been used before. The bricoleur, instead of following determined rules, plays with 
methods, and examines the manner in which the techniques interact with objects in the 
very moment of their application. In the process of the game it becomes clear which 
instruments to be used and for what purpose. The act of creativity becomes a matter of 
choice and accident, what is important is the moment of innovation and experiment.

The recipient becomes involved in the game by means of various possibilities for 
interactive interference, thus having his own direct impact on the work.

Fractal pictures are exhibited in Internet, where they become accessible not only for 
contemplating but for interactive intervention as well. The recipient examines them by 
enlarging the image inside the picture and thus the illusion of entering the wonderland is 
created. In the process of enlarging the image, totally new structural figures appear, 
which are similar to the former ones. The 'zoom' step is the lowest degree of interaction.

We meet the highest degree of interaction again in the fractal images. The recipients, 
intrigued by what they see, become able to create new fantastic worlds on their own 
computer screen. The programs of generating fractals are supplied for free and are 
accessible to everybody who possesses enough patience to study them and enough will to 
unfold one's own imagination. Mathematical, physical or even artistic education is not 
required. It is enough for the recipient to show an aesthetic taste, in order to make a 
picture, which possesses some artistic value. Almost all artists of fractal images 
recommend their favorite programs, by means of which they have created their pictures. 

If we reconsider how great the change is that the statute of the author undergoes, we will 
notice that authors do not imagine themselves as the only creators of aesthetic values. 
Instead of offering complete work to the public, the authors initiate the recipient into their 
world, as though the initiated has been introduced in magical rituals, where he becomes 
an equal participant. Such art does not strive for recreating of preliminarily given 
authentic reality; it is not representative. As a game-ritual it rather aims at waking up the 
hidden capabilities of the recipient, so that he makes his own significance of the world. In 
this sense the language of the contemporary art is not representing: it is interactive.


'The Game of Life' - unknown aspects of life or science as art

In various galleries for web-art we find out one more example of the change of the 
functions between the author and the recipient in the interactive digital art. This is 'the 
game of life': a kaleidoscope of images, which computer algorithms generate on the 
screen. 

To see how the algorithm acts, as defined by the British mathematician John Conway, we 
first have to imagine how the computer screen looks like. It consists of a great number of 
pixels, dispensed like squares in a millimeter paper. The field for the Conway's game has 
a structure similar to the computer screen. Some of the squares are activated, and the rest 
constitute the dark background. Activated squares are called 'alive'.

The game begins with an exact initial configuration of squares, which change on every 
step when the algorithm is started. Whether some of the squares will be activated on the 
next step depends on the number of the neighbouring 'alive' squares. The dependence is 
determined by the following rules: 1. The square with less than two neighbours dies of 
loneliness. 2. The square with exactly three neighbours is born. 3. The square with more 
than three neighbours dies of overpopulation.  The algorithm of Conway sets precisely 
the next step of the given initial configuration of squares. But after enough reiterations 
the development of the picture sophisticates and becomes impossible to be predicted. 

Like demiurge, by his algorithm, Conway creates a world, which develops according to 
its own rules and without external controlling intervention. Conway's game is built 
according to rigorous mathematical laws and is an objective image, subordinate to the 
same laws, which mathematics finds out in nature and the living world. Hence comes its 
name: 'Game of Life', or even only Life. Like a living organism, this work of art is in 
continuous motion, saving at the same time its intrinsic identity. This regularity and 
balance in motion makes the rhythm of the game. As a phenomenon of the world of the 
artificial intellect, The Game of Life has practical and scientific value, but at the same 
time it becomes an object worthy of disinterested admiration.

Once started, the game is playing by itself and forms ceaselessly changing animated 
pictures. Thus there naturally arises the question of the author's status in this game.

The only author, in the classical meaning, is Conway himself, the inventor of the 
algorithm. Otherwise the computer itself makes the pictures and other authors cannot take 
part in the process of their motion. All the rest are playing spectators. The process of 
creativity and its products change. The artist does not create a work of art, but the idea of 
an aesthetic object, that is, a program, which is supplied to the recipients. And they, being 
guided by this program, create the artistic image by themselves, as they like it. 

The pictures, made in the process of the game, provoke great interest. The way, in which 
these pictures are created, makes them interactive on several degrees.

