Last weekend, my colleagues and I went to Singapore Science Centre for the Da Vinci Exhibition and a movie about Van Gogh.

Here are the exhibition themes that is explained on the website:

A new addition to the Da Vinci – The Genius exhibition is the Secrets of Mona Lisa display. French scientific engineer and photographer of fine art, Pascal Cotte was granted unprecedented access by the French Government and The Louvre Museum to conduct an extensive scientific evaluation of this masterpiece. He did so under strict security and supervision, taking her out of her frame and away from the protective glass enclosure. His photographic examination and findings have startled the art world – making 25 revelations including identifying her original pigment colours, proving she indeed did have eyebrows and eyelashes and producing the world’s only 360 ° walk around replica.
The key works of this extraordinary exhibition include:

• Large scale Machine Inventions, many interactive, crafted by modern day Artisans in Italy. The machines are based on the Artisan’s meticulous and lengthy studies into Leonardo’s codices
• Facsimiles of a fascinating collection of Codices
• Life & Times of Leonardo da Vinci presentation
• Leonardo’s mysterious Alphabet & writing technique
• Reproductions of da Vinci’s amazingly accurate and detailed Anatomical Drawings
• Reproductions of famous Da Vinci Renaissance Artwork in actual size
• The Anghiari Battle Preparatory Drawings
• The famous Vitruvian Man image and explanation in a world exclusive 3D animation
• The Last Supper 3D animation
• The creation of the Mona Lisa in 3D animation
• The Great Sforza Horse Sculpture in 3D animation
• Educational Programs – Primary and Secondary levels
• Da Vinci Documentary
• Audio Tour
• Da Vinci Merchandise shop

These fabulous works are all beautifully supported with written explanations by Vincian experts and Museum Curators each with over 25 years experience.

I went through the exhibition and I in awed with Da Vinci. He’s such a genius and how he incorporate sciences and arts together in his work. I’m awed at how he came up with some of the concepts. I guess I’ve been taking a lot of things around me for granted. I always heard of the Last Supper and Mona Lisa, but I never knew what was so special about them until I watched the short documentaries about the those paintings. It was brilliant. Do you know that Vincent Van Gogh painted the background blue for the Mona Lisa painting 500 years ago? The reason why the whole painting looks yellow now is because of the varnish.

So what did I learn from this exhibition?

1. Using our skills to benefit mankind
There was one quote that caught my attention. Da Vinci actually asked God for forgiveness that he disappointed God and men. Yes, he was a perfectionist but he realised that he had so much to contribute to mankind with his skills, and perhaps, he felt that he hasn’t enough of what God had given him. I guess I never really used my skills properly to help mankind.

2. Be a knowledgeable person, not just in the specific skillsets
We have different strengths but there is no harm learning other things. Having an understanding on other things give us more awareness on how the world works around us and why it affects us the way we are. The next morning, I was talking to my Senior Art Director about books and he gave me an advice, “My best advice to you to read everything. Be widely read.”

3. Be more inspired to learn the technical side of things
Well, I was impressed by how Da Vinci studied sciences and arts and incorporate them. It make me want to learn more about the web, not just the design, but how I can make it accessible to others. I want to learn in-depth, not just what people see, but the things that make it work too.

I’m truly inspired.

Vincent Van Gogh

After going through the Da Vinci exhibition, we went to watch the movie about Van Gogh in the IMAX. The more I sat inside there, I felt like a hamster as the screen was in a dome shape.

I like how the whole story was told in the first person point of view where someone narrate from Van Gogh’s point of view. Not only that, I like how they show how people who have come to studied him and his paintings came to appreciate him. To realised the genius in him, to understand what influence him within his short life.

Oh, I nearly forget to mentioned that the paintings was so zoomed in. Imagine sitting in there and you can see every brush stroke and colour of the painting? Or having a self-portrait of Van Gogh looking straight into you?

As I was sitting there watching the movie, it reminds me about Seraphine where it was also the story of another artist and I only wish that they could show the movie on IMAX screen so that people can view the paintings clearly.

Here’s the trailer of what I’ve watched in the IMAX: