The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) is a research and educational centre focused on perspective and the visual dimensions of art, science, and technology.
The PRC collects materials on the history, theory and applications of perspective, vision, imaging, projection methods, and spatial concepts. It uses electronic media to explore new approaches to knowledge and education.
Dr Alan Radley FRSA | Scientific Director
alan@perspectiveresearchcentre.com
alansradley@gmail.com
Perspective Research Centre
www.perspectiveresearchcentre.com
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).
Later, the Perspective 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 past websites are here:
Kim Veltman
Everything we do flows from the work of Professor Kim Veltman (1948-2020).
Kim H. Veltman was scientific director of VMMI (Virtual Maastricht McLuhan Institute); author and consultant on implications of new media for scholarship, culture and society. He taught at the universities of Gottingen, Rome, Carleton; was director of the Perspective Unit, McLuhan Program, Toronto (1990-1996), and director of the Maastricht McLuhan Institute (1998-2004). He worked as a consultant in new media for the CEO of Bell Media (1996-1998), and for the director of advanced technologies at Nortel Networks (1995-1998).
Kim Veltman was a colleague of the renowned new media scholar Professor Marshall McLuhan, Art historian Sir Ernst Gombrich; and Leonardo scholar Professor Kenneth Keele (keeper of the Leonardo da Vinci manuscripts for the Queen), plus Kim worked closely with human vision experts Professor(s) B.A.R Carter, A.C. Crombie plus R.A. Weale.
Kim’s life-long quest—as an impassioned cartographer of knowledge—was to study general and particular Things in their broadest, deepest and most essential patterned relations; whilst disclosing the same in erudite publications to enable their auspicious application in a wide range of circumstances.
PRC maintains the official archive of Professor Kim Veltman’s lifetime publications. This incredible knowledge bank consists of several million words on perspective, Leonardo da Vinci, old and new media, and the alphabet’s history. Kim’s writings are spread across over 400 publications, including 20 books; 4 major treatises; an unpublished treaty manuscript on Leonardo’s optics (1200 pages); 82 chapters in books; 24 papers in refereed journals; 84 articles, 16 reviews, and 10 vision statements. Plus, we hold extensive records, including design plans and full patent details, on Kim’s visionary System for Universal Multimedia Searching (SUMS).
An obituary on Kim appeared in Knowledge Organisation journal (47, 2020, No.6): Kim Veltman.pdf
Alan Radley
Alan Radley is scientific director of the Perspective Research Centre.
Alan holds a Ph.D. in Physics from University College London, where he worked as a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at Mill Hill Observatory in London. He has worked as a research fellow at the Maastricht McLuhan Institute and senior scientist at NASA/ESA.
Alan has developed innovative optical designs for cameras, telescopes, spectrographs, 3D displays, and new concepts surrounding eyesight amplification. Currently, he is interested in visual hypergrams/hypergraphics, new imaging formats, knowledge access/integration/organisation, and interactive image querying/linkage/sequencing/navigation.
Alan is the author of several patents, including one granted for the ‘Hologram Mirror’. He has developed the Global-Opt optical modelling software, the Spectasia 3D user interface, and KeyMail, together amounting to over 300,000 lines of code. Alan has been the editor of 6 computing handbooks, is the author of 8 books, and is currently writing 3 more. Plus, he has authored 6 full chapters in books, and is the author of over 20 articles/papers in conference proceedings.
Alan is the author of Self As Computer, and The Science of Smart Things. His book The Science of Cybersecurity was shortlisted for the National Cybersecurity Book Awards in 2022. Forthcoming books include The Universal Knowledge Machine, and The Art and Science of Perspective.
Alan holds a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
Partners
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 a dedicated suite of rooms, full-time staff and state-of-the-art equipment. Later this became the McLuhan Institute at the University of Maastricht.
A sampling of organisations that have supported us financially over the past 30 years, specifically to develop the Library, Bibliography, Encyclopedia, and Dictionary 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 in Toronto, Canada.
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 my dear friend Professor Francisco V. C. Ficarra, who kindly supports these efforts. We have been helped by remarkable people, including Ger van Dijck, Nel (Petronella Hendrika Dirkje Roodenburg), Graciete Amaro, Nigel Pugh, Chris and Ruth Green.
This site is also dedicated to Professor Ingetraut Dahlberg (1927-2017) and her idea for universal order of knowledge across all subjects. 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.
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, Franz Nahrada, 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 
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