The story which today so fascinates researchers, and which is associated with chaos theory and experimental mathematics, came to our attention around 1983 in Bremen. At that time a research group in dynamical systems under the leadership of Professors Peitgen and Richter was founded at Bremen University. This starting-point led to a collaboration lasting many years with members of the Computer Graphics Laboratory at the University of Utah in the USA.

Equipped with a variety of research expertise, the research group began to install its own computer graphics laboratory. In January and February of 1984 they made their results public. These results were startling and caused a great sensation. For what they exhibited was beautiful, coloured computer graphics reminiscent of artistic paintings. The first exhibition, Harmony in Chaos and Cosmos, was followed by the exhibition Morphology of Complex Frontiers. With the next exhibition the results became internationally known. In 1985 and 1986, under the title Frontiers of Chaos and with assistance from the Goethe Institute, this third exhibition was shown in the UK and the USA. Since then the computer graphics have appeared in many magazines and on television, a witches' brew of computer-graphic simulations of dynamical systems.

What is so stimulating about it?

Why did these pictures cause so great a sensation?

We think that these new directions in research are fascinating on several grounds. It seems that we are observing a ‘celestial conjunction’ – a conjunction as brilliant as that which occurs when Jupiter and Saturn pass close together in the sky, something that happens only once a century.