PERSPECTIVE RESEARCH CENTRE
The Perspective Research Centre is a research and educational centre focused on the visual dimensions of Art, Science, Technology and Culture.
The PRC seeks rational insight into the various technical methods, plus practical applications, of perspective, and associated visual media.
A basic goal is to gather what is known on perspective in the form of a library, museum, encyclopedia, plus comprehensive bibliography of perspective as developed in Western cultures. Alternative methods in non-Western cultures—aspective, inverted, axial, curvilinear, and parallel perspectives—are also studied.
By collecting, developing, linking, and applying the theories, principles, and methods of perspective, the PRC can support knowledge organisation, education, and technology development across a range of scientific, artistic, cultural, and environmental disciplines.
ORIGINS
The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) has a rich 30-year history.
The PRC developed from three past organisations. Firstly, founder Professor Kim H. Veltman was Scientific Director of The Perspective Unit—which began research work on perspective formally as part of the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto in Canada (1990).
Then later, the Unit became the Maastricht McLuhan Institute for Digital Culture, Knowledge Organisation and Learning Technology [MMI] (1998-2004), and finally, from 2004 until the sad passing of Kim in 2020, it became the Virtual Maastricht McLuhan Institute.
Legacy non-interactive copies of the old organisation websites are here: Virtual Maastricht McLuhan Institute, Perspective Unit, plus Maastricht McLuhan Institute. Enjoy!
For over 30 years, Kim Veltman was the world’s number one expert on Technical Perspective. He was also a leading scholar of Leonardo da Vinci, new media, and the history of the alphabet. Kim fervently studied the past—so that we might better shape the future conscientiously for the benefit of humanity.
The PRC shall continue this work with a critical focus: auspicious application of—and open access to—perspective knowledge across art, science and culture. PRC can do so, having been passed all of Kim’s scientific legacy from the VMMI, including his libraries on perspective, new media, and Leonardo da Vinci.
PRC director Dr Alan Radley was a close friend and colleague of Kim for over 20 years. Accordingly, Alan is well placed to continue this tradition of scholarly exploration.
In 2020 Alan was made a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
PARTNERS
The Perspective Research Centre (PRC), and its past incarnations, have received significant help from many sources. The only reason we can offer, today at the PRC, open access to such a remarkable collection of perspective resources; is thanks to the support of key partners. For example, the Perspective Unit at the University of Toronto had an original budget of over one million US dollars (2 million today), and a full-time staff of 15 people. Later the McLuhan Institute at the University of Maastricht supplied an increased budget and similar staffing levels.
A sampling of organisations that have supported us financially over the past 30 years, specifically to develop the library, bibliography, encyclopedia, and museum of perspective include: the universities of Toronto, Cambridge, York, London, Gottingen, Rome, Carlton, and Maastricht.
Plus, we have received financial support from the Association of Interactive Communication (ALAIPO), the Welcome and Warburg Institutes, Bell Labs, Nortel Networks, the Vatican, the Getty Centre for the History of Art, Herzog August Bibliothek (HAB Wolfenbüttel), and the European Union E-Culture Network.
Further financial support has been provided by the province of Ontario, the Welcome Trust, the Volkswagen Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt and Thyssen Foundations, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Autodesk, GTE, Matrix Technologies, Softdesk, Vectar, the Information Technology Research Centre (ITRC), the Canadian Heritage Information Network, Cultech, and the Faculty of Education (Toronto).
We thank all of these parties who have provided significant help that has allowed us to make considerable progress towards our ambitious aim of gathering together everything known on perspective, vision, and related spatial topics.
Today our work continues, as we strive to progress our goal of a single route of access to all knowledge on the seminal topic of perspective.
PEOPLE
The Perspective Research Centre (PRC), and its earlier incarnations, have been supported by the help of many outstanding persons.
This site is dedicated to my dear friend Professor Kim Veltman (1948-2020) and his incredible scientific legacy, which we endeavour to continue.
This site is dedicated to Professor Ingetraut Dahlberg (1927-2017) and her idea for Universal Order of Knowledge across all subjects.
This site is dedicated to my dear friend Professor Francisco V. C. Ficarra, who kindly supports these efforts. You can learn more about Francisco and his work here: www.alaipo.com.
This site is also dedicated to Professor Luigi Vagnetti (1915-1980), renowned Italian Architect and design theorist, for his invaluable help towards building the PRC’s comprehensive Bibliography of Perspective.
This site is also dedicated to Professor B.A.R. Carter (1909-2006), Professor of Perspective at both the Slade School and the Royal Academy. He was untiring in his patient advice and help in building the PRC’s Encyclopaedia and Bibliography of Perspective.
This site is also dedicated to Professor Sir Ernst Gombrich (1936-2001), who supervised Kim Veltman’s doctoral thesis and made him aware of the psychological dimensions of the topic.
This site is also dedicated to Professor Marshall McCluhan (1911-1980), the renowned media theorist who provided invaluable support during the early stages of PRC project(s).
This site is also dedicated to Professor Kenneth Keele (1909-1987), who was president of the Royal Society of Medicine and keeper of the Leonardo da Vinci manuscripts for the Queen.
The PRC has been supported by remarkable people, including Nel and Ger, Francisco V.C. Ficarra, Ellen Radley, Chris Green, and Nigel Pugh.
We are grateful to the following people: Sir Ernst Gombrich, Professor Kenneth Keele, Professor Marshall McLuhan, Professor B.A.R Carter, Professor A.C. Crombie, Professor R.A. Weale, Professor Luigi Vagnetti, Professor Frederik Andres, Professor Jaap van Till, Professor Francisco V. C. Ficarra, Dr Eric McLuhan, Dr Richard Dolen, Corinne McLuhan, Alexander G. Bielowski, David Fabish, Michael Kupka, Michael Hackl, Nino Nien, Maximus Kuptsov, Andrew Kotov, Zoya Ignonia, Jonathan Shekter, Jordan Christensen, David Pritchard, Avanindra Utukuri, Andrew McCutcheon, Sean Graham, Ming Lin, and Joseph Makush.
Perspective Research Centre 