Kasia Turajczyk » black swan

Kasia in the Countryside

Kasia — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:12:13 +0000

I created a video/slideshow to present my art from the last two years. Paintings, collages, installations, small sculptures all created in Devon, in Dunchideock. And of course lots of nature, black swans, trees, a cat and nice music.

Kasia in the Countryside

The Sensation of Walking by Kasia B. Turajczyk

Kasia — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:06:16 +0000

The Sensation of Walking

I learned to walk and I have walked
And I still walk…
Do I actually understand
How fortunate I am?
I can walk!
I can walk without help
And I walk using my own two legs
No prostheses, no walking stick
No artificial supports at all
Just my intention and my legs
My brain and my legs.
Usually I don’t think
About this fact, I don’t feel
This truth in such a way every day.
But it just so happens
That I am thinking about it now.
It seems so natural – walking.
Except in those moments when I see
David with his two prosthetic legs
And when I visit Ela
Her legs haven't moved for 15 years.
Then I feel how lucky I am.
I know I am independent
No diabetes and no MS
No accidents, no wars,
No natural disasters
I walk, I run, I jump, and
I trample on my left foot with my right foot
I move my body without begging for help
I can run away,
I can walk out whenever I wish.
Just a black swan phenomenon and
The unpredictability of luck.
It is the sensation
Of my fortunate perfection.
I am walking.
These are my feet.

More on The Sensation of Walking by Kasia B. Turajczyk

Red Swan – a new painting

Kasia — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:19:10 +0000

The inspiration for this Red Swan painting is the Black Swan; the Black Swan phenomenon, the Black Swan problem, the History of the Black Swan and the Black Swan book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. In summary, just the Black Swan. Actually till the moment that I held this book by Taleb in my hand I had never before heard about the Black Swan problem and phenomenon. My friend gave this book to me and said that I will love it. You see I studied philosophy and I love complicated, stubborn, controversial and unusual things. This book blew me away. This guy, Nicholas Taleb is an incredibly intelligent person-brain, intellectual dissident and a brilliant writer and in some way an academic libertarian.

Back to the Black Swan phenomenon. Before the discovery of Australia, people were convinced that all swans were white. This fact illustrates a severe limitation to our learning from observations or experience and the fragility of our knowledge.
I will describe here the Black Swan phenomenon using the words of Taleb.

First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectation; because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.

Summarize the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective predictability.

What is the Black Swan logic? What you don’t know is far more relevant that what you do know. And now think about my Red Swan. What you don’t see in my painting is far more relevant that what you do see!

Here is the painting: the painting consists of two panels.

Red Swan by Kasia B.Turajczyk

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable