[FRIAM] A Fractal Introduction

[Jonathan Wolfe]

	Hi everyone - I've finally joined this list, and have been lurking  
for about a week to learn the culture a bit before introducing myself.  
And it's finally time to do so, because I'll be in Santa Fe tonight  
giving a talk for the Science Café series put on by the Santa Fe  
Alliance for Science. It's from 6-8 PM, tonight (Monday) at the  
Georgia O'keeffe Museum Education Annex, at 123 Grant St.  The title  
of my talk is "Zooming into Infinity: A Fractal Adventure." It's a  
free show, so if you want to see it get there early to make sure you  
get a seat. More info at: http://www.sfafs.org/sciencecafes.asp
	But I'm not really here to plug the show, I just wanted to introduce  
myself, and I thought this was a good opportunity in case some of you  
wanted to come to the show tonight to get a bit more detailed glimpse  
of who I am and what I'm up to (see, a fractal intro, available at  
different scales :)	

	So, I'm the Executive Director of this small but exciting educational  
nonprofit, the Fractal Foundation, but most people just call me the  
Fractal Man. And I do talk a lot about fractals, to lots of people,  
everywhere I go. In fact, over the past 4 years, I've taught fractals  
to over 21,000 people, (roughly 12,000 children and 9,000 adults) all  
over New Mexico. Given that there's ~326,000 students in NM schools,  
we're now 3.6% of the way to Leaving No Child Unfractalled! And this  
is so much fun... whenever I go into a classroom and teach the kids  
about fractals, they get so excited! People love fractals, and we use  
the beauty and excitement of fractals to inspire interest in science,  
math and art.  I'm always impressed by how well young people grasp  
these concepts, but it makes sense because humans are so visual, and  
because the world around us is full of fractal patterns, which means  
our visual systems have evolved to perceive these patterns. Oh yes -  
my scientific background, to continue introducing myself, is in  
neuroscience, specializing in the visual system. I don't do much  
direct neuroscience research anymore, because I find I make much more  
of an impact teaching. I also use the knowledge I have about how we  
perceive the world to inform my art and help me design incredibly  
beautiful visual stimuli that are effective at a large range of scales  
and different lighting conditions. The art medium I'm best known for  
is hot-air ballooning, and you can see pictures of my fractal-inspired  
tiedyed balloons at http://www.SkyDyes.net . Ballooning itself is an  
amazing performance artform, where we throw ourselves into a chaotic  
system, the sky, and the more we understand about the complex dynamics  
of the atmosphere, the more power and control we have to navigate  
where we wish to fly. It's a very subtle, very beautiful activity,  
completely unlike the brute-force flying you do with an airplane.	

	There's lots more to share, and I'd be happy to come up and do a talk  
sometime for Friam, about the applications of fractals in science,  
engineering and education.
	I also want to invite you all to the most fun public shows I do,  
"First Friday Fractals" at the Natural History Museum Planetarium down  
here in Albuquerque, coming up again this Friday, Feb 1st, at 6,7 and  
8PM. This show has been a runaway success, having sold out all 51  
consecutive First Friday showings for over a year now. It's really  
thrilling to have such an unprecedented turnout for a math and science  
show, but that's a testament to the incredible beauty of fractals. And  
the fulldome immersive video environment in the dome is a most  
dramatic way to enjoy the experience of zooming deeeep into algebraic  
fractals. I choreograph the zooms to original music, which has the  
soldout audience cheering, and makes me feel like the rarest of  
creatures -  a mathematical rockstar. Fun!  But if you want to come,  
make sure to buy tickets online at least a day in advance, or you  
might not get in. (See the website below for ticket info.)

	So I hope to meet you all sometime, and I look forward to getting  
better connected with the Santa Fe community. Oh - one more thing...  
I'll be up in Santa Fe again on Feb 5th, which is Math & Science Day  
at the State Legislature. Come by if you can, say hi, see our display  
of student-made fractals, and show your support for math and science  
education.
Thanks!

-Jonathan Wolfe, Ph.D.
Executive Director
http://www.FractalFoundation.org
Next First Friday Fractals show: February 1st
Fractals are SMART: Science, Math & Art!


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20080128/58e023a9/attachment.html