In the Internet there are ready initial configurations, which the spectator starts and 
watches their development.  S/he can add new live squares to the moving picture and in 
this way to intervene in the change of the image. The game demands participation. It is a 
communicative act and it does not make a difference between the one who plays and the 
one who watches with great interest. The spectator is always more than a pure observer, 
s/he always actively sympathizes with the players, becomes their party.  

The highest degree of interactive intervention in the game consists in changing its own 
rules. In this case we again can put the question of the authorship. The creator of a new 
algorithm, which is able to generate animated pictures, also appears in the role of a 
demiurge. Similar to the Conway's algorithm is the idea of the field and interrelating 
squares, which form an independent living world. But the rules for their development are 
quite new, and the images are really fascinating. In the Internet sites of web-art there are 
such original examples that imitate true to life phenomena like fire, disease, slipping of a 
snake, concentric circles in the water. 

The last degree of interactivity can be observed within the game itself. The fact that the 
development of the configuration is unpredictable is due to the interrelation between the 
squares during the game. Conway's Game of Life does not need a mediator between the 
author and the recipient, like every other work of art, it is alive. Its elements continuously 
pass into each other, turn into various forms. But at the same time they remain stable in 
their relation to each other as is codified by the algorithm. 

Maybe we can say that the art generated via a computer on the basis of algorithms is 
ruled by principles that are quite different from the familiar ones. To what extent the 
process of creativity can be subjected to algorithms? The development of the computer 
technologies puts inevitably this question. New spheres of knowledge are created, which 
study objective laws according to which unique works of art are born. For science, art is a 
specific model of reality and so the methods of mathematics and informatics are 
appropriate for its analysis. What are the grounds for such a claim? They lie in the fact 
that art is not only uniqueness, but also universality and regularity, which can be put 
under scientific investigation. 

Today the technology determines the development both of science and of art. This 
dependence merges the strict boundaries between the artistic and non-artistic spheres. 










  For additional information: ?.-?. ???????, ?.?.??????, ??????? ?????????, ?????? ?.?. ??????? ? ?.?. ?????, 
???,  ??????, 1993
  Web-galeries with fractal images:
  (URL) http://linuxenvy.com/bprentice/Fractals/Display.html (Fractal Image Gallery by Brian Prentice);       
  (URL) http://home.inreach.com/mapper/ (A Fractal Art Gallery by Ken Keller); 
  (URL) http://computerart.org/fractal.html (Earl's Computer Art Gallery);    
  (URL) http://www.artbymath.com/ (ArtByMath Gallery); 
  (URL) http://www.parkenet.org/jp/fractvty.htm (Fractivity); 
  (URL) http://www.angelfire.com/art2/fractals/ (World of Fractals);
  (URL) http://hometown.aol.com/fractasy/fractasy.htm (Mark's Fractal Gallery);  
  (URL) http://www.oz.net/~alden/lakefrac/index.html (Animated Lake Fractals) - galery with animated fractals 

  ?????? ???????, ?????????????? ???????????? ? ??????? ?? ???????? ?????????? ????????????????, ? 
????????, ?????? ?????? ????????, ??????? ? ?????????, ?????, 2000, ?. 133
  Roland Barthes, Text, Discourse, Ideology.  In Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, edited by Robert 
Young, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London, 1987, p. 43

  ???????? ?? ?????????? ?? ????????:
    (URL) http://brighten.bigw.org/fractals/jafg/index.html (Just Another Fractal Generator); 
    (URL) http://www.angelfire.com/art2/fractals/ (World of Fractals);
  ?.??????,  ???? ?? ? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ???????, ?. ????????, V/22, 2001 
  (URL) http://hensel.lifepatterns.net/ , push Enjoy Life; 
    (URL) http://psoup.math.wisc.edu/java/jltl.html, look at the explanation of the Conway's Game and Start the game;
  ?-?.???????, ???????????? ?? ?????????, ?????? ?.??????, ?????, 2000, ?. 42
  (URL) http://www.absurd.org/de-A/matic/index.html, the fire deserves special attention (Combust)
     (URL) http://psoup.math.wisc.edu/java/recipe88.html, Load Image; 
     (URL)  http://psoup.math.wisc.edu/java/jlwodpc.html Life without Death: some elementary interactions; 
     (URL) http://www.mirwoj.opus.chelm.pl/ca/mjcell/mjcell.html, push StartMJCell: the recipients in this game not 
only are able to observe already made configurations (patterns library) but to difine their won rules of the game (the 
menu Rules, Define own rules...)