The Birth of a Legend

An unquenchable curiosity about the world
An irrepressible craving for true knowledge
An incessant willingness to learn

These are the intuitive primal energy that propels us to recognise our very own Legend.

Leonardo da Vinci, widely recognised as the epitome of a polymath excelling in multiple intelligences, had been curious about the surrounding world since childhood. From birds soaring up the sky, a kitten pacing in a graceful demeanour to everything in the Mother Nature nurtured his hungry mind, prompting him to study the phenomenon of flight, the art of painting, the logic of mathematics, the structure of anatomy and the mysteries of astrology.

Da Vinci kept his curiosity fresh all his life. He explored the world around him unremittingly and he studied every possible subject he could think of in unprecedented depth. Originally trained as a painter, he was deeply fascinated by anatomy that he decided to incorporate the two practices seamlessly into one. His modus operandi is exemplified by his oeuvre, including his most famous work Mona Lisa, depicting human figures in uniquely stylised manner with high level of verisimilitude. Da Vinci was also a hugely successful scientist, working extensively in disciplines like anatomy, mathematics, geology, botany, cartography, architecture and engineering. All his life, he studied in pursuit of not merely excellence but the truth the new that lies beyond the human eye. His insistence and attitude made him the legendary master bridging the two supposedly opposing realms of art and science, the archetypal Renaissance Master with expertise in a wide range of subjects.

HKU SPACE has always strived to promote lifelong learning, aiming at training polymaths with professional knowledge and collective intelligences. To further promote and arouse public awareness upon our philosophy, we launched this campaign themed around the slogan "Live it. Learn it." Based on full-scale interpretations of the quintessentially all-round genius Leonardo da Vinci on various levels, the campaign brings out the polymath in every one of us.

HKU SPACE will keep on providing a versatile and multi-disciplinary learning platform that serves as a source of wisdom for all students — fulfilling their curiosity in the first place while inspiring them with knowledge as time goes by. In the sea of knowledge, through lifelong learning, may we all reveal our very own personal Legend.

The Making of "Live it. Learn it." short film

HKU SPACE has always advocated lifelong learning. To arouse public awareness on our pedagogical philosophy, we themed this campaign around the catchphrase "Live it, Learn it." We also shot a promotional short film for this campaign, the very first of its kind for an higher education institute in Hong Kong, in hopes of visualising our philosophy in light and shadows.

Throughout months of production, from conception to the delivery of the final film, the creative team has been giving their best to achieve the ideal effects we had in mind and to promote the School's philosophy. Let us go behind the scene and listen to what the production crew have to say about the birth of this Legend.

F: Frankie Fung (Group Creative Director)
R: Rachel Chau (Director)

The conception
F: In a less than one minute short film, it is not easy to cover both HKU SPACE's philosophy of lifelong learning and its wide array of subjects and disciplines on offer. After going through a number of options, we decided to follow a narrative that unfolds around an iconic name to deliver the ideas in a multifaceted manner with interesting visuals.

The choice of a hero
F: There really were not a lot of choices. We picked Leonardo da Vinci to be the main character of the short film because of his irrepressible curiosity about the world and his rigorous insistence on making knowledge. He worked hard all his life to achieve unsurpassed success in various fields of study, including fine art, science, engineering, architecture and anatomy. Da Vinci’s unwavering attitude in pursuit of knowledge and his unremitting passion to find the truth match with the philosophy of lifelong education as advocated by HKU SPACE perfectly.

The preparation
F: After picking the main character, we then had to formulate the flow of the film. Our top priority was to bring out the theme of "lifelong learning", and to leave room for the audience's imagination, intriguing them and attracting their attention so as to build a link between the audience and the School. Through Da Vinci’s story, we intended to arouse the curiosity among the audience and get them to start their own journey of lifelong learning.

The characters
F: We could not find any childhood image of Da Vinci despite our extensive research. This definitely added difficulties to our production. At last, we based on Da Vinci's elderly portrait and logically deduced his face as a child. We insisted on depicting Da Vinci as a child, to emphasise that the craving to learn and curiosity are intuitive and inborn. All human beings were born to learn.

