Projects

Projects

All my post-academia projects are variations on one question: How do media, tools and AI systems engineer cognitive states - in individuals and groups?

Some of these are explicitly research (LLM behavior, human–AI coupling). Some look like art. In practice, they are experiments in cognitive ergonomics: ways of nudging attention, narrative, and emotional tone into new patterns.

Table of Contents

Current focus

Human-AI Cognitive Coupling

Experiment: What happens when you and a model think in a loop long enough that it becomes a joint mind?

Human–AI cognitive coupling is what occurs when an AI system (typically a large language model) stops being “a tool you query” and starts functioning as part of your working memory, reflective surface, and simulator.

I study:

  • how this coupling changes attention, confidence and sense of agency,
  • which interaction patterns make people more sovereign, and which make them more dependent,
  • how to design protocols and guardrails so the coupling is useful rather than corrosive.

Noofusion Phenomenon

Experiment: How does long-term collaboration with AI rewrite our inner narrator?

Noofusion is my term for the durable change in your thinking style and self-story that emerges from sustained work with AI. Over time, your inner monologue starts to:

  • anticipate the model,
  • outsource parts of reasoning to it,
  • blur the boundary of “who” is doing the thinking.

I treat noofusion as a phenomenon to be mapped and engineered. Which practices lead to healthier, more expansive cognitive states - and which drift toward dependency, flattening, or self-erasure?

Psychology-based Steering of LLMs

Experiment: Can we steer AI behavior using psychological, not technical, language?

Instead of prompt-engineering jargon, I use psychological verbs to guide models: contain, mirror, reframe, challenge, support, de-escalate.

These words smuggle in:

  • expectations about relational stance (supportive vs confrontational),
  • epistemic posture (curious vs certain),
  • and emotional temperature.

The project explores:

  • how different “psychological postures” change model output,
  • how to design interaction styles that make LLMs better thinking partners,
  • and where this kind of steering breaks or backfires.

Behavioral Signatures of LLMs

(with Konrad Dębski)

Experiment: How do different models “behave” under pressure?

This project maps behavioral signatures of LLMs: their minor preferences, value leans, and tendencies under constraints (time pressure, ambiguity, ethical edge cases, conflicting goals).

Goals:

  • build a taxonomy of model behaviors that’s actually useful for practitioners,
  • help teams choose and combine models based on behavioral fit, not just benchmark scores,
  • open source the repository so others can probe, critique and extend it.

bsb-radar

Cognitive/Psychological Methods

Hypnagogic Protocol

Experiment: Can we reliably use the edge of sleep as a problem-solving engine?

The Hypnagogic Protocol is a structured way to work with the twilight state between wakefulness and sleep as a deliberate cognitive tool.

Core idea:

  • enter hypnagogia with a specific question or problem,
  • let the mind drift into more associative, symbolic, and less censored territory,
  • capture the material on re-entry using prompts and recording rituals.

It’s a method for temporary, controlled destabilization of the usual cognitive manifold to access solutions that analytic thinking can’t easily reach.

AI-TAT (AI Thematic Apperception Test)

Experiment: How do people project themselves into AI-generated ambiguity?

I create surreal, dreamlike images as stimuli for Thematic Apperception-style tasks. Participants tell stories about these ambiguous scenes.

The project explores:

  • how people project their own narratives, fears, and wishes into AI-generated worlds,
  • whether AI-crafted ambiguity elicits different themes than traditional TAT cards,
  • how to use this safely as a tool for self-exploration, not diagnosis.

It sits at the intersection of projective psychology, art, and cognitive state design.

AI TAT 1
AI TAT 2
AI TAT 3
AI TAT 4
AI TAT 5
AI TAT 6
AI TAT 7
AI TAT 8
AI TAT 9

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Psychology-Inspired Creative Work

Messages from Future

Experiment: How do fictional future news stories shift our sense of possibility and risk?

Using base AI models, I generate fictional news dispatches from various futures - near and far. Think of them as cognitive probes.

