Shriya NevatiaWhere have all the flying machines gone?
September 17th 2006 01:04
The Leonardo Da Vinci Machines An Exhibition of Genius; I wouldn’t go that far. What the exhibition designers mean is a person of genius, the exhibition itself is nothing special.
It took me a good half hour of wandering, lost at Docklands to find the exhibition at the Waterfront City Pavilion, which it turns out, is a kind of tent.
I enjoyed being lost at Docklands; I saw the wharves and the impressive array of public art. Although I’m not sure what Docklands is trying to be, is it arty farty or is a metrosexuals gated community?
After a reviving coffee, I entered the tent and the ticket sales person slugged me eighteen dollars to enter. For that price I expected to see genius, or at least something original.
‘I’m scared’ a little girl said in the first space, which was full of darkness and noise.
‘I’m bored’ I thought as I saw the reproduction drawings of Da Vinci and miniature reproductions of his inventions.
The only redeeming feature was that some of the models were interactive and scared children and adults could turn levers and pull cords. As the exhibition was not in a traditional space with the usual museum rules and regulations, visitors could also take photographs with abandon, they could steal Da Vinci’s genius ideas even.
The first part of the exhibition is about his war inventions. It’s hard to imagine that the man who painted the Mona Lisa also invented a contraption for pushing ladders off castle walls to squish marauding invaders. I wonder if anyone is trying to invent something similar to deal with today’s town bureaucrats.
I just didn’t get the hydraulic section, probably because I’m not a scientist. The label for the Fly Wheel for example said, ‘the goal of this device is to continually build momentum in order to overcome inertia and thus reduce effort’. Perhaps I should have asked one of the people who were oohing at Da Vinci’s use of ball bearings to explain it to me. As far as I can tell society is still suffering from the same problems as the Renaissance and the remote control has been invented to reduce effort, though we still haven’t overcome inertia.
The reason I went to the exhibition was because of the flying machines. Da Vinci invented wings, helicopter prototypes and machines that looked like fold-up beds for flying. It is the most poignant and imaginative part of the exhibition and perhaps about his genius. When did we stop inventing flying machines? The flying machine is one of our most powerful concepts as it embodies our aspirations to be more than human. Is there anyone out there still trying to fly?
It took me a good half hour of wandering, lost at Docklands to find the exhibition at the Waterfront City Pavilion, which it turns out, is a kind of tent.
Waterfront City Pavilion
After a reviving coffee, I entered the tent and the ticket sales person slugged me eighteen dollars to enter. For that price I expected to see genius, or at least something original.
‘I’m scared’ a little girl said in the first space, which was full of darkness and noise.
‘I’m bored’ I thought as I saw the reproduction drawings of Da Vinci and miniature reproductions of his inventions.
The only redeeming feature was that some of the models were interactive and scared children and adults could turn levers and pull cords. As the exhibition was not in a traditional space with the usual museum rules and regulations, visitors could also take photographs with abandon, they could steal Da Vinci’s genius ideas even.
The first part of the exhibition is about his war inventions. It’s hard to imagine that the man who painted the Mona Lisa also invented a contraption for pushing ladders off castle walls to squish marauding invaders. I wonder if anyone is trying to invent something similar to deal with today’s town bureaucrats.
I just didn’t get the hydraulic section, probably because I’m not a scientist. The label for the Fly Wheel for example said, ‘the goal of this device is to continually build momentum in order to overcome inertia and thus reduce effort’. Perhaps I should have asked one of the people who were oohing at Da Vinci’s use of ball bearings to explain it to me. As far as I can tell society is still suffering from the same problems as the Renaissance and the remote control has been invented to reduce effort, though we still haven’t overcome inertia.
flying bicycle
The reason I went to the exhibition was because of the flying machines. Da Vinci invented wings, helicopter prototypes and machines that looked like fold-up beds for flying. It is the most poignant and imaginative part of the exhibition and perhaps about his genius. When did we stop inventing flying machines? The flying machine is one of our most powerful concepts as it embodies our aspirations to be more than human. Is there anyone out there still trying to fly?
Da Vinci's bat wings
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Comment by Vixter
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Thanks for the pics too. They're great.
Comment by Anonymous
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