Fractal Trianglethon - around the World!

The 2011 Fractal Trianglethon is almost upon as (April 10th) and hundreds and hundreds of fractals keep pouring in from all over the world! Just today, we received a batch of 729 (that’s 3^6) triangles that had been made by students from McKinley Middle School (IS259) in Brooklyn New York. The students assembled it in their gym, and the story made the local paper.

Besides New York, we’ve been receiving fractals from all over the country, including California, Delaware, Georgia, Ohio, Minnesota and Ohio. The whole world is participating too! Fractals have been coming in from Canada, England, Australia and India as well.

We’re so excited to assemble 6561 individual fractal artworks into a giant one, 192′ wide. Thanks everyone, everywhere, for contributing!

Next year, to break our record and build the next bigger one, we’ll need 3 times as many triangles, or 19683. And we have to find an indoor space big enough to hold a triangle 384′ wide. (Anyone know the owners of the Houston Astrodome?…

Trianglethon - We built the World’s Largest Fractal Triangle!

On Sunday April 10, 2011, we built the world’s largest fractal triangle in the Albuquerque Convention Center. Almost 100 volunteers helped assemble the 192′ wide triangle - incredibly in just under 1 hour. Children from all over the world participated by creating triangles. See the full list of participating schools here.

This is a giant math project as well as a collaborative art project. The triangles are assembled in self-similar groups of three in the following sequence: 3, 9, 27, 81, 243, 729, 2187, 6561. One of the many math lessons people learn through this project is about exponents, and 6561 is 3 raised to the 8th power (3^8) or 3×3x3×3x3×3x3×3.

Many thanks to all the volunteers, all the children who made triangles, and to the Albuquerque Convention Center for graciously donating the exhibit hall for the Trianglethon!

“Fractals!” - Fulldome World Premiere in UK

We are very excited to announce the world premiere of our fulldome feature film “Fractals!” at the FulldomeUK conference on March 13, 2011. The show was very well received in England, and we are grateful for the support of the international audience. However, we are using feedback gained from this premiere to improve the show before releasing it publicly for distribution.

This 25-minute film s based on our award-winning live “First Friday Fractals” show that has sold out for the past 4 years at the NM Museum of Natural History and Science. We are eager to share this exciting, dramatic educational film with audiences around the world.

The show is being produced at 4K resolution, with a 5.1 surround soundtrack with narration in English that can be easily translated to other languages.

When complete, it will be available for licensing through our content distributer, Spitz Inc.

Fractal Foundation in India

I had the great pleasure and privilege of being invited to share our work with fractals in India in February 2011. The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Goa hosted two exciting conferences, Quark2011 and the prestigious TEDxBITSGoa. I presented at both conferences, each of which were attended by over 1000 people.
Additionally, I gave a hands-on fractal-making workshop to about 75 students, where we explored making fractals with algebra using the free XaoS program, and we also made fractal triangles by hand to include in our Fractal Trianglethon project.

As I continue traveling around the world, I am struck by how everyone, young or old, American, European, Middle Eastern, Australian or Asian… everyone loves fractals!

A warm welcome to our many new Indian fractal fans!

Giant Public Fractal Unveiling - Huge Success!

We are incredibly excited to have had such a fantastic public unveiling of 3 new fractal public art installations on January 31’st, when we dedicated these new artworks at Monte Vista Elementary School in Albuquerque, NM.

These large scale installations are 3 of the 8 winning fractals from the Albuquerque Fractal Challenge, and were made by students at Monte Vista Elementary School.

(All eight winners of the Albuquerque Fractal Challenge will be honored during the annual Fractal Trianglethon on April 10th at the Albuquerque Convention Center.)

The unveiling ceremony for these fractals coincided with the unveiling ceremony for a historical plaque commemorating Monte Vista’s 80th anniversary; thus this celebration looked back at the past as well as to the future.

What a great celebration of these winning students’ creative accomplishments. On more giant step in making Albuquerque the Fractal Capital of the World!

Many thanks to our project sponsors, Albuquerque’s Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, and Albuquerque Community Foundation.

The Year in Fractals!

The year 2010 was an amazing whirlwind of a year for the Fractal Foundation, and I’m excited to share some of our milestones and accomplishments, and also a glimpse into what’s coming up next year.

