Journey to the Center of a Vast Fractalized Japanese Abacus

Screengrab via

Way before that smartphone calculator, way before calculators themselves, there was the abacus, predating even the numerical systems we use today. In Japan, their version was called a soroban, and in his latest video, fractal auteur Julius Horsthuis imagines journeying deep inside one. Well an "abstract, fractal interpretation of a really deep soroban," anyway.

The short, called Soroban, is rendered in fractal generator Mandelbulb3D. The camera pans drone-like through Giger-esque landscapes that create a vastness in their detail—and occasionally nod to the curved roofs of Japanese Buddhist temples. To give the footage an added epicness, and heighten the sense that you're traveling through the colossal interior of a massive spacecraft, it's all set to music by anime and film composer Kenji Kawai, taken from Ghost in the Shell: Innocence. 

Get lost in the recursive splendor below.

Soroban from Julius Horsthuis on Vimeo.

Visit Julius Horsthuis' website here.

Related:

Even Drugs Can't Top Amsterdam on Fractals

Interstellar-Inspired Fractals Open Up New Dimensions

Take a Polar Plunge into Ice Caves—with Fractals