1 post tagged “georgi tushev”
Strange attractors are attracting sets with fractal dimension and zero measure in the embedding phase space. Trajectories within a strange attractor appear to skip around randomly, but often generate images that are quite striking. In dynamic systems theory, chaotic oscillations of physical systems may be characterized by strange attractors; adding a time-delayed feedback perturbation to a static magnetic field can produce these intriguingly-named phenomena.
Georgi Tushev's series of oil paintings are not figurative depictions of strange attractors, but are instead a play on the concept. He applies pigments containing iron or cobalt to canvas in the presence of a magnetic field. The resulting three-dimensional structures reflect the contours of the field lines. In his artist statement, Tushev writes,
The build-up of iron standing out like a punk haircut in my work is the result of chance. In other words, exact outcomes of experiments cannot be predicted, the best we can do is to predict the probability that any given outcome may occur.
Ambiguously resembling petals, tentacles, blast marks or craters, Tushev's work evokes the statistical self-similarity that characterizes so many things in the natural world, as well as the engimas of chance.
