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. 2011 Jun 22:5:60.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2011.00060. eCollection 2011.

Perceptual and Physiological Responses to Jackson Pollock's Fractals

Richard P Taylor  1 , Branka Spehar, Paul Van Donkelaar, Caroline M Hagerhall
Affiliations

Perceptual and Physiological Responses to Jackson Pollock's Fractals

Richard P Taylor et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .

Abstract

Fractals have been very successful in quantifying the visual complexity exhibited by many natural patterns, and have captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. Our research has shown that the poured patterns of the American abstract painter Jackson Pollock are also fractal. This discovery raises an intriguing possibility - are the visual characteristics of fractals responsible for the long-term appeal of Pollock's work? To address this question, we have conducted 10 years of scientific investigation of human response to fractals and here we present, for the first time, a review of this research that examines the inter-relationship between the various results. The investigations include eye tracking, visual preference, skin conductance, and EEG measurement techniques. We discuss the artistic implications of the positive perceptual and physiological responses to fractal patterns.

Keywords: EEG; esthetics; eye tracking; fractals; visual preference.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Left: Pollock's house on Long Island. In contrast to his previous urban life in Manhattan, Pollock perfected his pouring technique surrounded by the complex patterns of nature. Right: Trees are an example of a natural fractal object. Although the patterns observed at different magnifications don't repeat exactly, analysis shows them to have the same statistical qualities.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Examples of natural scenery (left column) and poured paintings (right column). Top: Clouds and Pollock's painting Untitled (1945) are fractal patterns with low D values (D = 1.3 and 1.10 respectively). Bottom: A forest and Pollock's painting Untitled (1950) are fractal patterns with high D values (both D = 1.89).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The fractal dimension D of Pollock paintings plotted against the year in which they were painted (1943–1953). See text for details. The right hand images show computer constructions of three of Pollock's paintings.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) A photograph of the eye-tracking apparatus. Subsections of a single eye-tracking data set: the spatial pattern plotted in the x (horizontal) and y (vertical) directions, (B) and the time series x vs. time (C).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Eye-tracks are overlaid on the observed fractal patterns, which have dimensions of D = 1. 11 (far left), D = 1.66 (second left), and D = 1.89 (third left). The final pattern (right) is a colored composite of four D = 1.6 patterns.
Figure 6
Figure 6
An example of the computer-generated fractals (black and white) viewed by the subjects for the eye-tracking results shown in Table 2. The red lines are the eye trajectories.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The chaotic pendulum (left) employed to generate non-fractal (top right) and fractal (bottom right) poured paintings. This technique was documented by ABC television in 1998.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Visual preference for computer-generated fractals: The vertical axis in each panel corresponds to the percentage of trails for which patterns of a given D value were chosen as a function of fractal dimension (D). Each of the four different panels uses a different fractal configuration to investigate this visual preference. The fractal images are shown as insets in each panel. The main effect of fractal dimension (D) on visual preference was significant for all four types of fractal images: F8,19 = 22.16, p < 0.0001; F8,19 = 38.01, p < 0.0001; F8,19 = 15.68, p < 0.0001; and F8,19 = 1.54, p < 0.0001 from the top to the bottom panel respectively.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The processing steps used in the extraction of the fractal skyline contour of a natural scene. Top: one of the natural scenes shown to subjects. Middle: an intermediate processing step used to extract the skyline contour. Bottom: the extracted skyline contour subjected to the box-counting fractal analysis.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The fractal skylines used in the qEEG study. The fractal dimensions of the images were as follows: D (A) 1.14 (B) 1.32 (C) 1.51 and (D) 1.70.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Significant effects of the fractal dimension D on EEG. Mean and SD in mV2 (Mean ± SD). Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. (A) Alpha for frontal regions F3F4 together for D = 1.14 (2.28 ± 1.77), D = 1.32 (2.80 ± 2.36), D = 1.51 (2.53 ± 2.09), and D = 1.70 (2.39 ± 1.88). (B) Delta for the frontal regions F3F4 together for D = 1.14 (5.57 ± 5.96), D = 1.32 (4.91 ± 4.44), D = 1.51 (6.06 ± 6.11), and D = 1.70 (5.60 ± 5.86). (C) Beta for the parietal regions P3P4 together for D = 1.14 (1.69 ± 1.57), D = 1.32 (1.95 ± 1.74), D = 1.51 (1.80 ± 1.63) and D = 1.70 (1.76 ± 1.54).
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