The story behind a popular 90s Fractal

During the early 90s, I was fortunate to be part of the popular cultural movement surrounding computer-generated fractals. I produced hundreds of fractal designs in my studio, but one image stood out. It ended up on posters, t-shirts, the flyer walls of ravers, and eventually in a gallery. This is the story of that image.

Fractal Dynamo by Tim Waters

Where did Fractal images like this come from in the early 90s?

The early 90s were a golden age for fractals. Early adopters like me, experimenting with computers, art and design, could pick up a book with a disk in it next to the other books on the Chaos theory and, without any background in mathematics, start generating images of unimaginable complexity and beauty on our home computers.

When this image was made, computer art was still in its infancy, and every time you showed images like these to people, they would look at them in complete wonder. I really felt like I was on the wave of something new and significant. This fractal image was in the first wave of fractals that found their way into popular culture and has mass appeal.

35 years later, this image is still resonating with people. Seeing it again takes their generation back to a care-free time in the past, and it is increasingly being traded on memorabilia websites and shared in social media groups.

In the modern computer age, where an image can be made simply by asking an AI to generate it and sent instantly to be published, this image not only represents the zeitgeist of the time but a different era of technology. I hope you enjoyed learning about it and, in doing so, helping me stop it and this amazing image and time from being forgotten.

How did this Fractal image become popular with counterculture in the early 90s?

Fractals and the chaos theory connected to them resonated with people in the alternative culture of the early 90s. The idea that they provided a mathematical "blueprint" for ancient metaphysical concepts like infinity, interconnectedness, and how a small part can represent the whole appealed to New Age thinkers. During this time, fractals became a futuristic, spiritual, and mystical symbol.

The kaleidoscopic patterns and vivid colours of fractal images mirrored visuals from the psychedelic era, and they got made into posters, postcards, t-shirts, and window stickers in both the UK and the US, selling in head shops and student markets alongside tie-dye and Grateful Dead posters.

Although the image itself had no overt symbolism, unlike other fractals sold at the time that incorporated CND symbols or outlines of cannabis leaves people found something special about its aesthetic that reached beyond a purely scientific or mathematical representation and would decorate the walls of their home.

Fractal postcards by Tim Waters — Fractal postcards sold in head shops in the early 90s.

Fractal postcard back by Tim Waters — Turbulent Dynamo postcards sold in head shops in the early 90s.

How this Fractal image became an iconic rave poster in the early 90s rave scene

90s rave flyers from the Mansion House night club in Dublin — 90's rave flyers from the Mansion house night club in Dublin

Wall of 90s rave flyers displayed in a clubber's bedroom — Flyers to wear raves used to decorated the rooms of clubbers in the early 90s

Fractal rave flyers pinned to a bedroom wall as promotional keepsakes — Fractal rave flyers given out as promotional material were used to decorate young people bedrooms in the early 90s

The futuristic and trippy aesthetics of fractals became icons of this hedonistic rave generation, serving as a backdrop to fast-paced electronic music. Fractals were frequently featured in promotional materials for warehouse parties and club nights.

Rave flyers adorned with futuristic and irreverent designs incorporating fractals were handed out to promote all-nighters, with many people keeping them as souvenirs and decorating their walls. Fractals brought psychedelic imagery up to date with contemporary culture that was embracing technology, and they became an icon representing the dance music tribe.

This image eventually found its way onto the flyer promoting a night in the UK called Equinox at a club named Milwaukee's. It was one of the first fully licensed all-night rave venues in the UK. DJs featured at this event included prominent names such as Grooverider, LTJ Bukem, Fat Controller, DJ Hype, Micky Finn, DJ SS, and Slipmat, among others

This flyer has become collectable now, and people share images of them online, and collectors trade them. People often post old pictures of the flyers' walls they had back in the day, and you can often see it in the background.

90s fractal rave flyer - Equinox at Milwaukees, Bedford. 6th May 1994, 13th May 1994, 20th May 1994, 27th May 1994. Fun house promotions. — Equinox at Milwaukees, Bedford. 6th May 1994, 13th May 1994, 20th May 1994, 27th May 1994. Fun house promotions.