In the short film, we intentionally put in the character of a "wise old man" who offered Da Vinci guidance. He is a symbol of the source of wisdom, metaphorically playing the same role as HKU SPACE — offering viable paths to those willing to learn.

The production
R: When I first read the synopsis from Frankie, a poetic medieval set came to mind naturally. I suggested adorning the scene with collage to accentuate Da Vinci's multitude of talents and using curiosity as a tagline that threads through the whole story. With stylised shots through glass bottles and abstracted mood shots of gears, the sky and a forest, we wished to construct a realm of freedom that spawns imagination and creativity.

Regarding the location, we have considered many places in Hong Kong and mainland China, but we settled for La Toscana — a resort in northern Thailand with a medieval Italian theme. We spent almost a month on location scouting and pre-production, just to set things up for the shooting.

We were serious about every detail of the film. Just the casting alone took three rounds and all actors had costumes on for the audition. We rendered the voice over in Italian to address the ethnic roots of the characters. To ensure the voice over sounds natural even to native speakers, we asked the Italian instructors from HKU SPACE to examine over and over again. Background music was there to heighten the mood and the complement the visual content. The original score we used was tailor-made for the film to incorporate the sounds of the nature, such as birds and wind. We hope to bring the audience in line with the senses of a child curious about nature and the world around him this way.

The epilogue
Frankie, the Group Creative Director of an advertising agency who was in charge of this short film, is actually a HKU SPACE Lifelong Learner. He has taken a number of courses at HKU SPACE and he is a keen supporter of the School’s educational aspirations. No wonder the production team was so familiar with our philosophy of lifelong learning.

Live it. Learn it.
Leonardo da Vinci turned himself into a polymath both in fine art and science with his constant curiosity, endless pursuit of knowledge and incessant craving to learn. HKU SPACE keeps on providing a versatile and multi-disciplinary learning platform, so that everyone could be a lifelong learner, to reveal our very own personal Legend.

An animal rights activist
Da Vinci loved animals and they were the sitters in many of his paintings, namely Lady with the Ermine and Madonna with the Cat. Among the sketches he left behind, over 20 of them depicted cats vividly in different poses — sitting, lying and jumping in midair. That tells a lot about his love for cats.

Da Vinci was probably the first vegetarian in fifteenth-century Italy. He equated the killing of any animal that shed blood with murder. He urged men to respect life and not to kill animals for food.

Mirror writing
Maybe because of his left-handedness, Da Vinci wrote most of his personal notes from right to left. His handwriting was laterally reversed and very small. Others had to use a mirror to read it. Most people think he wrote like this to hide his own findings and to avoid being plagiarised. Some think he did it to avoid the Church’s scrutiny on his unorthodox study. Some opine he was dyslexic. Some even say that was his evil shady trait.

Up till now, art connoisseurs still look at his paintings through a mirror, hoping to get a glimpse of the hidden messages in his works. When viewed through a mirror, Mona Lisa is said to reveal the face of a warrior in the painting. Anyhow, Da Vinci was just trying to be himself as an artist with his original thoughts and ideas. Only those who look at his works with heart will be able to decipher the meanings and contemplate the essence.

A daring non-conformist
Da Vinci was a keen learner and he never stopped questioning the traditional doctrines and theories of his time, looking for truth in his own way. The medieval Church strictly forbade the dissection of human corpses. Only a very few number of corpses were available for dissection by scholars. Dissection of pregnant women was particularly a taboo. Da Vinci did not care much how others see him and he feared no punishment. That was how he succeeded in documenting the world's first anatomical drawing of a human pregnant uterus.

Thanks to his courage to break with tradition and his insistence on finding the truth, Da Vinci left behind a vast repertoire of artworks and scientific inventions of great value to his contemporaries and the modern people alike. His courage and insistence are something for every one of us to learn.

Through these stories, we want to stress that all humans are born with an intuitive craving to make knowledge, just like Da Vinci who kept his curiosity fresh all his life. He created his timeless Legend with his insightful views and meticulous analysis on everything he did, with his unparalleled courage and adventurous mind to explore the unknown territory. Let us create our own personal Legends by learning and asking in the sea of knowledge.