Fractals as Art - While nothing is said in this website regarding the fractal as mathematical concept or its use in modelling natural phenomena or predicting the behaviour of complex systems, the author ­ a student at Swarthmore ­ has included some fractal designs that demonstrate a few of its interesting inherent properties and, besides, look nice. 'Growth rings', for example, illustrates 'self-similarity', in which the design's components resemble the whole. The fractal's role in nature is alluded to in 'pieces' like 'jack frost' and 'feathers', which bear a resemblance to snowflakes and, well, feathers. While fractals such as 'Modern Art' and 'Untitled I' make a clumsy bow to the gallery (or at least your average community art centre), the more interesting patterns partially succeed in uniting aesthetic and natural themes. The wide pastel petals of 'Bud' are framed with peripheral fractal flourishes, evoking a distinctly horticultural eroticism. 'Tree' sprouts fractal limbs that comb out into a whirling deciduous quiff of green. Wildly retro, 'I Sing the Body Electric' is Whitman meets Azimov with a visit from Alan Watts, while 'Sunset' would be far better titled 'Eclipse on Acid'. All this and 'Magic Mushroom' might suggest they're doing more than integer math over in Swarthmore. It is interesting to see the author's progression from her first, simple fractals like 'algae' (green on a sea of pink) to constructions like 'Cloudy day in the mountains', which looks every bit its title. While in all honesty its not as impressive as landscape scenery in many of last millenia's computer games, keep in mind that its author is a college student, not a software firm. (10 October 2001) MN
http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~binde/fractals/...

The Chaos Hypertextbook - This site offers an introduction to chaos theory for the mathematically inclined. No calculus required, but plenty of algebra. All the major themes are touched lightly, and graphics are prevalent, but the explanations can be too brief and the illustrations confusing. The appendices are nice, though: One has a selection of beautiful graphics files, and another a nice set of links. (13 May 2001) AS
http://hypertextbook.com/chaos/

Frontwheeldrive - This web publication 'humbly' attempts to bring intelligent reporting to emerging sciences such as Artificial Intelligence, Memetics, Complexity, Chaos Theory and the like with a nod toward design and an open eye on new media. It might proclaim itself ever so 'umble but it's a rather in-yer-face site, to quote from the current vernacular. Some would call it post-modern, others pretentious, either way it's a far cry from the tiny print zine from whence it originated in 1986. (31 July 2000) DB
http://frontwheeldrive.com/index.html

Fractals Unleashed - Fractals Unleashed takes a modest perspective on the ever-decreasing complexity of fractals claiming as it does to be 'one of the most comprehensive websites about fractals on the web!' Maybe it is. There is a lot of information on these mathematical curiosities that first entered the public eye in a big way with the emergence of chaos theory and the likes of the spiralling infinite beauty of the Mandelbrot set and related arithmetical contrivances. A tutorial, gallery of fractals and animations and an applications section will get you started but there's also creation software and a competition for the keen fractalist. (19 May 2000) DB
http://library.thinkquest.org/26242/

The Beauty of Chaos - There are, admittedly, lots of pictures of fractals on the internet. This site's merit lies in the method of presentation it uses. It treats the Mandlebrot set as a tree (the finest details available are called "leaves") and allows you to click through the images as if you were taking a tour. Given that the site has a database of 500 images to select from, you can take quite a extensive tour if you're a big fractal fan. You can also access the images from an index if you prefer. (19 March 1999) KN
http://i30www.ira.uka.de/~ukrueger/fractals/W...

Chaos at Maryland - Not an anarchic site from some junior fraternity or sorority but a serious look at how our whole universe is in a major chaotic state. The more jargonistic slant would be nonlinear dynamics, of course, but the whole butterfly-hurricane thing is here in its multidisciplinary glory. The searchable database was tragically last updated only in September 1996 - they have maybe been getting a little too chaotic to keep up...? (13 October 1998) DB
http://www-chaos.umd.edu/

InterFACE - The InterFACE (Internet Fractal and Chaos Education) Project is 'dedicated to explaining and demonstrating the science behind chaos theory and fractal images'. Games, lessons, activities, demonstrations and software, all related to fractals and chaos, can be found on this site which caters for all levels of abilities and knowledge. Access is via an optional registration form. (10 September 1997) MF
http://library.advanced.org/11679/

Mandelbrot and Julia Set Explorer - If you are intrigued by fractal images and would like to explore then interactively instead of just downloading someone else's idea of an attractive image, this is the site for you. You may find it difficult to understand exactly what you are doing (you could elect to generate a picture using the Mandelbrot parameter plane 1/mu instead of mu, for example), but the results are almost guaranteed to be attractive. (24 September 1996) NS
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/julia/explor...

Spanky Fractal Database - Fractals, those swirly computer-generated patterns, are all the rage. You can find them in screen savers, in clubs, and in plenty of places on the Web. Spanky's collection of links, images and documents is more extensive than most. (28 February 1996) NS
http://spanky.triumf.ca/www/welcome1.html