s we have explained in the earlier notes (1, 2, 3), the second major factor in o

ur exploration of 2D strange attractors maps, IFS and other fractals was the aes
thetic experience they produced. Around that time we came across a curious state
ment of Plato in the Timaeus: Now, the one which we maintain to be the most beaut
iful of all the many figures of triangles (and we need not speak of the others)
is that of which the double forms a third, the equilateral triangle.(translation
by Jowett via Birkhoff). Thus, for Plato the most beautiful of triangles is the
so-called \frac{\pi}{6}-\frac{\pi}{3}-\frac{\pi}{2} (a.k.a. 30-60-90) triangle.
As we meditated upon this statement we realized that this triangle can be recurs
ively used to make many aesthetic polygons beyond the equilateral triangle, like
a rectangle, parallelogram, kite (all 2 \times), square, rhombus (both 4 \times
), hexagon ( 6 \times). In doing so we realized what Birkhoff had noticed in the
1930s. To us it also illustrated the second of the two basic principles behind
aesthetic experience that had dawned on us namely, symmetry and recursion.
Starting with our study of the Henon and Lozi maps, we soon realized that there
is more to this: All fractal objects produce a profound aesthetic experience in
some people. I happen to be one of them, though I am cognizant of the fact that
this is not universal many people are neither wonder-struck nor aesthetically mo
ved when I show them such objects. Nevertheless, the fascination for such object
s is widespread across human cultures: In Hindu tradition, temple architecture i
ncreasingly converged towards fractional dimensions before its expression was te
rminated by the coming of the Meccan demons. We had briefly alluded to this earl
ier, pointing to a relationship between the floor plan of the central spire and
the boundary curve produced by an IFS fractal using simple rotations. Other form
s of fractal structures were also depicted in Hindu temple art, such as vegetal m
otifs. Similarly, Wolfram has documented examples of fractal objects in medieval
Western art. Tendencies towards fractality might also be noted in Japanese Ukiyo
-e, like in the famous The Great Wave off Kanagawa. All this suggested to us that
complexity might have an important role in aesthetics.
An attempt to understand the role of complexity in aesthetic experience was made
by in the 1930s by Birkhoff. For an aesthetic object he defined two values, orde
r (O) and complexity (C), which led to the aesthetic measure, M=\frac{O}{C}. Howeve
r, his M measures for various polygons did not have a strong correlation with ae
sthetic experience they produced in us. This made us suspicious of the value of
Birkhoffs measure. The pioneer in the study of fractals, Mandelbrot, suggested th
at fractality of an object might be related to the aesthetic experience it produ
ces. Exploration of fractal maps for aesthetics emerged from pioneering producti
ons of physicists/mathematicians like Mira, Gumowski, Sprott, Pickover and Abrah
am among others. Sprott and Abraham carried out analyses of the aesthetic experi
ence from fractal objects attempting to relate it to their fractal dimension. Ba
sed on their experiments they suggested that a fractal dimension in the middle o
f the range 1..2 was probably a sweet spot for the best aesthetic experience in
2D maps. This generally corresponds to our own aesthetic evaluation of fractal o
bjects.