Jason Padgett: The Fractal Maker

NB: I’m unable to verify the mathematical claims made in this piece but research is ongoing and according to Jason, is due to be published shortly. Watch this space.

Jason Padgett is currently purported to be the only person in the world who can accurately draw fractals by hand which are mathematically correct. You are probably familiar with computer generated fractals such as the interactive one below but creating them by hand is a different task entirely.

A number of years ago Jason received a brain injury from a severe blow to the back of the head in a mugging. As a direct result of this Jason acquired a form of synaesthesia in which fractals can be seen in every part of the world. What is astounding about Jason is that he claims to be able to apply this insight to his number sense and draw mathematical phenomena in a completely unique way.

Jason has very kindly given permission for me to reproduce some of his works below. The drawings are without doubt strangely compelling. I should note here  that I’m not a mathematician and seeing as there is absurdly little debate of Jason’s work on-line I’d advise you to take this with a “pinch of salt”. I’d be fascinated to see some academic debate on the theory behind the concepts presented here.

All images remain copyrighted (©JasonPadgett, 2011). Copies of his work are available from fineartamerica.com.

Refraction of light: A depiction of how light would refract if it were to pass through two small slots in a board, continuously interfering with itself

Quantum Snow Flake: A naturally occurring ripple of water, drawn at a quantum level as if frozen in time, if you were to record water in extremely slow motion, this is the basis for the shape you would see and this is why it looks like a snow flake.

Quantum sea shell / nautilus:

Compare Jason’s protractor-and-compass version of Nautilus with the famous CGI nautilus illustrated below:

Now compare these with a real life sea dwelling Nautilus…

…and now, just for fun, with the interpretation of another inspired artist, Josephine wall (©JosephineWall, 2011):

All images by Jason remain copyrighted (©JasonPadgett, 2011). Copies of his work are available from fineartamerica.com.

I’ll hopefully be doing another post on Jason with more of his amazing work in the not too distant future. Subscribe using one of the links on the right for updates.