[PerInt logo]  Zenon Kulpa: Personal Interests

Space exploration

I think that the exploration and colonization of Space is indispensable for the survival of mankind. In the words of Gus Grissom, who lost his life in the Apollo 1 accident:

"The conquest of space is worth the risk of life".

The view that we should "put in order our affairs on Earth before attempting to go into Space" is simply an irresponsible babble. As it was said long ago by Tsiolkovsky:

"Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever".

Staying only on Earth, we will simply perish, sooner or later. As it was succintly stated more recently by Carl Sagan:

"All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct".

A small selection of other places on the Web worth seeing:

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology (or molecular engineering, molecular manufacturing, etc.) is an anticipated manufacturing technology giving a broad ability to control the arrangement of single atoms. Such ability would make it possible to construct giga-ops computers smaller than a cubic micron; living-cell repair machines; personal manufacturing and recycling appliances; and much more. What the computer revolution did for manipulating data, the nanotechnology revolution will do for manipulating matter, juggling atoms like bits.

Many molecular-scale devices and mechanism parts were already designed - the problem is, we as yet do not have the technological possibilities to produce them... However, in several places in the world (notably U.S.A. and Japan) research groups and projects aiming at solving this problem are being established. For more information, see the links below:

Visual art and design

Rather late in my career I have endeavoured, with certain success, to do some drawing and painting, with both traditional techniques and computer graphics tools, using impossible figures as my main motifs. My works vere shown on a number of exhibitions in Poland and abroad. The exhibitions included, among others: a one-man show in Wroclaw, Poland; a joint exhibition with Oscar Reutersvärd in the Art Museum of Lodz, Poland; participation in the world exhibition "Impossible Figures" in Utrecht, The Netherlands and Ratingen, Germany, as well as in "Prix Ars Electronica" festival in Linz, Austria. Here is a poster of my exhibition with Oscar Reotersvärd and a small sample of my old paintings:

Exhibition poster, Art Museum of Lodz, 1985
(Design: Jan Kubasiewicz)
"Infinity," 1977
(gouache on paper)
"Dolmen," 1977
(oil pastels on paper)
"Shadow 1a," 1980
(felt tip pen on paper)


"Foundation," 1980
(gouache and india ink on paper)
"Marriage," 1976
(gouache on paper)
"Shadow 1b," 1980
(felt tip pen on paper)

However, Ars Longa, Vita Brevis - it took me a lot of time at the cost of my other activities... So, I have limited myself to doing a little free-lance graphic design in spare time. I specialize here in efficient visualization of data and ideas. E.g., I have designed the layout, cover and logo of the CAMES journal, and the logos of various sections of these pages. I also engage sometimes in the design of various WWW pages and graphics. My specialty - icons, logos, and informative diagrams design. A sample of works in this area:

Department
of Computational Engineering
of the Centre of Mechanics 		A service company
owned by a tourist society
Advertising Agency         Artistic Studio

In exception to the general claim on my home page, I did collect some money from my artistic and design work...

My visual awareness and my artistic & design work was influenced mostly by the artists listed below (in definitely non-random order):

The main influences:
[MCE]
Maurits Cornelius Escher		 [RM]
René Magritte		 [VV]
Victor Vasarely		 [HB]
Hieronymus Bosch		 [VG]
Vincent van Gogh

Other important influences:
[PM]
Piet Mondrian		 [KM]
Kazimierz Malewicz		 [WS]
Wladyslaw Strzeminski		 [ZB]
Zdzislaw Beksinski		 [GS]
Georges Seurat

And a sample from the "impossible figures" gang:
[OR]
Oscar Reutersvärd (Sweden)		 [JdM]
Jos de Mey (Belgium)		 [BE]
Bruno Ernst
[J.A.F. de Rijk]
(The Netherlands),
the author of books
on M.C. Escher		 [MA]
Mitsumasa Anno (Japan)		 [JY]
José María Yturralde (Spain)

For some interesting visual arts resources on the Web, see:

Visual & geometrical wonders

From impossible figures to multidimensional geometry, from mathematical curiosities to visualizing mathematics, from diagrammatic reasoning to ... you name it - all sort of unusual, bizarre, or even mysterious phenomena concerning visual expression of more or less abstract ideas, meandering between mathematics, visual arts, psychology of vision, and computer graphics. A small sample (but it will grow...) of interesting books, including fiction as well (in alphabetical order by author): Presence of a book in the above list does not indicate that I agree with any particular views advocated in it.

A few (as yet) WWW links:

See also impossible figures section of my site.

General cybernetics, evolution, philosophy

This is my long-time interest: figuring how all that things are... Too broad a field to attempt any summary here. Instead, let me simply list a few interesting books, both fiction and non-fiction (in alphabetical order by author): Presence of a book in the above list does not indicate that I agree with any particular views advocated in it (in fact, with some of them I may disagree quite a bit...).

Some links on the Web to follow:

Extropians

Extropians are a recent movement, certainly thought-provoking and worth serious consideration. The Principles of Extropy define:
Extropy:
A measure of intelligence, information, energy, vitality, experience, diversity, opportunity, and growth.
Extropianism:
The philosophy that seeks to increase extropy.
Though I cannot yet say that I am fully convinced, I do recommend having a look at their views: See also other related ideas and movements:

See also:

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Last updated May 28, 2009