The 15th and 21st centuries meet: Leonardo Da Vinci’s "Head of a bear" reborn in the metaverse by Hackatao

The main idea behind this “collaboration” between Hackatao and Leonardo Da Vinci is the concept of the continuum, the fractal’s never-ending pattern, the continuous connection, the infinite circularity, the indivisible eternity of art.

This isn’t the story of how we, as art lovers and experts, have always been trying to categorize art and compartmentalize it in boxes for our own pleasure.

This is the story of how Art, that we love and worship so much, is a superior force that knows neither age nor place.

And adjust like that, looking across the continuum of the universe and life, we extracted a tale that dates back to the far 1500 and reaches up to the present day. A tale about the most contemporary art, once known as Renaissance art, today going by the name of crypto art.

While “truly marvellous and celestial was Leonardo”, experimenter and inventor, in the search of the new and hungry for knowledge; so the duo Hackatao has been experimenting with technology, believing in new means for artistic expression as well as in new forms of governance for the art world and the society.

The work “Head of a Bear” by Leonardo is reborn today in the metaverse, through the art of Hackatao, manifesting in its digital nature.

While Leonardo spends his life looking for the truth, Hackatao gives the chance for his creations to come to life and become “real”.

The bear literally gets “hacked” by Hackatao and finds its eternal second life, being forever engraved in the unconscious stream of their oneiric drawings.

This whole process of perpetuation is made possible by the help of technology.

As an umbilical cord, Augmented Reality inseparably links the paper drawing by Leonardo and the 3D model covered in digital drawings by Hackatao.

From now on, at any time people from all over the world will be able to use their digital devices - such as cell phones or ipads - to scan Leonardo’s bear through the use of an App and enjoy the latter to get animated on their screens.

The two souls of the bear, physical and digital, will never be separated again. They won’t exist without each other, the AR will keep them together, whether it is the original drawing by Leonardo to be scanned through AR Aria App, or its digital reproduction on the internet, social media and websites, or its photo printed on a catalog. Anywhere the image of “Head of a Bear” will appear, so will its digital essence, signed by Hackatao.

The transition from Leonardo’s drawing, through the mapped 3D head, to the final digital drawings by Hackatao resembles a wave. The bear’s fur is whirling, inspired by the numerous studies that Leonardo did on natural elements like the water and the air.

Even throughout this very technical metamorphosis from physical to digital, the attention towards nature unites Leonardo and Hackatao. The meticulous observation of that nature, self-learning, the search for answers in experience and experimentation with it.

In the last part of the animation, the bear opens its mouth and we enter its jaws. The tunnel of the “eternal return”, while the animation will forever play in a loop.

Hackatao, Hack of a Bear, 2021

Is an attempt by Hackatao to function as a “conductive” for Art, to put the most contemporary means of creative expression at its service and to fulfill their duties as artists to perpetuate it.

While fluctuating and floating in the infinite flow of Hackatao’s motifs, maybe the Vitruvian Man appears in the shape of a woman, maybe the Monalisa is a Podmork, maybe the Ermine is a fetus hugging his Lady mother.

And perhaps it is time, as Leonardo did in trying to perfect it throughout his life, to "change perspective".

We hope you enjoyed the show.

Eleonora Brizi