Digital Taxonomy App

The second brief was based on taxonomy, which dealt with classification of information to make it accessible and favourable for the user. In this case, the taxonomy design was based on the elements in the iconography, specifically the semiotics. The source for this simplification was derived partly from the archeological analysis by R Nagaswamy in his book Gangikondacholapuram and the four volumes of TA Gopinath Rao’s Elements of Hindu Iconography. The two broad categories were the sculptural elements and the anthropomorphic figures. Illustration 11 depicts the taxonomy used for conceptualising the prototypes.

Taxonomy of sculptural elements

Taxonomy of anthropomorphic elements This approach was implemented and digitized in the form of a phone application which could be used by the user on site as well as virtually, to break down and understand the symbolism of each element. For each element, three categories of information were chosen, as described in fig x. The focus, in this tool, was to maintain simplicity inorder to keep the participants interested in the content whilst also not restricting their interaction with the physical space.

Digital App for taxonomy