The Da Vinci Genius - 12 Mar 2012

The Leonardo Da Vinci Machines Exhibition: 3 Feb 2012 to 15 April 2012 at Mines Exhibition Centre, Kuala Lumpur.
We must give credits to the organiser for bringing more than 70 of Leonardo exhibits to Malaysia. We always know Leonardo as the painter of Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, but little was heard of his "technical" drawings. The interactive and working machines of Leonardo were created by the Artisans of Florence from these technical drawings.  However, we have heard that the response of the exhibition was not encouraging, and when we were there, the place was quite deserted. There was not enough publicity to more appropriate target groups like college and university students especially those pursuing technical fields. Those who have understanding of the technologies or history will better appreciate the exhibits, and the younger ones will not appreciate the genius behind the ideas. We could leisurely cover the exhibits in an hour, making it quite expensive for a family visit (Adult: RM28 and Child: RM18).
Leonardo was dedicated with passion not just in painting, but in scientific studies in anatomy, biology, mathematics and physics.
"Vitruvian Man"
From his exhibits, he was devoted to the study of nature and produced ideas and inventions to solve practical problems of his time and future possibilities such as flying machines and automation.
Theme 1: War Machines
The Tank

Trench Excavating Machine

We saw many exhibits related to machines for warfare. In the 15th century, the Italian Peninsula was caught up in a continual struggle for power, glory and wealth. The city-states were competing with one another in warfare, and Italy city-states were also battlegrounds in the French and Spain conflicts. This could explain why Leonardo has so many ideas and inventions for war machines.
Theme 2: Flying Machines
Glider
Leonardo devoted his attention to the study of nature, like the study of flight of birds and bats, he would buy caged birds just to release them and watch the way they moved. He also studied the flow of tides, the nature of waves, movement of rivers, fall of rain etc to find his ideas for his inventions.


Theme 3: Nautical & Hydraulic
Assembling the Arched Bridge

A method to build a lightweight, portable bridge without ropes or iron.



Theme 4: Principles of Mechanics

Crossbow car, a self-moving vehicle, with 3 wheels, a handbrake and a tiller.

Room of Mirrors
If you are standing in the centre, you can see every part of yourself...

The exhibits also included Leonardo's reproduced masterpieces, which made Leonardo so famous even though there's a growing awareness and admiration of him as a scientist and inventor. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Al-Attas Garden in Janda Baik - 4 August 2012

Image
Besides being a well-known contentious writer, little do we know that Syed Hussein Alattas is also a self-taught gardener and an architect. He had built Taman Hana in Janda Baik from scratch and named after his wife.  Taman Hana sits on a 8-acre plot of land in the quiet village of Janda Baik. It boasts a collection of 1,000 species of plants including fruit trees, more than 700 big flower pots and five buildings that include the home of the Alattas family.  The good news is that it is open to visitors every day.  As we made our way past the entrance, this place appeared unkempt. It was well beyond its heyday (in 2008) but still showing off its faded beauty. Some parts were badly neglected, which was so unfortunate, because it originally was to be a quiet kampung retreat. A mix of traditional Malay, Peranakan, Indonesian and colonial British architecture and a Minangkabau styled roof. Syed Hussein had actually started building the structures in 1982 and he spent...
Read more

Discovering Pasir Pinji's Comfort Food - 29 June 2014

Image
Pasir Pinji Road in Ipoh is like a living heritage town. If you google this place, you will see a long list of local delicacies you must try - the famous yong tau foo, chee cheong fun, cendol, roast pork, traditional mooncakes, pastry, etc. On a Sunday, we saw the idyllic lifestyle of the local people - watching the days go by, sipping tea and catching up with friends along the corridor of shophouses, waiting for the takeaway of their favourite food or desserts from the roadside hawkers, sitting in coffee shops and dipping Hainanese buns into their kopi-O or Milo. .. it's like a walk to my childhood years in the 80s.  Ban Guan Foong Bakery has been around for more than 50 years. One of the very few remaining bakeries producing traditional Hainanese bread and buns using wood-fired oven.  A family-run business by the Goh family and some old and loyal workers. Getting ready the wood-fired brick oven  Removing the ashes from the heated oven  ...
Read more

A Potter Village in Sayong - 30 May 2013

Image
Pit Stop at the Perak royal town, Kuala Kangsar. The 1st rubber tree in Malaysia was planted in this town. That's about all I knew about this place. Labu Sayong or water pitcher from Sayong village, known for its health value to help migraine, lower blood pressure etc due to the special properties inherent in the local clay. Before this, we didn't know much of labu sayong.  We didn't go to the village or plan this visit. Out of curiousity, we bumped into this unassuming workshop at No. 3, Kg Setia, Enggor, run by Mohd bin Harun.  Pakcik was very open and gave us a tour of his workshop and how he makes labu sayong. His warm, friendly welcoming people made a lasting impression on all of us - a trait that we've lost in the big cities. The traditional way of making labu sayong uses hands to mould the clay into the shape of a 'labu' (gourd-like vase) but this is too slow. Now, the clay mixture is poured into standard mould blocks. It's ...
Read more