When you start looking at a subject in any depth all sorts of strange things start to pop out that you never really associated but actually are strangely connected. I've mentioned once or twice before that I am interested in how to capture Deep Time as a two dimensional image. So over the past few days I have been looking for ideas on how to do this on one of these strange associations appeared. The connection between deep time and fractals, specifically fractal creatures.
I live very near to some of the most famous rock formations in the world in Charnwood Forest. The reason for this fame is that in 1958 a fossil was identified as the first example of pre cambrian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Cambrian) life. Since then many more forms of the fossil have been identified but Charnia masoni ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charnia) was the first and Charni is the name of the genus.
All very well but where is the connection. Well Pre Cambian rocks are some of the oldest rocks to be found in the British Isle and from a geological perspective they certainly represent "Deep Time'. Charnia is a very simple animal and is considered to be Fractal Creature/animal. Very little is known about how Charnia Masonia other than it was an animal, this is due to the depth of water it was believed to have lived in which meant that there was too little light to allow photosynthesis, and that it was probably only a very few cells in depth. In short it was almost a two dimensional creature. me'. In short, Charnia is a very simple animal and is considered to be Fractal Creature/animal because of the way that it is thought that the cells came together and formed their shape.
I then looked at how such a creature might be a fractal and came across Koch's Snowflake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_snowflake) and suddenly realised the beauty and simplicity of
what a fractal creature could be. This inspired me to draw this very simply snowflake following Koch's instructions and all of a sudden a new way of describing/representing Deep Time came to me. Another connection is that Charni followed 'the Snowball Earth' Cryogenian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryogenian)
I have no idea where this might take me but it is an interesting connection that I had not made before.
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