The Future of Nature in Art The forms of nature are, in their
own ways, works of art. For centuries, artists have mimicked
natural phenomenon, such as the roughness of tree bark, and the
vibrant colours of fruit, in oil paintings and even sculpture.
Now, most artists are using new tools to attempt to control
these forms, and in doing so, re-create the natural form. Artist
Ken To, for example, uses metal wiring to create detailed and
realistically sized bonsai trees. The easing twists of the metal
perfectly mimic the tree bark, that ever so slightly curves up
and outwards, creating branches. Even more extreme, artist
Natalie Jeremijenko uses L-systems, which are algorithms created
in order to mimic the cell growth of a tree. With the L-system
technology, you could have your very own forest growing on your
computers’ desktop! She has even created a whole art project
called ONETREES, and she calls her virtual trees ‘e-trees’, or
‘electronic trees’. Not only that, the e-trees themselves can be
manipulated to grow