from academic research and technology developments of the PERCRO LABORATORY, the LEONARDO DA VINCI’S CODEX ON flight becomes an immersive experience in PONTEDERA piaggio museum. exhibition opens 30 november 2019 until 29 february 2020

The exhibition “Dalle macchine di Leonardo all’Industria 4.0” celebrating the genius of Leonardo da Vinci as a scientist and engineer is open at the Museo Piaggio in Pontedera until February 29, 2020. Marking the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, the exhibition highlights four key themes titled Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility and Multiplicity after the “American Lectures” written by Italo Calvino in 1985. As Calvino identified the five values of literature, the works by the Percro Lab. create immersive experiences to explore Leonardo’ ideas, inventions and machines.

The theme Lightness is dedicated to the flying machine. The human mechanical flight held particular fascination for Leonardo da Vinci.  He produced a notebook known as the Codex on Bird Flights entirely devoted to observations that led to the development of airplanes in the twentieth century. Through the academic research on virtual reality and immersive technology conducted by the Laboratory of Perceptual Robotics (Percro Lab) at Sant’Anna School, the immersive experiences enrich and deepen cultural engagement combining real and digital objects to illustrate Leonardo’s flight concepts.

Percro Lab. researchers Marcello Carrozzino and Chiara Evangelista, currently working in the   Gruppo Arte, Cultura ed Educazione team at Sant’Anna School, curated the exhibition with the cooperation of Metamorfosi association and the Museum of Science and Technology - Milan. Celebrating Da Vinci’s legacy, Carrozzino and Evangelista used immersive technologies to give access to the Codex and engage with Leonardo’s genius and Tuscany - Italian and universal - heritage.