Perspective Research Centre

ABOUT THE CENTRE & OUR PURPOSE

The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) unifies knowledge of perspective across art, optics, geometry, architecture, photography, film, computer graphics, virtual reality and artificial intelligence within a single interdisciplinary resource.

For centuries, perspective has occupied a central place in human knowledge, yet it has never been established as a distinct field of study. Its principles, terminology, types and phenomena remain scattered across disciplines, while important relationships remain poorly documented or incompletely understood. PRC brings this knowledge together by resolving conflicting terminology, correcting errors and misconceptions, and organising the field through its Perspective Category Theory, supported by a research corpus exceeding five million words.

WHAT IS PERSPECTIVE?

Perspective extends far beyond the familiar method of linear perspective drawing. It concerns how objects, spaces, views and images are seen, formed, measured and represented through natural, graphical, mathematical, instrumental, simulated and digital means.

Its principles extend across art, optics, geometry, architecture, astronomy and surveying, and remain fundamental to photography, cinema, cartography, scientific imaging, computer graphics, visual perception, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and other technologies of vision.

PERSPECTIVE STUDIED AS A WHOLE

Perspective provides an intellectual prism through which to explore vision, projection, perception and representation. Developed through more than 40 years of research, PRC’s Perspective Category Theory organises the field through systematic terminology, classification and navigation. It enables readers to consult individual resources, follow connected pathways or explore the subject in depth to uncover new relationships, meanings and solutions.