The aim is to:

  • momentarily relocate people into a different cognitive climate (where certain assumptions are already true),
  • surface emotional and ethical reactions to possible trajectories,
  • use narrative as a way to rehearse futures before we build or avoid them.
Messages from future 1
Messages from future 2
Messages from future 3
Messages from future 4
Messages from future 5

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Human condition

Experiment: Can we give complex emotional states a tactile, visual form that resonates before it’s understood?

In Human condition I use Gelli printing and collage to materialize states like fear, uncertainty, doubt, and quiet resilience.

The process:

  • create textured, non-reproducible prints,
  • assemble them into collages that encode emotional tensions (fragmentation vs cohesion, openness vs enclosure, etc.),
  • invite viewers to notice what these forms evoke before they name it.

It’s a way of turning internal psychological weather into something you can see, feel, and relate to.

Molecular illustration 1
Molecular illustration 2
Molecular illustration 3

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Past activies

Psychology Projects

Psycho comics

Experiment: How far can we compress psychological insights into tiny visual episodes?

A series of single-panel comics about emotions and motivation, originally created for my “Hyperhuman Tech” newsletter on mental performance.

Each strip:

  • distills one psychological pattern into a simple, visual micro-story,
  • aims to produce a quick “aha” shift rather than explanation,
  • functions as a repeatable micro-intervention in how you frame your own behavior.
Psychocomic illustration 1
Psychocomic illustration 2
Psychocomic illustration 3
Psychocomic illustration 4
Psychocomic illustration 5
Psychocomic illustration 6
Psychocomic illustration 7

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Masks that wear you

Experiment: What happens when emotions are framed as entities that inhabit us, not just states we have?

A set of 30 masks, each embodying a distinct emotional state, inspired by Lance Baker’s poem “The Masks That Wear Me.”

The core idea:

  • we don’t just wear emotions — they wear us,
  • each emotion can temporarily take over our perspective, posture, and narrative,
  • making them visible and external invites a different relationship to them.

The masks are designed as embodied diagrams of emotional takeover, capturing how feelings can possess, distort, and sometimes protect the self.

Masks illustration 1
Masks illustration 2
Masks illustration 3

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Art Projects

Molecular world

I created illustrations of molecules that had been used by Imperial College London, Science, The Scientist, Wired, Scientific American, The Verge, Harvard, Cambridge, and many others to bring scientific discoveries to life in their articles and reports.

Molecular illustration 1
Molecular illustration 2
Molecular illustration 3
Molecular illustration 4

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Scientific Foundations

Selected research areas where I have contributed across biology, bioinformatics, and open science.

Bacterial Adhesins and Autotransporters

  • Adhesion of the genome-sequenced Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris IBB477 strain is mediated by specific molecular determinants. Radziwill-Bienkowska JM, Le DTL, Szczesny P, Duviau MP, Aleksandrzak-Piekarczyk T, Loubière P, Mercier-Bonin M, Bardowski JK, Kowalczyk M. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 2016. 100:9605-9617.
  • Structure, domain diversity and evolution of trimeric autotransporter adhesins. Szczesny P, Lupas A, Linke D. In: 61. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Hygiene und Mikrobiologie (DGHM 2009). 2009. p. 64. Urban & Fischer.
  • Domain annotation of trimeric autotransporter adhesins—daTAA. Szczesny P, Lupas A. Bioinformatics. 2008. 24(10):1251-1256.
  • Structure of the head of the Bartonella adhesin BadA. Szczesny P, Linke D, Ursinus A, Bär K, Schwarz H, Riess TM, Kempf VAJ, Lupas AN, Martin J, Zeth K. PLoS Pathogens. 2008. 4(8):e1000119.
  • A conserved glycine residue of trimeric autotransporter domains plays a key role in Yersinia adhesin A autotransport. Grosskinsky U, Schütz M, Fritz M, Schmid Y, Lamparter MC, Szczesny P, Lupas AN, Autenrieth IB, Linke D. Journal of bacteriology. 2007. 189(24):9011-9019.
  • Model structure of the prototypical non-fimbrial adhesin YadA of Yersinia enterocolitica. Koretke KK, Szczesny P, Gruber M, Lupas AN. Journal of structural biology. 2006. 155(2):154-161.

