Abstract
Fractal objects are prevalent in natural scenery. Their repetition of patterns at increasingly fine magnifications creates a rich complexity. Fractals displaying mid-range complexity are the most common and include trees, clouds, and mountains. The “fractal fluency” model states that human vision has adapted to process these mid-range fractals with ease. I will first discuss fractal fluency and demonstrate how it enhances the observer’s visual capabilities by focusing on experiments that have important practical consequences for improving the built environment. These enhanced capabilities generate an aesthetic experience and physiological stress reduction. I will discuss strategies for integrating fractals into building designs to induce positive impacts on the observer. Examples include fractal solar panels, fractal window shades, and fractal floor patterns. These applications of fractal fluency represent a fundamental and potentially impactful form of salutogenesis.
Highlights
This hypothesis was inspired by the prevalence of fractal objects in nature, as catalogued in mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot’s 1982 book The Fractal Geometry of Nature [9]
The model predicts that the increased performance of basic visual tasks during this ”effortless looking” will create an aesthetic experience
When we examined the saccade trajectories of a variety of people, we found that these trajectories traced out fractal patterns described by D = 1.4
Summary
Health and Performance: A Review of Experiments and Applications. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Fractals are patterns that repeat at increasingly fine sizes and so create shapes of rich visual complexity [9]. This hypothesis was inspired by the prevalence of fractal objects in nature, as catalogued in mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot’s 1982 book The Fractal Geometry of Nature [9]. I will review experiments suggesting that adaptation to nature’s fractals influences many stages of the human visual system—from how the eye moves when acquiring the visual data of fractal patterns through to how the brain responds when processing their characteristics. The model predicts that the increased performance of basic visual tasks during this ”effortless looking” will create an aesthetic experience This natural preference for fractals has special significance for the field of experimental aesthetics. The hope is that this current demonstration of salutogenesis will be extended to future buildings which will be shaped using fractal architecture
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