Being Leonardo is born: the first App to explore the genius of Leonardo da Vinci

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Being Leonardo is born:

the first App to explore the genius of

Leonardo da Vinci

Applix and Skira Digital present the first application in the world to be designed and developed since the beginning for Android, iOS and Oculus platforms. It’s about a laboratory of a new visual paradigm and it allows to see the world through the eyes of one of the most fascinating geniuses of our Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci

Milan, April 14th, 2015 – Entering the mind of a genius like Leonardo da Vinci, dive in his era and in his original vision related to the world. How many times have we desired to observe the reality with the eyes of the great master who illuminated our Italian Renaissance? How many times have we asked ourselves what’s hidden behind a gesture, a drawing or a masterpiece of one of the most appreciated artist ever known in the world? It’s a dream coming true today and able to allow art lovers and those who are charmed by Leonardo to put themselves in front of his most universally recognized works.

Applix and Skira launch the multidevice project “Being Leonardo”, the first application allowing to make an immersive experience in the world of Leonardo in first person. It’s about following a tridimensional path where the entire life of Leonardo da Vinci flows, along with its fundamental environments of his life reproduced in 3D, and making us also able to observe his futuristic machines as well as famous paintings, which become interactive.

“Two years ago, when together with Skira we decided to jump into this big challenge, the ambitious goal was to be able to reach once again complex yet exciting milestones – says Claudio Somazzi, Founder & CEO of Applix – With our first experience with apps in the cultural world, “Virtual History Roma”, we wanted to communicate to the world the Italian talent in merging art, design and technology. In that occasion, appreciation directly came from a genius like Steve Jobs, which brought Applix to unthinkable high levels. With “Being Leonardo”, instead, we tried to conquer another genius, maybe the greatest Genius ever existed in the history of mankind, Leonardo da Vinci. Once again, using our winning characteristics: curiosity, innovation, the strength of ideas and technology”.

“Being Leonardo” puts at the center of the work the entire image of the genius of the Renaissance, not just a single aspect of his eclectic artistic, scientific and technological researches, but his world and his mind. More than one access key and various direct experiences are possible, along with a sort of timeline, which is likely a synoptic organizing the whole content by life, works, ideas, events and individuals, available to be discovered in a paginated item for easy browsing.

“Identifying oneself with Leonardo through his biography is the innovative concept projecting the user in the mind of the genius of the Renaissance: the user becomes Leonardo da Vinci, experiences his very life and enters his imaginary world redesigned in tridimensional aspect – comments Roberto Carraro, Partner of Applix for the Arts and Culture department and creator of the format “Being Leonardo”.

The device transforms itself in a subjective viewer allowing to enter imaginary worlds, taken from the world of Leonardo, and to see through his eyes. Being Leonardo is also a “Grand Tour of Italy” in Leonardo’s point of view, where we are able to experience a visit of Italy and the areas which were mostly at the center of Leonardo’s life in the time in which he lived them.

Inside Leonardo’s drawings

In the section dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s peculiar ideas it will be possible to experience an original access to the world of the genius, through the extraordinary intuitions and inventions represented in his drawings, codes and paintings. The real and imaginary scenes drew by the genius become visions at 360° through a reproduction of the famous Codes in tridimensional scenes and virtual reality. Among the environments realized there will be possible to experience: the Florentine art laboratory of master Verrocchio; a perspective on Milan extracted from his urban designs; a battle scene having his innovative weapons as protagonists; a Tuscan landscape created for drawings related to flying; the refectory of Cenacolo di Santa Maria delle Grazie; various environments of the drawings for the sketches. Thanks to the application some paintings and drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci will be interactive and tridimensional, among those the Vergine delle Rocce, the San Gerolamo, the Gioconda, the Ultima Cena, the Adorazione dei Magi, the Annunciazione.   

The machines and 3D inventions

Also the buildings of that historical period, the machines and the inventions have been recreated in 3D. The tridimensional models are gathered in big immersive environments such as the canals, the city, the nature, the building site, the battle, the flight.

The path of Being Leonardo Da Vinci at Palazzo Reale

The app for Samsung Gear VR “Being Leonardo”, developed by Applix and Skira Digital, is designed for an immersive experience in the context of the exhibition about Leonardo Da Vinci at Milan Palazzo Reale from April 16^th to July 19^th: in one hall, some Samsung virtual viewers will be available for a fee to the visitors. 

The virtual format is focused on the concept of “Being Leonardo”: the visitors of the exhibition at Palazzo Reale “will become Leonardo”, wearing the device, which means they will enter his mind and will live his world at 360°.

In fact, the app for Samsung Gear VR dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci reinterprets in virtual reality the format “Being Leonardo” developed for iOS and Android tablets, also being available to be bought on App Store and Google Play. It’s the first editorial production in the world being designed and available both on stores for tablets and in the one for Oculus, because it has been focused on an immersive format since its beginning. The app is the result of researches and production lasted more than an year of work, so it sets itself as one of the richest apps for the Oculus platform in the world, besides being dedicated to Leonardo, a cultural and artistic topic among the most appreciated universally.

Adapting to the virtual viewer means that the environments are presented at 360°, becoming an access point to the world of Leonardo. The user can face environments of different kinds (photographic, redesigned in 3D, generated by drawings) where it’s possible to navigate with great simplicity and velocity, thanks to an immediate visual interaction: the user activates the contents and browses the virtual world just by pointing his eyes toward interactive elements.

At the entrance, the user will find himself in a sort of big tridimensional code, with elements adapted from the Codes of Leonardo da Vinci, 3D machines, paintings, real places. Using the visual pointer he selects the sections and enters them.

From here, four main sections are set: real places of Leonardo’s life, places which sum up the ideas of his Codes, a gallery masterpieces in 3D, and a focus on the Cenacolo, the universal masterpiece in Milan. The app is available in Italian and English. 

*** Photo by Maurizio Pesce / CC BY / edited

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Founded in 2010, Applix is a group focused on mobile solutions for enterprises, publishers and institutions willing to create their own digital presence in an innovative and relevant way.

We are a strategic partner for some of the most important Italian and International brands and publishers, specialized in two main lines of business: Digital Publishing and Mobile & Apps.

Our apps have received several international awards and have been downloaded in more than 120 countries, reaching the top 10 of the Stores ranking in over 50 of them with millions of downloads.

Visit our website www.applixgroup.com

Founded in 1928, Skira is one of the main players in Arts and Architecture international publishing. Skira Digital makes its debut in the world of apps with this extraordinary project, supported by the most sophisticated partners in the field.

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Caricato il 14/04/2015

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Applix

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