Chaotic Utopia

Barbed wire stretched across the prairie, the slaughter of animals (and people)... the founding of the old wild west wasn’t so beautiful. Despite that, of the classes I’m taking this fall, titled "Don’t Fence Me In", has gotten me to take a closer look at the Western genre in literature and film, and the commentaries they have made on our history. So, I’ve been turning back to the history of Church Ranch (my own pet wild west story,) watching Clint Eastwood films, and reading books by Cormac McCarthy. The latter really caught my interest... about halfway through Blood Meridian, (which is based on the infamous Glanton Gang) I started wondering if it was really a book about chaos theory and complexity, more than about violence and sunsets. When I went looking on the author’s website, I was somewhat startled, but not all too surprised, to find out that he hangs out at the Santa Fe Institute. (Who knew they had a resident fiction writer? I think I might like his job when he retires...) At some point, I’ll have to sit and write a deeper review of Blood Meridian, but for now, I’m paying tribute in fractal form. You might recognize it as a section of a Julia set, with some fBm noise and a fence-like coloring algorithm. Or, you might just look at it and see what I did... a bizzarre landscape, crossed with fences, and punctured by bullet holes. Maybe it’s just my imagination... or maybe it’s my legacy, handed down from the old west.

Fractal Fences
(click the image for a larger view)

Side note: Sorry that this one is a little late. I’ve been a bit behind with e-mails, comment replies, and posting (including editing that video footage from the party 2 weeks ago!) I’m slowly getting caught up, so my thanks and apologies to all of you who suffer along with my sporadic schedule. I hope to have more on the subject of boundaries and history soon.

Fractal made by the author using Chaos Pro.