Check out TheLightherder for more videos.

The operator at the helm of the Device uses high definition analog video feedback fractals to create spirals within spirals, loops within loops, galaxies, cell structures, strands of DNA, trees, insects, tentacled primordial creatures, and classic fractal images. It really is the God Machine.

Made of maple, mahogany, aluminum, three cameras, five HD feedback monitors, three Roland video switchers, two viewing monitors, two sheets of beam splitter glass, and a video input.

The device now has two monitor structures.

Both structures have two HD monitors (with analog hue/contrast/saturation knobs) at right angles to one another, with a sheet of beam splitter glass between them. The feedback loop between these two monitors, the reflection in the glass, and the camera, creates fractals in real-time, without a computer.

Using the video switchers, the left monitor structure can interact with the right monitor structure, and vise-versa. When they both interact with each other at the same time, yet another feedback loop is created, producing unexpected and strange results.

There is also a feedback loop between the third camera and the rotating HD monitor. The output of this loop can be folded into the other loops.

“It really is quite tangled…very impressive. Lots of wonderful fern-like stuff, also some jellyfish-like stuff, and the Sierpiński gasket now and then. Congratulations!” 

          – Douglas Hofstadter

 “I like what you are doing very much. It’s fascinating. Reminds me of the days when I was playing – experimenting – discovering.” 

– Heinz-Otto Peitgen

Check out more videos, explanations, and a detailed account of building and testing the Device on my blog:

Forward Chronology
Reverse Chronology

See the Device on boingboing, again on boingboing, on kottke, on hackaday, on slaschcam, on reddit, and read a review by Rich Walkling.