Live Visuals

In my early twenties, I used to call myself VJ for a while. Armed with two DVD players and a Panasonic MX-50 I used to frequent semi-large venues in Amsterdam, mixing together some funky visuals for the clubbers of those days. Mandelbulb3D hadn’t been invented yet, so I relied on 3D Studio MAX to create tunnels, kaleidoscopic colors, and jumping mushrooms. At age 23, I won the ‘best VJ’ award from the Twix Talent Room. But somewhere around the year 2005 my interests shifted to other endeavors and I let the VJ-ing slide.

Until now. Just last weekend I had my renaissance as a live visual artist – by being invited for the Shattered Barriers event in London. The psychedelic trance music went very well with my fractal artwork. It was incredibly fun and this is definitely something that I will want to be doing more of.

Which is why I’m writing this blog post. If you’re an event organizer, and want to book me as a live visual artist, now you can. Don’t worry – I’m not using DVD players and an MX-50 anymore, but obviously have got the latest hardware and software.
I am mixing clips from a vast repertoire of all my own fractal work -plus a lot of unreleased material – long colorful fly-throughs that work great on large screens, morphing alien worlds that make those on the dance-floor feel like they are on a journey – keeping in tune with the ebb and flow of the music.

Mandelbulb Maniacs and the Future of Fractal Art

Slowly but surely it seems that my work, and the work of other great fractal artists around the world, is being noticed by a broader audience and also appreciated as a more mature art form. I won't go so far as to say it's popular - as I believe this abstract art will still only appeal to a certain audience, but there's traction nevertheless.

The Facebook group Mandelbulb Maniacs almost has 6000 members. These are not just people creating fractals, but also a lot of people who have seen the magnificent shapes these algorithms can produce, and they want to see regular updates in their timeline. In this group some truly amazing artists reside, and I'm often very intrigued by what Dortus Gunst, Philippe Jacqueroux, Gary Webb, Barbara Russell and many others I can't possibly all mention produce on a daily basis. There are also some interesting 'trends' that seem to emerge, especially because everybody shares their parameters, which means you can learn from each other's masterpieces. It would be an understatement to say that I've learned a lot from this group.

Not just online, but also offline these works are being recognized and praised. People use it for obvious reasons as VJ material in clubs and venues, but there's also an increasing number of digital art festivals that love to showcase fractalicious art. Last year I traveled to Geneva and Montreal to create a show for the full-dome format. This immersive format really provides fractals with an extra dimension. This year it seems that there will be more opportunities to showcase to the world what's possible in the infinite world of fractals.

I'm currently working on various projects that contain fractals in one way or another, and I hope to present you soon a list of places around the world where my work can be seen. For the moment there are some events lined up In the Netherlands, but hopefully I will be able to add more worldwide events soon. Right now, I'm getting ready to go to Thailand, to meet a great artist who's working on an immersive film. I hope that we'll be able to create something inspiring together. 

Keep an eye on my Events page that I'll try to update frequently with events and festivals my work will show in one way or another.