This page was created by Emilia Porubcin. The last update was by Christina J. Hodge.
How to Use This Website
Scalar is an interactive web platform designed for media-rich scholarly publishing. It presents text, images, and other digital media in ways that highlight relationships and encourage self-directed exploration.
Using Scalar
In Our Dark Materials, we use Scalar's tools to emphasize non-linear understandings and multiple connections that go beyond the limits of a physical museum exhibit. When exploring this publication, it may be helpful to know more about the ways Scalar organizes information.- Paths: Linear sequences of content, like a reading a book start to finish or following an outline. Paths are sequential and can be hierarchical. They are visualized in several ways, including lists; forward/backward arrows; and branching diagrams that look like a family tree.
- Tags: Non-linear groupings of content, associated by concepts such as keywords. Contents can have multiple tags. These links create a network that can be visualized as a dynamic web of nodes and connections.
- Clicking the three-lined button at the upper left of the screen will drop down the Table of Contents menu for this site.
- Clicking the "Index" box icon at the bottom of the Table of Contents will take you to a listing of terms used on this site, which can be used for quick navigation.
- Clicking the compass button in the upper left of the screen will show you recent places; allow you to explore alternate visualizations for site content; or learn more about the Scalar platform.
Navigating Our Dark Materials
The three primary landing pages—Materials, People, and Themes—visualize the knowledge assembled for Our Dark Materials in different ways.- Materials: A path visualization, which follows the static, hierarchical structure of a physical exhibit.
- People: A networked visualization created by comments, in which hyperlinks connecting one person's biography page to another's create a web of biographical connections.
- Themes: A networked visualization created by tags, which reveals thematic links across objects and material types.