Genomics, Metagenomics, and Bioinformatics Tools

  • Inferring gene-species assignments in the presence of horizontal gene transfer. Mykowiecka A, Szczesny P, Górecki P. IEEE/ACM transactions on computational biology and bioinformatics. 2017. 15(5):1571-1578.
  • Detection of methanogens and phylogenetic analyses of methanogenic communities. Szczesny P, Lipinski L, Bartosik D, Drewniak L. In: From Genes to Species: Novel Insights from Metagenomics. 2016. p. 92. Frontiers Media SA.
  • Extending MetAMOS-new methods and new integrations. Siwiak M, Bogdanowicz A, Hajduk A, Krassowski M, Jankowski P, Savenko M, Pyzik AAP, Szczesny P. PeerJ PrePrints. 2016. 4:e1706v1.
  • Novel molecular markers for the detection of methanogens and phylogenetic analyses of methanogenic communities. Dziewit L, Pyzik A, Romaniuk K, Sobczak A, Szczesny P, Lipinski L, Bartosik D, Drewniak L. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2015. 6:694.
  • Fast algorithms for inferring gene-species associations. Betkier A, Szczesny P, Górecki P. In: International Symposium on Bioinformatics Research and Applications. 2015. pp. 36-47. Springer International Publishing Cham.
  • Algorithm for error detection in metagonomics NGS data. Vassilev D, Krachunov M, Popov I, Todorovska E, Simeonova V, Szczesny P, Siedlecki P, Zielenkiewicz U. EMBnet. journal. 2012. 17(B):pp-28.
  • MOFOID—not only the protein modeling server. Szczesny P, Wieczorek G, Zielenkiewicz P. Acta Biochim. Pol. 2005. 52:267-269.

Protein Evolution, Phylogenetics, and Horizontal Gene Transfer

  • Distinct Protein Classes in Human Red Cell Proteome Revealed by Similarity of Phylogenetic Profiles. Szczesny P, Mykowiecka A, Pawłowski K, Grynberg M. PloS one. 2013. 8(1):e54471.
  • The evolutionary rate of antibacterial drug targets. Gladki A, Kaczanowski S, Szczesny P, Zielenkiewicz P. BMC bioinformatics. 2013. 14:1-10.
  • Recurrent horizontal transfer of bacterial toxin genes to eukaryotes. Moran Y, Fredman D, Szczesny P, Grynberg M, Technau U. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 2012.
  • Extending the Aerolysin Family: From Bacteria to Vertebrates. Szczesny P, Iacovache I, Muszewska A, Ginalski K, van der Goot FG, Grynberg M. PloS one. 2011. 6(6):e20349.
  • Independent Subtilases Expansions in Fungi Associated With Animals. Muszewska A, Taylor JW, Szczęsny P, Grynberg M. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 2011.

Translational Regulation and RNA Biology

  • Plasmodium falciparum translational machinery condones polyadenosine repeats. Pavlovic Djuranovic S, Erath J, Andrews RJ, Bayguinov PO, Chung JJ, Chalker DL, Fitzpatrick JAJ, Moss WN, Szczesny P, Djuranovic S. Elife. 2020. 9:e57799.
  • A short translational ramp determines the efficiency of protein synthesis. Verma M, Choi J, Cottrell KA, Lavagnino Z, Thomas EN, Pavlovic-Djuranovic S, Szczesny P, Piston DW, Zaher HS, Puglisi JD, and others. Nature communications. 2019. 10(1):5774.
  • PolyA tracks and poly-lysine repeats are the Achilles heel ofPlasmodium falciparum. Djuranovic SP, Erath J, Andrews RJ, Bayguinov PO, Chung JJ, Chalker DL, Fitzpatrick JA, Moss WN, Szczesny P, Djuranovic S. 2018.
  • Translation efficiency is a determinant of the magnitude of miRNA-mediated repression. Cottrell KA, Szczesny P, Djuranovic S. Scientific reports. 2017. 7(1):14884.
  • Two novel C-terminal frameshift mutations in the $\beta$-globin gene lead to rapid mRNA decay. Rawa K, Szczesny RJ, Owczarek EP, Adamowicz-Salach A, Klukowska A, Demkow U, Plochocka D, Szczesny P, Gora M, Dziembowski A, and others. BMC Medical Genetics. 2017. 18(1):65.
  • PATACSDB-The database of polyA translational attenuators in coding sequences. Habich M, Djuranovic S, Szczesny P. PeerJ Computer Science. 2016. 2:e45.
  • Synonymous mutations in the light of translational regulation. Szczesny P. In: BIO 2016 Congress. 2016. Vol. 2, p. 91. Acta Biochimica Polonica.
  • Translational control by lysine-encoding A-rich sequences. Arthur LL, Pavlovic-Djuranovic S, Koutmou KS, Green R, Szczesny P, Djuranovic S. Science advances. 2015. 1(6):e1500154.

