Artist bio

Having explored procedural digital art and fractals since 1988, Anders Hjemdahl’s art has been featured at numerous exhibitions, presentations, shows, events and publications, e.g. at Art Basel Miami, SXSW, the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, VRLA, Mindshare L.A, Mind & Machine, the 200 Years of Swedish Design Encyclopedia, FORM Magazine, and with NFTs part of e.g. Cozomo dé Medici’s prestigious Medici Collection.

Anders’ awards include the Golden Egg for Interactive Media by the Swedish Association of Communication Agencies, the Order of Terra Mariana by the President of Estonia, and the Sir John Templeton Freedom Award, and he has been featured as a speaker at e.g. the European Parliament, Stanford University, Technarte, and the Technicolor Experience Center.

Anders lives in southern California, where he works as creative technologist, developer and creative director, specializing in 3D visualization, emerging technology, XR, web3 and AI.

Artist’s statement

My work explores parallel dimensions using procedural computer graphics and fractal geometry, opening up gateways to unseen, infinite worlds of majestic and mysterious beauty and complexity.

Navigating these worlds, I bring back documentation of my journeys into the unknown across several mediums — digital images, high resolution prints, light boxes, video, NFTs, AR and Virtual Reality. 

Striking a fine-tuned balance of shapes, light, shadows, color and detail, I strive to create a meditative state, similar to what you can find when experiencing the beauty and vastness of nature — when viewing a mountain range, a forest, or the ocean.

I create my art to share a sense of wonder, enable people to see the world in a new light, and find a deeper awareness of the many unseen layers of what we choose to call reality.

In the words of William Blake:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

What are fractals?

First discovered in the 1800s, fractals are algorithms that are used to define and predict phenomena that are beyond the reach of classical geometry — e.g. clouds, snowflakes, coastlines, roughness, stock market fluctuations, brain tissue, or the distribution of matter in the universe.

Normally unseen, fractals permeate life and the universe, appearing in places as tiny as the membrane of a cell, or as majestic as lightning and the shapes of galaxies.  

No matter how close you look, fractals never get simpler — the closer you look, the more detail you see, reminiscent of patterns in nature and in the human body.

For reasons that are unknown, fractal algorithms also generate infinitely complex, intricate geometrical patterns, which can be explored in multiple dimensions using computer graphics.

Welcome to a journey of exploration.