In December 2020 I visited “Spirals and Metaspirals – An exploration by Simulat Almendros” at Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) (read here). This exhibition is still open for a visit – and it is worth it.
In March 2021 I visited again, this time my focus was on the expansion of the exhibtion “Virtual Tables by Simulat Almendros” (read here). The expansion was done by adding a second level above over one half of space. The next expansion that I saw in April 2021 was named “Lines of Force by Simulat Almendros” (read here). The base exhibition “Spirals and Metaspirals – An exploration” is still open. I have missed one or two iterations / additions. For example the “Virtual Tables” is now gone, but some of the tables are still exhibited. On January 31st, I visited again and saw the latest interation and addition named “Winter Snowflakes“.
“Winter Snowflakes” by Simulat Almendros”
Simulat wrote an accompanying text for this addition:
“I live in Vancouver and am a computer based artist. I have a technique that creates images that have many orders of symetry that are are very beautiful in a symetric way.
My sister lives outside Saint John in New Brunswick in a nice house with a big yard. Herds of deer wander through her yard and she fenced half of it off so she could grow a big garden. Last Summer she sent me pictures of the garden each morning and I would turn them into a snowflake. This show is a result of that collaboration.
Years ago I found out how to make images that have both horizontal and vertical symmetry. Later I discovered that if I took an equilateral triangle and centered it on an image like that I could copy that area into a new image as a layer. Duplicate that and rotate 60 degrees. Then you can move that layer so it lines up with the first one. Repeat 4 more times and I have made a hexagonal snowflake.
That snowflake is also symmetrical. It has two levels of symmetry – so I think of that as an order 2 symmetry. You can repeat that as many times as you want though it isn’t very interesting beyond order 4.
I can do the same with pentagons with 5 layers rotated by 72 degrees. In fact I can do it with any isosceles triangle whose apex angle devides into 360 degrees evenly.
When I first started making snowflakes I was interested in how they could make an interesting image out of anything. I thought I’d get bored. But I kept learning new things about them and now have a lot of creative control and keep finding new things to work with.
This Summer’s collaboration is a case in point. The combination of biological forms and colors and snowflakes is pretty fantastic.“
Examples from “Winter Snowflakes” by Simulat Almendros”
Simulat is in SL for mare than 15 years. He’s an artist and displays his work at HAF in Second Life. In the 1st life tab of his profile he describes himself with the tags: “Computer art, philosophizing Web, graphic arts programming, simulations“. Simulat picked his name because at the time he got his first internet account he was writing simulations of physics.
But there’s more then the many snowflakes. There’s still the basic exhibition “Spirals and Metaspirals” with all it’s additions and iterations. And Simulat explains the different techniques he used to create his mathematical graphic artwork. So there’s a lot to learn and you might be inspired to try yourself.
Impressions of Simulat Almendros’ exhibitions space at HAF
The provided landmark leads you to the central landing point at Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) from where you can take a direct teleport to the exhibtion “Winter Snowflakes by Simulat Almendros”. Right next to the entrance of the exhibition space, you can grab a notecard from Simulat. In this notecard you find a lot of information about how Simulat makes his pictures. And you get even more information in the above mentioned inner circle, where several boards explain the different techniques.
If you haven’t seen “Spirals and Metaspirals” yet, don’t miss the opportunity to visit the now really large exhibition, you can spned hours there, it’s all in one exhitbion space.
Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) is owned by Hannington Xeltentat. Thank you Hannington for providing the space for the art and for enabling “Winter Snowflakes” by Simulat Almendros. I enjoyed my visit.
Landmark to “Winter Snowflakes” at Hannington Art Foundation (central landing point)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xeltentat%20Enterprises/169/204/3521
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