The Perspective Research Centre builds on a long history of research into perspective, visual knowledge, media, and the organisation of knowledge.
Its intellectual background is closely connected with the work of Professor Kim H. Veltman and the earlier research centres and projects that he directed, including The Perspective Unit, the Maastricht McLuhan Institute, and the Virtual Maastricht McLuhan Institute.
The present PRC continues and develops this legacy by bringing together research on visual, optical, and technical perspective across art, science, technology, media, and spatial representation.
Origins
The roots of the Perspective Research Centre lie in the study of perspective as a subject much broader than drawing technique.
Perspective has traditionally been associated with Renaissance art, linear perspective, and the geometrical representation of space. However, the deeper study of perspective connects many more fields: optics, visual perception, instruments, architecture, photography, cinema, cartography, computer graphics, virtual reality, scientific imaging, media theory, and the history of knowledge.
Professor Kim H. Veltman was one of the key figures who helped develop this broader understanding. His work treated perspective as part of a larger history of seeing, measuring, representing, recording, and communicating the world. Through his research into perspective, Leonardo da Vinci, visual knowledge, cultural heritage, media, and knowledge organisation, he helped show that perspective belongs not only to art history, but also to the wider history of science, technology, and visual culture.
The Perspective Research Centre continues this interdisciplinary approach. It seeks to collect, organise, classify, and develop knowledge about the many forms, systems, principles, and applications of perspective.
A central part of this work is the development of Perspective Category Theory, a classification framework designed to organise the large and complex field of visual, optical, artificial, technical, and simulated perspective.
Timeline
Before 1990 — Foundations in Perspective and Visual Knowledge
The intellectual foundations of the PRC were laid through many years of research into perspective, optics, Leonardo da Vinci, visual systems, media, and the organisation of knowledge.
This work helped establish the idea that perspective should not be understood only as an artistic technique, but as part of a much wider field concerned with vision, representation, measurement, and the structure of visual knowledge.
1990 — The Perspective Unit
Formal research into perspective developed through The Perspective Unit, directed by Professor Kim H. Veltman as part of the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto.
The Perspective Unit explored perspective as an interdisciplinary subject connecting art, science, visual knowledge, media, communication, and cultural history.
1998–2004 — Maastricht McLuhan Institute
The work continued through the Maastricht McLuhan Institute for Digital Culture, Knowledge Organisation and Learning Technology.
This period expanded the research into digital culture, media, knowledge organisation, learning technology, cultural memory, and the future of visual and intellectual resources.
2004–2020 — Virtual Maastricht McLuhan Institute
Following the Maastricht McLuhan Institute, the work continued through the Virtual Maastricht McLuhan Institute.
This virtual research environment preserved and extended many of the themes developed in earlier projects, including perspective, Leonardo studies, media theory, digital culture, knowledge organisation, and cultural heritage.
2020 — Legacy of Professor Kim H. Veltman
Professor Kim H. Veltman died in 2020, leaving behind an extensive intellectual legacy, including books, articles, manuscripts, notes, archives, bibliographies, and research materials connected with perspective and visual knowledge.
The Perspective Research Centre is dedicated in part to preserving, organising, and developing this legacy.
2020 onwards — Perspective Research Centre
The Perspective Research Centre was developed to continue and extend research into perspective as a broad interdisciplinary field.
Its work includes the development of the Library of Perspective, Bibliography of Perspective, Dictionary of Perspective, image resources, study materials, research notes, and a wider classification system for visual, optical, and technical perspective.
The Art and Science of Perspective
The PRC is also developing the book series The Art and Science of Perspective.
The first volume, The Past, Present and Future of Visual and Optical Perspective, introduces the wider field and explains why perspective should be understood as a major subject linking art, science, technology, and visual culture.
The second volume, Dictionary of Perspective, is a specialist reference work containing more than 4,000 terms and approximately 1,200 types and forms of perspective.
Together, these works support the PRC’s long-term aim: to help establish perspective as a major field of visual knowledge.
Continuing Work
The Perspective Research Centre remains an ongoing project.
Its purpose is to gather, preserve, organise, and develop knowledge about perspective across many disciplines. This includes historical research, technical classification, visual examples, educational resources, talks, courses, publications, and new theoretical work.
The long-term aim is to contribute to the emergence of perspective science: a broad field concerned with how space is seen, represented, measured, transformed, and understood.