University of Technology, Sydney
UTS is the custodian of 22 models based on the visionary drawings of Leonardo.
Commissioned by IBM during the 60s, the models are taken from what are essentially Leonardo's ‘concept drawings’, prescient of machines made hundreds of years later. In effect, they are examples of a futurist energy, of invention and application of mind to overcome problems of nature; they are the science fiction of their time.
An exhibition of these models was programmed as part of a strategic plan to recast the monolithic foyer of the UTS Broadway campus as a welcome and inspirational asset to the cultural life of the university. It was a perfect opportunity to link a past embodied in the models, with the future of UTS — a leading University with a strong design and technology focus.
The project, entitled 'Models of Invention: The Science Fiction of Leonardo da Vinci' was designed and managed by the studio.
With 3D design by Carol Salazar of Five Spaces Design, and curatorial by Stephen Gapps of Historica, the exhibition takes as its inspiration the designs of both Leonardo and the Futurists of the early 20th Century.
Dramatic, theatrical, intelligent, engaging and, in the end, economical, the exhibition exceeded expectations as it claimed the foyer space for the cultural enjoyment of future generations of the UTS community.
COLLABORATORS:
Design Director 2D: Lea Barnett
Design Director 3D: Carola Salazar
Creative Director: Peter Campbell
Fabricator: Definitive Group
Curator: Stephen Gapps