The Map Key explains how to read the interactive navigation maps used throughout the Perspective Research Centre. Each map places the page you are viewing within a wider network of related subjects, so you can see both where you are and where you can go next.
The maps do not simply reproduce the website menu. They show relationships within the subject of perspective itself: broader topics above, more specialised topics below, and related or comparable topics alongside.
- Highlighted topic — normally the page or subject you are currently viewing.
- Above — broader subjects, parent topics, classes or categories.
- Below — narrower subjects, child topics, forms, phenomena, processes or applications.
- Alongside — sibling topics, neighbouring concepts or subjects at a comparable level.
- Lines, arrows and grouping — show routes or relationships between topics. Their exact arrangement varies according to the subject being mapped.
Colour: the current topic is normally highlighted so that its position can be recognised immediately, often in yellow. Other colours may distinguish different branches, levels or groups of subjects; their precise use can vary from one map to another.
Three Ways to Move Through a Map
Move up to place a subject within a broader category, class, system or theoretical context.
Move down to explore the subject in greater detail through its types, forms, phenomena, processes, functions, applications or associated concepts.
Move sideways to compare neighbouring or related subjects occupying a similar position within the wider structure.
Most labelled boxes or topics are clickable. Selecting one takes you directly to the corresponding page, where another navigation map may continue the route.
Analytical Levels Used on PRC Maps
The seven analytical levels shown below are one analytical/display mode used by PRC navigation maps. In this mode, a perspective system, process, image or result is displayed according to the level at which it is being analysed.
Other maps may use different display modes where these are more appropriate to the subject being shown. These include, for example, category modes, in which the map is organised around relationships between perspective categories rather than analytical levels.
Not every navigation map uses all seven levels. A map shows only the relationships needed to locate and explore the particular subject represented on that page.
What the Maps Are For
PRC navigation maps are designed to make the structure of perspective visible. They connect subjects across geometry, optics, vision, images, classification, history, theory, applications and professional practice, including relationships that may not be obvious from the website menu alone.
Use the Map Key when you need to interpret a navigation map quickly and understand the relationships shown between topics.
Note on structure: the relationships shown in these maps should not be read as fully formal or strictly ontologically correct concept trees. They are practical navigation and display structures designed to make relationships within perspective easier to see and explore. PRC intends progressively to redesign and refine these maps so that their hierarchies and conceptual relationships move closer to a more rigorous ontological structure in the future.