Last week saw the opening of “Leonardo: 500 Years Into the Future,” a comprehensive awe-inspiring glimpse into the mind of the ultimate Renaissance man, showing at the Tech Museum for the next three months. San Jose is the only place in the United States where this exhibit is being shown and you will need at least two hours to fully take in all the life-size models, artifacts, drawings, displays, interactive machines, explanations, video and scrupulous documentation of Da Vinci’s ideas and inventions. Pick your interest: geometry, anatomy, mechanical engineering, painting, drawing, cosmology, the physics of vibration or the Golden Proportion—Da Vinci endeavored in all of the above. I can safely say that each one of us who were blessed with a preview tour of the entire exhibit by its curator—world-renowned Leonardo scholar Paolo Galluzzi of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy—departed the museum that day utterly inspired to implement Leonardo’s thinking while engaging in whatever exploits we had on the plate for the rest of the afternoon.
So that’s what I did, and I revisited Michael J. Gelb’s heroic book, How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. After years of studying Leonardo, Gelb conjured up what he calls the Seven Da Vincian Principles, that is, seven simple but essential elements of Leonardo-style thinking, named in Italian, for folks to use in their everyday lives. For example, Principle One, Curiosita, refers to “an insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.” Principle Two, Dimonstrazione, concentrates on testing knowledge through experience and being willing to learn from mistakes. With Sensazione, number three, I can learn to use all five senses to help enliven my everyday experience, whether it’s how I view an exhibit at the Tech or how I then deal with the variety of interesting sounds and aromas while walking down Santa Clara Street toward City Hall.
Which, of course, is where I wound up next, since later that day a press conference transpired regarding the California Transportation Commission’s awarding of $239 million for the BART extension to San Jose. Given the dubious mess that this issue has recently become, and since all that remains is whether the public will vote for a second tax to help pay for it, I shall now contextualize it with Gelb’s Fourth Da Vincian Principle, Sfumato, which means, literally, “Going up in smoke.” Gelb adds that Sfumato includes “a willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty.” A distinctive trait of a highly creative person, he writes, is to have “confusion endurance,” and make himself more at home with the unknown—pretty much the scenario with the proposed BART tax. Also, the concept of whole-brain thinking, Gelb’s Fifth Principle, Arte/Scienza, definitely needs to be applied here if this project is ever going to work.
And then it was off to a reception at the newly renovated San Jose Women’s Club building at 75 S. 11th St., a 1920s landmark ballroom and banquet facility that has now been totally revived. A major event takes place here on Tuesday, Oct. 28, when Club Quake, the fan club of the San Jose Earthquakes Major League Soccer team, holds its end-of-regular-season party. This year the Quakes have gone from the doldrums of a demoralized bottom-of-the-table expansion franchise to a serious and confident playoff contender in just a few months. Their midfield is led by Francisco Lima, formerly of AS Roma, one of the elite clubs in Italy. At 37, the dude is in better shape than most players half his age. On the pitch, he epitomizes Gelb’s sixth Da Vincian Principle, that of Corporalita—the cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness and poise.
As one would expect, the seventh and last of Gelb’s Da Vincian principles is that of Connessione, “a recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things”—a perfect way to summarize and conclude this week’s column. I thank Leonardo for his inspiration and I say, Arrivederci fino a settimana prossima.
“Da Vinci” is not a surname. Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense. Vinci is the name of the town he came from. It’s like “Jesus of Nazareth”.
You wouldn’t say “The Sermon on the Mount is the finest statement of Of Nazareth’s principles”. It’s the same with “da Vinci”.
His name was Leonardo, and such is his fame that everyone will recognize the name.
Regarding the horse. The city should buy it and place its’ rear next to quexicatal statue.
The two would go good together!
Gary,
I too, took several hour to take in the Leonardo Da Vinci Exibit at The Tech Meuseum, while at Ceasar Chaves Park Sunday.
Up until that moment that I allowed myself to try to paralel my thoughts to this great man, I did not appreciate the hundreds of patterns, gears, levers, wheels all created by engineers and pattern makers that rest proudly in my foundry. The history of our Valley’s beginnings are there. Long gone are the people that knew what each pattern was used for. What remains is the power of the movement that was required for each of these gears, levers etc. All captured in wood. 5 foot wheels with hundreds of teeth, patterns for every concieable movement long lost in time.
It took Leonardo to validate my sprit as a Founder of metals. I became but one of the teeth on that hugh gear. The human sprit is like that. Colectively we work best in unison, together.
Yesterday, casting proto types was a living, today I see myself quite differntly. Having patterns that are perhaps 100 years old and new patterns for casting proto types that help in new technology for cancer research or XRay machines that are required for Homeland Security all under one roof is mind boggleing.
It is a blessing to feel so close to a man that knew so much of himself. Inspiring, truly inspiring.
The Village Black Smith
Gil Hernandez
How to Combat Da Vinci’s Seven Dangerous Steps
—a guide for public school teachers—
Curiosita’ – Insatiable curiosity will, absent intervention, drive the student to learn at an accelerated rate and take him beyond the approved course of study, possibly inflicting upon his average and disadvantaged classmates inferiority concerns, envy, and problematic questions about the nature of advantage. Teachers should take steps to redirect disproportionate curiosity away from achievement-related learning and towards materials that celebrate diverse cultures and reinforce the need to level the socioeconomic playing field.
Dimostrazione – The inclination to test knowledge through experience cannot be tolerated in today’s classroom, given our curriculum’s emphasis on social and historical concepts that are incompatible with real-world testing and hard scientific scrutiny. It is important for each educator to convey to the skeptical student the necessity of accepting certain concepts as factual and, in fact, necessary for success in our multicultural society.
Sensazione – The continued refinement of the senses will inevitably bring the student face-to-face with the conflict between what he has been taught about his fellow man and what he has observed. Thus, it is the responsibility of every teacher to instill in all students a profound distrust of their own senses as well as those of others.
Sfumato – The willingness to embrace ambiguity should be confined to those students engaged in the study of Quantum Mechanics. In all other areas of study, the tolerance of ambiguity must be recognized as counterproductive to the teaching of a dogma-based curriculum.
Arte/Scienza – To establish a balance between art and science in academia would require that critical thinking be elevated to the level of feelings and sensitivity, an idea fraught with fascist peril. It is therefore recommended that educators confronted by students seeking such a balance direct the students to the social sciences.
Corporalita’ – Any program that celebrates fitness and poise must be, by definition, designed around a particular set of cultural concepts. Given that there is no one universal ideal of what constitutes fitness and poise, and that this system will not tolerate social exclusion in any form, instruction in fitness and poise is forbidden.
Connessione – Though our official policy is to recognize and appreciate all forms of spiritual belief, the separation of church and state restrains public educators from endorsing any one particular belief system, including the belief that all phenomena are connected.
If Leonardo da Vinci was such a genius then how come HE didn’t invent the Quantum Age Water Stirwand? Hmm?
10 MHz Days,
As far as most Americans are concerned, there’s only one Leonardo and it ain’t da Vinci. Unfortunately, these people vote.