Abstract
Inspired by the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death in France on May 2, 1519, Diluvio: Teatro delle
Ombre (Deluge: Theatre of Shadows) offered an interactive and immersive exhibition/installation as part of
Cinquecento: Carleton Celebrates Leonardo da Vinci, the 2019 year-long commemorative initiative at Carleton
University. The project was conceived as the culmination of a series of Diluvio installations from the author’s
Crossings Interdisciplinary Research Collective Workshop offered at the Azrieli School of Architecture and
Urbanism. Overall, the series of projects were inspired by Leonardo’s Deluge drawings and his reflections on the
reciprocal inter-connections within nature as revealed by his studies of the flow of water, air, light, shadows, and
energy. The rich complexity of such phenomena is revealed and experientially encountered by working with the
highly pliable properties of woven aluminum wire-mesh that’s folded into the classic Miura-ori tessellation pattern.
The inherent attributes of this membrane and the sculptural work resulting from this process are revealed through
evocative shadow projections activated by the public within the unlit exhibition space. Inspired by Plato’s Allegory
of the Cave, the immersive experience offered a deluge of self-activated shadow-projections as a way of stirring,
triggering, and thus revealing the highly resonant, fertile and imaginative potential lurking within the theatre of the
mind.
