| Q.: How does the exhibition in London differ from the previous venues? | |
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PG: We have made two significant improvements
after the presentations in Paris and Florence. First, the exhibition
has become more interactive. It now includes programs, particularly
for young people, that aid in understanding the machines. Among these
is a completely new CD-ROM--a kind of film, shall we say, presenting
360 degrees of the activities of the 15th century artist-engineers.
Unlike the previous CD-ROM, it is not limited to Brunelleschi, the Sienese
engineers, and Leonardo but also includes material on many others who
are mentioned in the exhibition but not otherwise presented because
of lack of space. Using techniques of virtual reality, we will give
visitors to the exhibition an account of the major episodes: Alberti's
attempt to raise an ancient Roman ship from the bottom of the Lake of
Nemi, the project for underground aqueducts not simply in Siena, but
in many other Italian cities of the Quattrocento. The CD-ROM will give
you a much better picture of the Renaissance as a period of tremendous
innovation. We have also added to the three-dimensional models. In addition to the full-scale models, which the public cannot operate themselves for reasons of safety, we also present some small-scale models constructed out of metal, which can be safely operated. Of course, for each of the 50 models on display there is a video clip showing each machine in operation, plus a computer animation. But we also want to make available the small-scale models, to give people an up-close view of how the machines would work. |
| Q.: Tell us about the robot designed by Leonardo da Vinci. | |
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PG: Leonardo's robot is in development. We are collaborating on it with an expert in robotics, Mark Rosheim, who is a NASA contractor in Minneapolis. He has recently confirmed, in a convincing way, that certain puzzling drawings by Leonardo are designs for a robot, as correctly interpreted at the end of the 1950s by Carlo Pedretti, a leading American scholar on Leonardo. |
| Q.: What is the background of these drawings? | |
 |
PG: In the late 1950s, Carlo Pedretti proposed that the drawings were plans for a robot. But no real mechanical demonstration of this proposal was done until Mark Rosheim came along. Rosheim is like Leonardo in the sense of being in large part self-trained. In the course of writing a history of robotics, he became interested in these drawings, which he saw as representing a system of cable transmission--exactly the system you would need to control the movement of articulated limbs. Rosheim's thesis has turned out to be very plausible. In fact, it's absolutely convincing. |
| Q.: What was the purpose of the robot? | |
| PG: It was designed to function as a
warrior. It was to be able to sit up, to turn,
to bend both its arms and legs, and to open
its mouth, most probably to make some
noise. But we must understand that robotics was important to Leonardo not only for its practical application but above all for philosophical reasons. As I said before, the direction of Leonardo's mind was to make things that would be as good as the works of nature. The robot was therefore a special challenge, because it was an imitation of the highest work of nature, the human being. Leonardo's studies in anatomy, which are very well presented in the exhibition, are attempts to understand the mechanics of the human body, and so they lead very directly to the robot. Leonardo knows he cannot put the soul into the robot; but he can imitate all the rest, through his imitation of the principles of nature. And so the robot is a critical project for Leonardo. |
| Q.: What will you show of the robot in The Art of Invention? | |
 |
PG: It is still too early to attempt to make a working, three-dimensional model. But we have developed a fully operable digital version of the robot. We will show, through computer animation, both the motion of Leonardo's robot and the working of its interior machinery. |
| Q.: So in a sense, The Art of Invention brings the visitor right up to the present. | |
 | PG: Yes. And it's paradoxical that the
artist-engineers should have been so
forward-looking, so relevant to our
activities today--because they were
reluctant to put themselves forward as
inventors. They were far more interested in
claiming to rediscover, or put back into
circulation, the achievements of the
ancients. Leonardo attributed his own
steam weapon to Archimedes. Why?
Because it had more authority that way. In
the Renaissance things that were old and
venerable automatically had more value,
more glamour, than novelties. That attitude was something else the artist-engineers helped to change in the course of time. Today, viewing The Art of Invention, we are prepared to be astonished by the inventiveness, the innovativeness of the artist-engineers. So we might say their time is now. |
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