Our First Friday Fractals planetarium shows continue to sell out, now 172 times, for a total audience of over 25,000 people. Not bad for a math and science show, but it’s just the beginning! We’re getting ready to release a feature planetarium show that will be available to any digital planetarium in the world. Over the past year, the shows have evolved from flat, 2-dimensional fractal zooms into immersive 3D fractal explorations. If you haven’t seen the show for a little while, it’s gotten dramatically more impressive. Soon the whole world will be able to see it, but for now, Albuquerque - the Fractal Capital of the World - is the place to see this extraordinary show. There are still tickets for the 6, 7, and 8:00 shows on January 7th, but don’t wait long or they’ll be gone.

In March of this year, we accomplished a giant feat with the Fractal Trianglethon, in which we built an enormous fractal triangle made of 4036 individual fractal triangles. While most of them were made by children in New Mexico, many of the fractals came from as far away as Australia. People have so much fun with this project, and it teaches valuable lessons not only about math but also about the power of cooperation. Many thanks to the Albuquerque Convention Center, for providing a space for the project, and especially to our dozens of volunteers who helped teach children to make triangles as well as actually building the giant one itself. See pics and a video of this amazing construction. As fractals teach us that there are no limits, next year we’ll be breaking our own record with a fractal three times larger!

Our educational outreach continues to grow, and we reached over 6500 children and shared with them the exciting beauty of math and science. We’ve been teaching all over New Mexico, from Carlsbad to Farmington, Santa Rosa to Gallup, Silver City to Taos, and even ventured into our neighboring states with fractal presentations in Durango, Colorado and Amarillo, Texas. I also did our first international presentations with a show in England at the Gateway School just outside London. Altogether so far, since 2003, we’ve now taught over 34,000 children that math is fun, exciting and beautiful. Pretty great work!

And when I say “we” - it’s because for the first time it’s not just me doing the teaching. This was a breakthrough year for us, as Katia Shtyrkova and Patricia Valderrama joined us and became volunteer fractal outreach teachers. I’m eager to have a whole team of teachers traveling all around, teaching fractals everywhere. And while I’m delighted to have help teaching, I still love presenting fractals to new audiences. This October, I had the honor of giving a TEDx talk at our local TEDxABQ event. This exciting 18 minute format is spreading worldwide, and in February I’ll be traveling to India to give a TEDx talk in Goa - my first appearance in Asia.

Back at home, we’ve recently selected 8 wonderful new winners for the Albuquerque Fractal Challenge. While we haven’t publicly announced the winners yet (we’ll be doing that early next year), I can promise you that very soon there will be several giant new outdoor fractal installations appearing soon around our city. See an illustration below of what one installation at Monte Vista Elementary School will look like. This program turns math explorers into heroes in their schools and communities, and I’m excited to publicly honor these talented young people. Stay posted, as I’ll be announcing the award ceremony soon.

A fun numerical milestone: we’re about to gain our 4000th facebook fractal fan! And if you haven’t checked out our facebook page, it’s a fun fractal community where people share their fractal creations, ideas, and feedback about our fractal projects. Please check it out - It’s lots of fun, and we love hearing from you!

On a sad note, Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of fractals passed away this year. An iconoclastic visionary mathematician and scientist, Mandelbrot’s enormous contributions to our culture will continue to ripple out. Personally, I owe my career to his discoveries, as there could be no Fractal Foundation without fractals. And the tens of thousands of people who have been impacted by our shows, lessons and projects have all benefited from his insights. It truly is inspiring to see what a positive impact a single creative individual can have. A true math hero.

Thanks for all your interest! I am constantly moved by the support of you, our fantastic fractal fans, who have enabled us to do all these wonderful things. It has been a great year - but next year promises to be even better.

Happy Fractal New Year!

-Jonathan Wolfe, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Fractals at the NM State Fair

Thanks to all our great Fractal Volunteers for helping teach fractal-making to hundreds of children during the 2010 NM State Fair. We collected over 700 fractal triangles during the event, through the generous contribution of 18 volunteers.
Also on display at the Fair were some of the winning artworks from the Albuquerque Fractal Challenge. These fractal banners, displayed on the outsides of the buildings serves to advertise science, math and art!

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