* dasimov@earthlink.net <dasimov@earthlink.net> [Feb 17. 2006 17:22]:

3. I also wonder: What is this "fractal analysis"; Anyway?

I'd expect someone trying to find a "fingerprint" of Pollock's word to use Fourier analysis: taking Fourier transforms of his known works and comparing these with the ones in question.

But "fractal analysis" of paintings ???? Sounds kind of loosey-goosey to me.

--dan

Might be: - finding iterated function systems (IFS) that can create (in some least-RMS sense) (parts of) the paiting. As done in some "fractal compression" algorithms (AFAIK). - numerical determination of the fractal dimension of (parts of) the painting as done for attractors in physics. Given the type of input I'd guess you introduce, say, 15 parameters in your "algorithm" and hand tune them until the results _look_ interesting. Yuck. Yeah, buzzwords. Fourier type massaging (correlation) plus extraction of of "important components" (SVD) would seem a much more fruitful approach (and a well undertood one). However, these techniques are all linear and should not be called "fractal analysis". Combining these with another buzzword, fuzzy logic, might prove valuable when applied, with care, and by people with a very good background of all of these techniques. bzz, bzz, bzz, jj (ex - time series analyst) -- p=2^q-1 prime <== q>2, cosh(2^(q-2)*log(2+sqrt(3)))%p=0 Life is hard and then you die.