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ERIK SÖDERBERG
Fractals—shapes that self-repeat in smaller forms again and again an infinite number of times—typically get represented as psychedelic, bacterial, tie-dye swirls. That’s possibly because the study of fractals gained traction in the 1970s, even though the geometry has always existed in natural forms like broccoli or ice formations.
Erik Söderberg’s fractal animations are certainly psychedelic, but they’re of the M.C. Escher-does-op art variety, rather than the black light posters-in-the-basement kind. The Swedish artist first started playing with repeating geometries in 2011, while considering which shapes appeal most to the human eye. “Humans seemed to prefer straight lines, perfect geometry, and shapes. But nature seemed to flow in a more chaotic, organic way,” he says.
If that’s indeed true, then the overlapping territory—the shared Venn diagram space between “likes perfect geometry” and “chaotic, organic,” shapes—is occupied by the hypnotic, self-repeating patterns Söderberg created for Fractal Experience. And now, he’s continued “the exploration of patterns, geometry, and organic flow” with Fractal Experience—Part 2, a series of bubbling, twitching, looping animated fractals. Söderberg says he rarely maps out the drawings beforehand, preferring to see where the repeating shapes will take him. Animating each one takes him around one or two hours—which is about how long you should stare into them, to get the full effect.
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