Anamorphosis and the Eccentric Observer: Inverted Perspective and Construction of the Gaze

The process known in art as anamorphosis or anamorphic projection is at once a confirmation of and a challenge to the rules of linear perspective and the conventions of representation. In this first part of a two-part series of articles, the author discusses art-historical and psychoanalytic literature in regard to a role for anamorphosis beyond that of perspective theory. In this discussion, particular emphasis is placed upon the viewer actively observing the anamorphosis, introducing what the author describes as the ‘eccentric observer’. The second part of this article, to follow in the next regular issue of Leonardo, will detail modern uses of anamorphosis, with emphasis on contemporary artworks.