Project Day Three: Indra’s Promise

The net of the great god Indra was said to span all of space, finer than silk, and strung with pearls reflecting each other and all others along the infinite reach of the net at once forever.

Thus seemingly was foretold in Buddhist scripture the vision of Felix Klein, and the mathematical constructions used in the fractal type of this post, as paraphrased from the book, ‘Indra’s Pearls.’

Good evening, and welcome to the launch of the first weekday of this project’s posts, my attempt to more fully explore this sometimes cross but rewarding fractal type based on the mathematics of the interaction of spirals and the objects it leads to.

Today I’ve got four images to show, what I think to be the very best from today and last night generated by my current favorite app, Ultra Fractal over a period of several hours.

This on was made using my first parameter file created for this series (I generated ten such files, adjusted as needed), using an extremely well-designed coloring algorithm, ‘Double Cusp’ Kleinian group settinmgs and a rather fortuitous combination of color gradient settings.

This one uses a figure altered threefold with a kaleidoscopic transformation, using a different coloring algorithm and different but still striking gradient settings. I like to randomize and shift gradients around when coloring these, just to see what I’ll get, though the app certainly allow easy non-random color adjustments as well.

This one used my second file created, and used a different coloring algorithm than the previous two and different Kleinian groups (Schottky bubbles) to generate this image. Of today’s pieces, it took the longest to render, but was well-worth it I think.

The scope and potential of this fractal type is amazing, despite the relatively simple starting idea of interacting spirals, or perhaps even because of it. I’ll include further images tomorrow, and may you all fare well the remainder of this week.

Talotaa frang.