The image shown at right is “Spiral with opaque lines” by winner Andreas Lober

Every four years the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) meets to discuss mathematics and to present Fields medals. For the 2006 ICM, which was held in Madrid in August, new events were added, including a fractal art exhibit. The purpose of the ICM 2006 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest was to select some of the artwork for display in this exhibit. They named this contest and exhibition in honor of Professor Benoit B. Mandelbrot, as without his work establishing fractal geometry there would be no fractal art. Prof. Mandelbrot was a plenary speaker at ICM 2006.

The site that displays the images is a work of art in itself, but the real treat lies in the winners online exhibit as well as the entries that didn’t make the winners’ circle. The beauty is the clickable image, that reveals a much larger version that you can examine closely.

After you examine all the entries and winners, think about entering the 2010 exhibit. After all, the rules may not change much, and you can access that information online as well. For more information, visit the ICM 2006 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest site.