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Biophilic Fractals and the Visual Journey of Organic Screen-savers

Taylor and Sprott, two of the luminaries of chaos theory have written a paper titled "Biophilic Fractals and the Visual Journey of Organic Screen-savers" where-in they ask:

does exposure to fractals have a positive impact on our mental and physical condition?...It may eventually be possible, nonetheless, to produce fractals images that are even more effective at stress-reduction than natural scenes....Using images to manipulate the public's emotions (even if in a positive manner) might set off alarms for some. Certainly, an Orwellian future where we all assemble to stare at a communal fractal for a strictly allotted period does not seem very appealing. ... Meanwhile, visually-creative screen-savers such as Electric Sheep are an obvious strategy for increasing people’s exposure to these beautiful and potentially stress-reducing fractals.

I am really interested in the psycho-physiological effects of the Electric Sheep and especially of the vastly improved version Dreams in High Fidelity. Can these effects be measured? I would love to know and I am looking for collaborators who can help answer these questions. Please contact me if you know someone who might fit the bill.

The paper appears in Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences 12, 117-129 (2008), and includes a collection of Sheep to be voted on my the readership, the winners of which will then appear on the covers of next year's journal. Thanks guys! Posted by spot at August 17, 2008 12:52 PM