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@HayleeMontoya
On the first Friday night of each month at Albuquerque’s Museum of Natural History, a handful of people pile into the planetarium to experience an aesthetically pleasing math presentation.
First Fractal Fridays is an educational show that explores the intricate art of mathematical fractals.
“It’s a really immersive, very exciting, kind of other-worldly visual and auditory experience,” said Daniel Wolfe, the show’s music director.
But it isn’t all math — the show is meant to engage the audience in an artistic and fun way, he said.
The audience is seated in the planetarium where they lay back and are surrounded by fractal images projected on screens above and around them.
There are two sets of two shows each evening: during the first two shows of the evening, the content is slightly more educational. During these shows, Jonathan Wolfe, the show’s host and Daniel’s brother, explains in depth what fractals are.
Fractals are math equations that can be animated through a computer, and then repeated over and over again. They create beautiful, infinite images, Daniel said.
First Fractal Fridays began after Jonathan began creating computer-generated images in graduate school, Daniel said. After pairing up, the brothers knew fractals needed a bigger screen and good audio to go along with them.
During the three to four minute visuals, Jonathan draws and explains connections between fractals and nature.
“He flies you through this three-dimensional space, while my music — I do the best that I can to make it kind of interesting and immersive,” Daniel sad.
For the last two shows of the evening, the atmosphere switches gears. This portion of the show is called Fractals Rock.
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“It’s kind of like all candy, with no dinner,” said Daniel.
These two later shows consist of more music and visuals and less explanation.
“When you have this college-age, mind-expanding crowd, they might not want to hear a lecture if they have been sitting in a lecture all day,” Daniel said.
Ciello Ray, a full-time teaching major and part-time nanny, said she attended a fractal show with the kids she cares for. It was educational and interesting, she said.
“The graphics were really cool. I felt like I was zooming in and out of a tie-dye T-shirt,” Ray said.
UNM art major Rianna Suazo said she learned about fractals in elementary school. She remembers playing with computer software that generated fractal images and thinking that it was really cool.
“After being older and seeing the show, I had a better understanding of what fractals were rather than just seeing the pretty images,” Suazo said.
Suazo said the show is a good way to engage people because it incorporates math, but in an unconventional way.
For Jonathan and Daniel, the dream of entertaining with fractals has been incredibly successful. With little to no focus on marketing, the show became popular instantaneously.
Fractal shows are held the first Friday of every month
First Fractal Fridays
will be held Sept. 6
at 6 & 7 p.m.
Fractals Rock
will be held Sept. 6
at 8 & 9 p.m.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for children 3 to 12 years
Shows are regularly sold out,
pre-ordering tickets is preferred.
For more information,
visit fractalfoundation.org