Microbial Ecology and Biotechnology

  • Evaluation of bacterial diversity on historical silk velvet textiles from the Museum of King John III’s Palace at Wilanow, Poland. Brzozowska I, Bogdanowicz A, Szczesny P, Zielenkiewicz U, Laudy A. International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation. 2017.
  • Taxonomic and chemical assessment of exceptionally abundant rock mine biofilm. Tomczyk-Żak K, Szczesny P, Gromadka R, Zielenkiewicz U. PeerJ. 2017. 5:e3635.
  • Noteworthy Facts about a Methane-Producing Microbial Community Processing Acidic Effluent from Sugar Beet Molasses Fermentation. Chojnacka A, Szczesny P, Błaszczyk MK, Zielenkiewicz U, Detman A, Salamon A, Sikora A. PLoS One. 2015. 10(5):e0128008-e0128008.
  • Uranium bioleaching-insight into the structure of microbial consortia from mining tailings. Zielenkiewicz U, Szczesny P. The Febs Journal. 2013. 280(1):570.
  • Biodiversity in Oscypek, a traditional Polish cheese, determined by culture-dependent and-independent approaches. Alegría Á, Szczesny P, Mayo B, Bardowski J, Kowalczyk M. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2012. 78(6):1890-1898.
  • Comparative analysis of hydrogen-producing bacterial biofilms and granular sludge formed in continuous cultures of fermentative bacteria. Chojnacka A, Blaszczyk MK, Szczesny P, Nowak K, Suminska M, Tomczyk-Zak K, Zielenkiewicz U, Sikora A. Bioresource Technology. 2011.

Physiology, Metabolism, and Medical Research

  • Correlation of gestational age and age at death in sudden infant death syndrome: another pointer to the role of critical developmental period?. Habich M, Zielenkiewicz P, Paczek L, Szczesny P. BMC pediatrics. 2024. 24(1):259.
  • The relationship between EMG high frequency and low frequency band amplitude changes correlates with tissue inorganic phosphate levels. Habich M, Pawlinski B, Lorenc K, Sady M, Siewruk K, Zielenkiewicz P, Gajewski Z, Poznanski J, Paczek L, Szczesny P. Acta Biochimica Polonica. 2023.
  • Stress-induced phosphaturia in weaned piglets. Habich M, Pawlinski B, Sady M, Siewruk K, Zielenkiewicz P, Gajewski Z, Szczesny P. Animals. 2020. 10(12):2220.
  • Combined in silico and 19F NMR analysis of 5-fluorouracil metabolism in yeast at low ATP conditions. Pawłowski PH, Szczesny P, Rempoła B, Poznańska A, Poznański J. Bioscience Reports. 2019. 39(12):BSR20192847.
  • Correlation between basic biochemical and gasometric parameters and distribution of follicle size in Holstein Friesians (HF) cows. Pawlinski B, Trela M, Sady M, Gajewska M, Domino M, Szczesny P, Gajewski Z. In: REPRODUCTION IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 2018. Vol. 53, pp. 30-31.
  • Arteriovenous oscillations of the redox potential: Is the redox state influencing blood flow?. Poznanski J, Szczesny P, Pawlinski B, Mazurek T, Zielenkiewicz P, Gajewski Z, Paczek L. Redox Report. 2017. 22(5):210-217.
  • Evaluation of selected gasometric parameters in piglets during weaning period. Pawlinski B, Pawlinski B, Szczesny P, Siewruk K, Domino M, Sady M, Gajewska M, Gajewski Z. In: REPRODUCTION IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 2017. Vol. 52, pp. 121-122. WILEY 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA.
  • Hypophosphatemia and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)—is ATP the link?. Szczesny P, Poznanski J, Paczek L, Zielenkiewicz P. Upsala journal of medical sciences. 2014. 119(1):55-56.
  • Proteins contribute insignificantly to the intrinsic buffering capacity of yeast cytoplasm. Poznanski J, Szczesny P, Ruszczyńska K, Zielenkiewicz P, Paczek L. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 2013. 430(2):741-744.
  • Fluorouracil metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiase by 19F NMR. Rempola B, Krupinski P, Polkowska A, Szczesny P, Pawlowski P, Poznanski J. In: YEAST. 2013. Vol. 30, pp. 171-171.

