Q: What about the (he)art of mathematics?

A:

There are nowadays many tools, including the processing.org software, to produce generative art, or more general visual patterns. Artists speak of such methods as using algorithms as a paintbrush. However, where the methods are often used in a naive way, is seems desirably to create algorithms that are to some extend well-founded in mathematical theory.

Topics from mathematics that provide a useful background include [1]:

  • basic topology, iterated functions
  • quaternions & rotations
  • fractals, mandelbrot & julia sets
  • lindenmayer systems -- online tutorial