How this Fractal Image Found Its Way into a Gallery in the mid 90s

By the middle of the 90s, Fractals had started to have a much wider appeal. Industry had started to find lots of applications for this science in the real world, and it was also being adopted by digital designers and artists.

Much of the debate at the time was centred around how digital art was perceived by the contemporary art world, and fractals, although popular in poster shops on album covers and as the visual for dance music, were considered an outsider by the art world.

However, smaller galleries and museums that had exhibition spaces were aware of people's curiosity to see fractal art and became interested in showing it. In 1995, I put together an exhibition that included this image, which toured the UK.

For this, the design was imaged onto medium format transparency and developed as an A1 photograph. The deep colours and the glossy paper added depth to the image.

The exhibition called The Art of Chaos visited locations including Derby Industrial Museum, the Market Hall Museum in Warwick, and Milton Keynes Long Lounge. I had the exciting opportunity to discuss my art work on regional news programs and radio shows.

Derby evening telegraph 90s fractal exhibition — A clipping from the Derby Evening telegraph for the Art of Chaos Exhibition which ran from the 18 of July to 18 September 1994 in Derby Industrial Museum

How was this early 90s fractal image published?

It's hard to imagine just how much effort and trial and error were involved in getting an image like this off my computer and printed onto various products before the advent of digital publishing. Someone once asked if it was as simple as taking a screenshot. In a way, he was correct. The early versions of this image were literally photographs of my computer screen, taken with a 35mm camera.

The people who wanted to print this image typically made small runs of posters, postcards, and t-shirts for bands and films for student markets and record and poster stores. They hadn't yet started using digital printing and expected you to give them colour transparencies, which they were accustomed to working with. A 35m colour slide of a "screenshot" was ideal.

By the mid-90s, companies started offering the service of digitally transferring imaging onto a colour transparency, which improved the quality. However, getting the image to them was still difficult. There was no internet or email at the time, so I literally had to mail magnetic disks to them. These disks could only hold 1.3 MB, so a large image often required several disks to transport a single image.

Most of the time, these disks would get corrupted. The printers all used Macs, while I was PC-based, leading to compatibility issues. Sometimes, it was literally easier to put my computer in the trunk of a car and drive it to them.

Fractal image on a photographic slide ready for postcard printing — A fractal images onto a photographic slide ready to be printed as a postcard

How was this early Fractal image actually made?

IBM-compatible PC with an Intel 286 processor and a 14-inch CRT monitor used to create the fractal — IBM-compatible PC with an Intel 286 processor and a 14in CRT monitor.

Fractals are made on computers by repeatedly applying a simple mathematical equation in a feedback loop. By feeding the output of one step back into the next and plotting the results, a complex, self-similar, and infinitely detailed pattern emerges.

Enormous patience was needed as they would slowly appear on the screen, one pixel at a time, often taking hours to finish.

The computer I used was an IBM-compatible PC with an Intel 286 processor and a 14in CRT monitor. This was a mid-priced home computer of its day.

The PC used MS-DOS, and the fractal software was called Fractint, published by the Stone Soup Group.

The image itself was a GIF87a file, the colours are mapped to a 256 colour palette, so compressed well and because Fractals are generated from a mathematical equation, you could store the parameters in the image file itself. This was great as you could reload the image and start zooming in and exploring the fractal again.

Fractint fractal software floppy disks used to create the image — A copy of the popular software Fractint used to make this image and some backup disks

What this fractal means to people today

Following this time, the hype and popularity of fractals began to dwindle. There was a lot more computer imagery in mainstream media, and fractal images, which first occupied this space, started to lose their novelty.

Was this fractal image art? I like to think it somehow occupies a space outside of these definitions, much in the same way AI-generated art is now. It's interesting to think that as this image is being absorbed into the data sets of visual language models, echoes of it will persist indefinitely.

Vintage t-shirt printed with the fractal design — Vintage T-shirts with this design have become quite collectable 35 years later