Denis Gingras artiste artist ingénieur engineer professeur professor

It is a pleasure to welcome you on my

web page.

Building a web site on oneself is more difficult than it first appears. This requires a great deal of introspection. After all, who are we exactly ? Attempting to formulate a more or less complete answer to such a simple question demands in fact a great deal of efforts and even courage. This site invites you to wander through my own universe in which I have lived and dreamed so far. You will discover my story, some of my achievements, my interets and my passions. I can say right away that my life was, to say the least, motley, at all levels. I have traveled all around this world and through the fascinating garden of human passions. As a butterfly, my mind has been wandering from one flower to the next. I have tasted the nectar of life in all its forms. I keep from these experiences wonderful memories and numerous beautiful images printed in my mind. I do hope that this modest web site will allow me to share with you some of the inner passions that are moving me since childhood. Thank you for your interest and I wish you a good visit !

Tribute to Leonardo da Vinci

“Quelli che s'inamora di pratica saza scietia, so come 'l nochiere che e tra navilio sanza timone o bussola, che mai à certezza dove si uada.*” Leonardo da Vinci, 1513-1516. Since my early childhood, I always had a great admiration for this famous historical person and for what it represents(1). Iconographic symbol of the Renaissance and universal humanism, he inspires us to push our scientific curiosity, to pursue our research of beauty and esthetism, to deepen our thoughts and philosophy and to work toward the full realization of ourselves. In our contemporary world, where instantaneity and ephemeral culture are ruling, where specialization primes over general culture, where the continuous background noise of already outdated commercial information prevent us from thinking, Léonard de Vinci appears now as a strange figure from a faded distant past. Nevertheless, the universality of his achievements is still alive and well. The Mona Lisa remains one of the most admired and celebrated painting in the world. Most of his scientific ideas, often at an embryonary stage, have survived the turmoils of time to this day. But beyond the celebrity of his work, the man is also fascinating me for his determination in the pursuit of new scientific and artistic knowledge, for his rigor and for his stubburnness to pursue his dreams, despite his numerous failures and despite all the political, religious and social obstacles he had to face in his time. For all these reasons, one can say that he was for me a model of inspiration and that, very modestly indeed, consciously or not, I have always tried to follow his steps in this mixed passion for science and visual arts that was his. * Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like seamen who sail away to sea without rudder or compass and who are never sure of the direction they are heading. (1) I am not alone. See Leonardo, l’International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST). I also recommend the reading of this book: “Information Arts” de Stephen Wilson, MIT Press.