Universal aesthetic of fractals

It is shown that humans display a consistent aesthetic preference across fractal images, regardless of whether these images are generated by nature's processes, by mathematics, or by the human hand.

Abstract

Since their discovery by Mandelbrot (The Fractal Geometry of Nature, Freeman, New York, 1977), fractals have experienced considerable success in quantifying the complex structure exhibited by many natural patterns and have captured the imaginations of scientists and artists alike. With ever-widening appeal, they have been referred to both as "fingerprints of nature" (Nature 399 (1999) 422) and "the new aesthetics" (J. Hum. Psychol. 41 (2001) 59). Here, we show that humans display a consistent aesthetic preference across fractal images, regardless of whether these images are generated by nature's processes, by mathematics, or by the human hand.