Origin of our name
"Looking Awry" is a book by Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, who analyzes modern culture against the backdrop of Lacanian psychoanalytic discourse. In the introduction to his book, Žižek explains:
"This way of ‘looking awry’ at Lacan makes it possible to discern features that usually escape a ‘straightforward’ academic look."
The book also contains a quote from Shakespeare’s Richard II, of a dialogue between Queen Isabel and the king’s servant. The servant tries to explain:
Bushy: Like perspectives which, rightly gaz'd upon, Show nothing but confusion-ey'd awry, Distinguish form.
―Richard II, Act I, Scene II
"Looking awry" is a kind of anamorphosis, a technique of painting that distorts the object such that its true shape is exposed only when viewing it from a certain angle.