Miss Cellania
The Late Movies: Fun with Zoom
by Miss Cellania - July 30, 2010 - 10:00 PM
bloghead_latemovies.gif

We can zoom in and we can zoom out, but we can’t zoom infinitely because these are videos instead of loops. But you can get the idea with a few minutes of each. Cosmic.

Zoom Out

This is the opening sequence form the Jodie Foster movie Contact.

Fractal Flight

Fractals are a math concept in which the pieces are all copies of the whole. No matter how many times you break the whole into pieces, they are copies of the whole, infinitely.

Zoom Quilt II

Go here to see the original Zoom Quilt II, which really is infinite. See Zoom Quilt as well.

Trippy Pyschedelic Wormhole Tunnel

Mandelbrot Set

The fractals of the Mandelbrot set are infinite, as it is a geometric concept and obeys the laws of conceptual mathematics instead of the laws of the natural world.

More Color, Less Music

Another colorful Mandelbrot set.

Nested Fractal Gears

With Tibetan Bell music.

Infinite Zoom

To call this “infinite” is a stretch, but it’s still pretty cool!

Zoom

This one zooms out, using the artwork of Istvan Banyai in the book Zoom.

Computer Recursion

Tsk, tsk, somebody is trying to divide by zero again.

Enhance

Let’s remember, after all, that these are videos made with special effects and video magic. No matter how much you try in real life, you can’t manufacture more pixels after the fact.

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Comments (5)

  1. A little upset when this page wasn’t filled with video clips from the children’s television show on PBS…

    But great clips, nonetheless!

    posted by Josh on 7-30-2010 at 11:45 pm

  2. Josh, I doubt you are the only fan of that show. We should use that idea for another Late Movies post!

    posted by Miss Cellania on 7-31-2010 at 12:19 am

  3. A few more:

    First, let’s give credit to the film that started it all: The 1968 short film “Powers of 10″, directed by husband-and-wife team Ray and Charles Eames, based on the book “Cosmic View”:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xwu2i0mMU

    (In 1998, “Powers of Ten” was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.)

    Let’s not forget the Simpson’s couch gag version:
    http://bcmoney-mobiletv.com/view/951/Best%20Simpsons%20Couch%20Gag/

    And how about the ending to the first Men in Black movie?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyzIau5dBao

    posted by gmsc on 7-31-2010 at 1:50 am

  4. Darn, the above “Powers of 10″ video has already been removed. Here’s another one:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRFScPVVOkE

    If this one is removed, searching for “Powers of 10 Eames” should usually find another one quickly.

    posted by gmsc on 7-31-2010 at 2:30 pm

  5. i second josh, maybe it should be titled ‘fun with zoomING’

    posted by zoom!nostalgic on 7-31-2010 at 10:41 pm

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