Liquid crystals, fractals and art

Abstract

We discuss the aesthetic appeal of liquid crystal textures and take a brief polarising microscopic tour through the wealth of the appearances of nematic, cholesteric, smectic and banana phases. Some examples are given on how these textures may be used in a creative process employing digital image processing to produce ‘computer art’, including images exhibiting self-similarity. A discussion of the ‘art’ of computer-generated mathematical fractals leads us to examples of fractal structures observed in the phase-ordering process of some liquid crystalline phases. This includes a first brief report of dilatation invariance observed for aggregates of a conventional SmC phase and percolation simulations to quantitatively explain the obtained textures. The circle between liquid crystals, fractals and arts is closed by a discussion of self-similarity in modern arts, especially works of the movement known as abstract expressionism. More than 100 paintings of the artists Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Mark Tobey and Franz Kline were analysed, placing an emphasis of the discussion on the ‘drip-paintings’ of Pollock in relation to recent reports.