Where Heaven Meets Earth:
A visual guide for understanding Bulgarian Orthodox Art
This visual mobile learning guide is intended for anyone new to Bulgarian art and culture and are interested in discovering this fascinating culture and history for themselves. This guide includes sections to specifically help you…
• Familiarize yourself with Bulgarian religion, history, and culture
• Understand what an Orthodox icon is and its purpose
• Learn some of the hidden meanings in Orthodox iconography
• Identify common types of saints based on their attributes
• Identify architectural types and important features of Orthodox churches
• Learn how to read the iconographic program of a Bulgarian Orthodox church
This prototype guide was developed as the final component of my thesis project for my MPhil in Digital Humanities and Culture at Trinity College Dublin. It is based on the research and testing I conducted on five mobile apps released by leading international art museums: the Smithsonian Institute, the Prado Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Getty Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. After weighing several options, I decided using Apple’s iBooks software was the best means to “publish” my prototype guide because it is easy to master and seamlessly integrate interactive and other visual elements into a book format that is easily understood by anyone. The guide can be easily exported and distributed as a PDF with the iBooks software. With some minor tweaking it could be submitted for publishing as an iBook for Apple platforms.
Send me an email if you’d like a copy of the original interactive iBook.