Fractal Time

Do we know how the universe works? Can we tell beginning from end, or the details from the greater whole? Special effects artist Julius Horsthuis works with fractals, geometric figures built from countless repeated versions of themselves. He uses algorithms to produce fractals that form worlds that are neither animated nor designed, but expressions of their own mathematical reality.

Watching these film documentations of fractals is like free falling through ever-repeating patterns. The virtual camera that Horsthuis uses to record the fractals enters landscapes that seem familiar to us— fractals are at the root of most natural forms—but they have no identifiable beginning or end. Jungles become cities, and temples and spaceships seem to appear out of nowhere, or out of themselves. The result is an overwhelming experience, heightened by the accompanying, specially composed score that brings film, imagination and reality closer together.