Ontology
Concepts
An open semantic index of the themes, techniques, materials and ideas behind the studio's work. Designed for humans — and for machines that want to understand us properly.
Machine-readable: llms.txt, knowledge graph, concepts API.
mathematical concept(1)
optical phenomenon(2)
Anamorphosis is a technique in which an image is deliberately distorted so it resolves into its true form only from one specific viewpoint or when reflected in a curved mirror.
Sculpture that uses optical illusion as its primary medium rather than as a trick — central to Jonty Hurwitz's work, where perceptual distortion is the material of the art itself.
People(1)
perceptual effect(2)
Optical illusion is the primary medium of Jonty Hurwitz's practice — works that exploit the mechanisms of human visual perception to produce forms that transform, resolve, or exist only under specific conditions of observation.
The single precise position from which a distorted anamorphic form resolves into its intended image — the technical and conceptual fulcrum of Jonty Hurwitz's sculptures.
philosophical concept(2)
The philosophical and structural condition in which an artwork exists as intended only from one precise viewpoint — the conceptual core of Jonty Hurwitz's practice, making the observer a co-author of the work.
The treatment of optical illusion not as a visual trick but as the primary artistic material — the foundational approach distinguishing Jonty Hurwitz's sculpture.
Series(3)
Limited-edition prints, sculptures and reproductions of Jonty Hurwitz's anamorphic and optical-illusion works, available to purchase directly and by commission.
Optical-illusion paint-by-numbers are fine-art kits for adults based on Jonty Hurwitz's anamorphic and illusion artworks, sold direct and as science-museum shop merchandise.
Jonty Hurwitz holds the Guinness World Record for the smallest sculpture of a human form — a nano-scale figure measuring 80 × 100 × 30 micrometres, created using multiphoton lithography.
technique(7)
Anamorphic sculpture is a three-dimensional work that looks abstract from most angles and resolves into a recognisable image only from one exact viewpoint or in a mirror.
Anamorphic art works by distorting an image with a precise geometric mapping, so it only resolves into its true form from one exact viewpoint or when reflected in a curved mirror.
Mirror (catoptric) anamorphosis is a technique in which a distorted image on a flat surface resolves into its true form only when reflected in a curved, usually cylindrical, mirror.
The laser-based nano-fabrication technique Jonty Hurwitz uses to create the world's smallest sculptures, building three-dimensional form with sub-micron precision.
Figurative sculpture created at microscopic scale, pioneered as an art form by Jonty Hurwitz, whose nano works are invisible to the naked eye and viewable only under electron microscopy.
A drawing practice in which Jonty Hurwitz uses a polargraph — a pen suspended between two motors, guided by mathematical coordinates — to translate portraits into thousands of algorithmic marks. Each work emerges gradually from a field of lines: recognisable as a human form from a distance, dissolving into pure abstraction up close.
A sculptural and artistic approach central to Jonty Hurwitz's practice in which works are constructed from sequential geometric layers — each existing independently as a fragment and collectively as a unified whole — requiring the viewer to actively reconstruct meaning from incomplete information.
Themes(2)
Jonty Hurwitz's practice of giving every artwork two parallel, equally authoritative readings — one artistic, one scientific — reflecting his dual identity as artist and scientist.
Science art is work made authentically inside both disciplines at once, art that is also rigorous science, as opposed to art that merely illustrates scientific themes.