Recursion Art

Recursion can be defined as many things, both logically and in a picture.  A recursive image can be an image within the same image of a bigger image, while a recursive function is a function that calls itself.  Recently, the movie Inception makes use of recursion through dreams within dreams.  What I find amazing about recursion is that its both artistic and humorous (though that might be due to my history as a programmer).  When using Google Chrome, a Google search for recursion will result in a message “Did you mean recursion?”.  I cannot explain why I like such a small joke, but I do.  In nature, recursion appears in water ripples and some flowers have layers upon layers in pedals.  My favorite image from class of recursive art has to be the image of two hands drawing each other.  They seem to explain a message that as long as there is one willing to work, that results always have the potential to increase exponentially (these two hands can draw two more hands).  The main reason I see recursion as art is that it is art that can create itself.  An algorithm is a set of instructions that always produce the same result, and as such algorithmic art exists.  Because recursive calls always produce the same result, I see them as art.