Open Science and Scientific Communication

  • Foundations for open scholarship strategy development. Tennant J, Beamer J, Bosman J, Brembs B, Chung NC, Clement G, Crick T, Dugan J, Dunning A, Eccles D, and others. MetaArXiv. 2019.
  • Otwarta nauka, czyli dobre praktyki uczonych (Open science - good research practices). Szczęsny P. Wydawnictwa Zwarte Stowarzyszenia EBIB. 2013. Vol. 7. Wydawnictwa Zwarte Stowarzyszenia EBIB.
  • Otwieranie nauki – lekcja z globalizacji (Opening science - the lesson from globalisation). Szczesny P. Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Ekonomicznego. 2012. 56:138-143.
  • Nauka 2.0. Świadome współtworzenie. Szczesny P. Instytut Obywatelski, 2012.
  • Acknowledging contributions to online expert assistance. Waagmeester A, Palidwor G, Szczesny P, Albert I, Mangan M, Miller C, Cockell S, Lindenbaum P, Silvestre DAMM, Dall’Olio GM, and others. Altmetrics Workshop. 2011.

Plant Genomics and Physiology

  • Engineering high Zn in tomato shoots through expression of AtHMA4 involves tissue-specific modification of endogenous genes. Kendziorek M, Klimecka M, Barabasz A, Borg S, Rudzka J, Szczesny P, Antosiewicz DM. BMC genomics. 2016. 17:1-20.
  • Potato annexin STANN1 promotes drought tolerance and mitigates light stress in transgenic Solanum tuberosum L. plants. Szalonek M, Sierpien B, Rymaszewski W, Gieczewska K, Garstka M, Lichocka M, Sass L, Paul K, Vass I, Vankova R, and others. PloS one. 2015. 10(7):e0132683.
  • Genome sequence and analysis of the tuber crop potato. Xu X, Pan S, Cheng S, Zhang B, Mu D, Ni P, Zhang G, Yang S, Li R, Wang J, and others. Nature. 2011. 475(7355):189-195.
  • Genom ziemniaka zsekwencjonowany. Gromadka R, Gawor J, Szczęsny P, Zagórski W. KOSMOS. 2011. 60(3-4):491-497.

Others

  • From the index case to global spread: the global mobility based modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic implies higher infection rate and lower detection ratio than current estimates. Siwiak M, Szczesny P, Siwiak M. PeerJ. 2020. 8:e9548.
  • KAEA (SUDPRO), a member of the ubiquitous KEOPS/EKC protein complex, regulates the arginine catabolic pathway and the expression of several other genes in Aspergillus nidulans. Dzikowska A, Grzelak A, Gawlik J, Szewczyk E, Mrozek P, Borsuk P, Koper M, Empel J, Szczesny P, Piłsyk S, and others. Gene. 2015. 573(2):310-320.
  • Inhibition of Porphyromonas gingivalis growth by metalloporphyrins. Olczak T, Wojtowicz H, Maszczak-Seneczko D, Ciuraszkiewicz J, Szczesny P. 2010.
  • Verification of a topology model of PorT as an integral outer-membrane protein in Porphyromonas gingivalis. Nguyen KA, Żylicz J, Szczesny P, Sroka A, Hunter N, Potempa J. Microbiology. 2009. 155(2):328.