The fractal landscapes we’ve seen from artists like Mary Franck, Martijn Hage, and Julius Horsthuis do a great job of visualizing the endless natural complexity of mathematics. Today, Horsthuis takes his process into new dimensions with 360-degree virtual reality fractal experience, Foreign Nature.
His newest release shares visual similarities with previous projects including Lingua Naturæ and Geologic Time, but according to Horsthuis, “feels like you are really there. The experience is difficult to describe.” We got a taste of the phenomenon from his test footage, Hallway 360 VR, but the fully completed Foreign Nature is a whole new animal. “It feels like you’re floating through HUGE structures, and it’s very ethereal,” he goes on. “If you look down at where your body is, you don’t see any, so it’s like you’re a spirit.”
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Horsthuis isn’t exaggerating about the 360 degree film’s size, either; rendering them into a single MP4 file took two full weeks on a network of eight PCs, but the resulting file is a ten-minute, three-gigabyte fractal tour de force in stunning 4k. While the file may seem daunting, the artist enthusiastically assures The Creators Project that “It has replay value!”
Start your journey off with some stills from Foreign Nature, then fully immerse yourself in Horsthuis’ fractal world by downloading the film:
Visit Horsthuis’ Vimeo channel to dive into more of his mesmerizing fractal creations.
Related:
Tove Agélii’s New Music Video is a Hallucinatory Trip Inside 3D Fractals
A 3D Fractal Artist Is Building an ‘Interstellar’ Inspired VR World
