You can download the conference poster in the form of a gzipped postscript file (about 4.6 MB) by clicking here. Let us add a few words.

To begin with a trivial observation, misprints can never be avoided. In this case the victim was the initial of Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957), one of the best modern Czech painters a study of whom we have borrowed to decorate the poster.

Kupka is regarded as one of the founders - together with K. Malevich and V. Kandinsky - of abstract painting. He exhibited "non-objective compositions" as early as in 1910 and continued exploring the newly discovered world for several following decades. His paintings can be found in most major world musea. A large exhibition is presented these days by the Modern Art Gallery of Prague, but unfortunately it will close before the conference opening.

Kupka's inspiration had two basic sources. One was music, the other one could be traced to science. From 1896 he lived mostly in Paris and among his rich interests were (rather irregular) visits to mathematics and natural-science courses at Sorbonne - including lectures by H. Poincare.

We do not go so far as the curators of the mentioned exhibition to claim that he understood fully principles of fractal geometry. On the other hand, watching his canvases one has a feeling which is strangely similar to the aesthetical impression made by some graphical results of modern quantum mechanics. After all, the world surrounding us is a single entity.

Updated: April 20, 1998