Friday Fractals in Santa Fe

Jonathan Wolfe, executive director of  the Fractal Foundation and inspiration behind the wildly popular First  Fractals at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, journeys north to demonstrate the power and beauty of his electronic images.

Fractals are infinitely complex, self-similar patterns. They are also often extraordinarily beautiful and intriguing. Explore the exciting field of fractals in an engaging interdisciplinary presentation that demonstrates their enormous potential for inspiring interest in science and math. Covering the art and science of fractals, we explore the fractal patterns in nature, seen at scales from the microscopic to the galactic. The simple, repetitive natural processes that give rise to fractals all around us can also be harnessed by computer simulations to generate mathematical fractals, which are simple to explore and breathtakingly beautiful. Learn to create fractal art yourself using available free software. The presentation includes dazzling animated zooms, choreographed with original music, into infinitely deep mathematical fractals, which can be seen as objects much, much larger than our universe.

Jonathan Wolfe, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Fractal Foundation, a New Mexico nonprofit that uses the beauty of fractals to inspire interest in science, math and art. With a scientific background in visual neurophysiology, and an international reputation as the artist behind the flying fractal hotair balloons, Dr. Wolfe is ideally situated to promote both the beauty and the intellectual impact of fractals. Since 2003, he has taught over 21,000 children and 10,000 adults about fractals, and he is the creator of the extremely popular First Friday Fractals show at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.