Nathan Selikoff

Statement

I love to experiment in the fuzzy overlap between art, mathematics, and programming. The computer is my canvas, and this is algorithmic artwork—a partnership mediated not by the brush or pencil but by the shared language of software. Seeking to extract and visualize the beauty that I glimpse beneath the surface of equations and systems, I create custom interactive programs and use them to explore algorithms, and ultimately to generate artwork. In the world of chaotic dynamical systems, minute changes in initial conditions produce radically different results. The interface of my software gives me hooks into the algorithms and allows me to exert a measure of control. Art and mathematics, the right brain and the left, are inextricably linked in this work. My art depends on mathematics, yet simultaneously illuminates and unravels its beauty. I am the explorer who uncovers something extraordinary, bringing into view that which was always there to be discovered.

Artworks

Have you ever seen a pendulum swinging over a pit of sand, tracing patterns as it moves? The results can be simple or complex, depending on the forces generating the motion. In a truly chaotic system, a strange attractor represents this final state, and can be visualized using surprisingly simple mathematical equations. Initially inspired by Clifford Pickover’s Chaos in Wonderland, I have been experimenting with chaotic attractors since 2001. I call this series Aesthetic Explorations of Attractor Space. I found these intriguing lightning creatures hidden in the infinite possibilities of strange attractor space. It turns out there is an electrical phenomenon that happens high above thunderclouds, called a sprite. Here’s a real-world sprite imaged at 1,000 frames per second: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmOCe5se9hk

Have you ever seen a pendulum swinging over a pit of sand, tracing patterns as it moves? The results can be simple or complex, depending on the forces generating the motion. In a truly chaotic system, a strange attractor represents this final state, and can be visualized using surprisingly simple mathematical equations. Initially inspired by Clifford Pickover’s Chaos in Wonderland, I have been experimenting with chaotic attractors since 2001. I call this series Aesthetic Explorations of Attractor Space. Part of what inspires me about this form is its resemblance to aerial photographs of river deltas and other geological phenomena. Perhaps it is a minimalistic interpretation of what this alluvial fan in the French Pyrenees looks like from above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alluvial_fan_01.JPG

Have you ever seen a pendulum swinging over a pit of sand, tracing patterns as it moves? The results can be simple or complex, depending on the forces generating the motion. In a truly chaotic system, a strange attractor represents this final state, and can be visualized using surprisingly simple mathematical equations. Initially inspired by Clifford Pickover’s Chaos in Wonderland, I have been experimenting with chaotic attractors since 2001. I call this series Aesthetic Explorations of Attractor Space.