Krasilnikova Ekaterina I.. COMMEMORATION OF THE CONFRONTATION: THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORY’S LOCI ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR IN THE CITIES OF SIBERIA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 3 (17). P. 57-75

The article is aimed to describe the system of memory places existing in the cities of Siberia and being connected with the history of the Civil War (1918– 1922). There is determined the value of monument as an important systemforming component of the urban environment, expressing the value attitude of society, both to the global and local historical past. The importance of monument as a brand of a city and a region is emphasized. The conditions of functioning of the memorial as a memory place, expressing a variety of meanings and associated with the actual historical memory of the local community. The tendency of gradual oblivion of Civil war in Siberia and transformation of memorials in the historical places, which are not connected with live social memory is revealed. The main characteristics of the existing memorial infrastructure in Siberian cities related to the Civil War are established. These ones are a weak connection between the symbolic solution of monuments and the place of events that they perpetuate; separation from the modern scientific reflection on the Civil War in Siberia; fixation of the confrontation of ideological opponents and their principled intransigence; the lack of initiatives aimed at perpetuating the memory of the numerous non-heroic victims of the war. A series of proposals aimed at the transformation of the memorial infrastructure of the Civil War in the cities of Siberia in the context of the memorable date of the 100th anniversary of its inception there is made on behalf of the Novosibirsk community of historians. It is proposed to abandon the memorial symbols that express the reconciliation of opponents, because in fact it did not take place. There is a call to find new memorial forms that do not glorify the complex past, but express the humanistic sense of recognition of the tragedy, which should not be repeated. A new phase of memorialization of the Civil war in Siberia must be associated with the recognition of numerous unheroic victims among the civilian population, which are now forgotten. It is also noted that the actualization of the memory of the Civil war can help to solve the problems of branding of the cities of the region to create positive images of Siberia in the public consciousness of its inhabitants.

Keywords: commemoration, memorialization, politics of memory, monument, consensus, Civil War, cities of Siberia

Genisaretsky Oleg Igorevich STRUCTURE OF VISUAL PROGRAMS IN GRAPHIC DESIGN // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 1 (1). P. 100-105

Theses of the report prepared in 1975 below are published. The author of this report focuses on the eidetic (meaning-conformable) characteristics of visual programs and design-objects that are created during the implementation of these programs. To achieve this goal, the author examines the programs and visualization objects on the background of eidetic space, which the author found in mode of life. In addition to these theoretical issues, the author considered and those problems which relate to the method of constructing visual programs for creating design-objects – taking into account the proposed interpretation of visual installation.

Keywords: design, visual object, visual installation, eidetic space, project activities

Tabakaev Philipp Konstantinovich THE METHODOLOGY APPROACHES TO RESEARCHING AND FORMING PLACE IMAGE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 3 (5). P. 128-136

In this article the methodological aspects of the study of the place image are presented, the specific features of their formation are researched. Based on the review of the contemporary foreign and native literature, the specific features of quality and quantity methods in the branch of territorial marketing, place image policy and place branding are analyzed. A variety of research methods depicts a complex and interdisciplinary nature of the territory image policy research. The paper also shows the peculiarities of application of statistic, semantic and psychological methods of research. The image policy as a government strategy can be successfully implicated due to the usage of quality methods (interview, Delphi method, focus groups, the repertory grid technique) on the initial stage of creation of the place image and the usage of quantity methods (ranking, surveys, statistical methods) on further stages.

Keywords: place image, place image policy, methods, marketing, management

Pisarev Alexander Aleksandrovich STS AND THE POSSIBLE FUTURE OF THE SCIENCE MUSEUM: TOWARDS A NEW KUNSTKAMMER // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 4 (30). P. 131-185

The article analyzes the representation of science in science and technology museums and centers, and outlines the possible concept of a museum of technoscience that would compensate their limitations and omissions. In contrast, the museum of technoscience is not dedicated to what scientists know about nature, but to how they get this knowledge, how it exists and is applied, that is, to metascientific issues. To meet this challenge, the new museum should be based on the ideas of Science and Technology Studies (STS), and of the History and Philosophy of Science. It is likely that today the path of reason to maturity should pass not only through scientific education, but also through metascientific education, that is, through STS and the History and Philosophy of Science. The first part of the article describes the general logic and context of the representation of science and technology in actual science and technology museums and centers. The main aims of such museums and centers are to contribute to increasing the public understanding of science and the attractiveness of professions in the STEM field. These aims are usually achieved by focusing on pure science at the expense of applied science and engineering. Technology is represented as an unproblematized “application” of knowledge. There is also little talk about the structure of scientific production of knowledge, mainly the scientific method is communicated. This approach is being critically analyzed. Among other issues, the naturalization and idealization of knowledge, double invisibility of authorship (science in relation to knowledge, museum in relation to the exhibition) are criticized. Arguments are given in favor of the desirability of addressing the discussion of the structure of science and technology based on the results of science and technology studies. It involves the creation of a museum or exhibition that would complement existing museums and science centers. Its working name is the museum of technoscience. The second part of the article describes the possible conception of the technoscience museum. Examples of topics are given, some principles of the organization are revealed: double vision, reassembling of the subject, museum position and audience, museum as a bricoleur, museum as a forum. These principles bring the museum of technoscience closer to the kunstkammer in contrast to modern museums of science. The historization of existing forms of science and technology is discussed as one of the possible approaches to the construction of the exposition. Les Immatériaux (1985) by J.-F. Lyotard and Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art (2002) by B. Latour can serve as landmarks from the history of exhibitions. In conclusion, the conception of the museum of technoscience is summarized in a set of values: productive ignorance, criticism, diversity, controversiality.

Keywords: science museum, science and technology center, science and technology studies, history of science, society, practical philosophy, public understanding of science, technoscience, technoscience museum

Volkova Elena Vladimirovna ICON IN A MUSEUM: VISUAL ORDER OF EXHIBITING AS FORM OF INTERPRETATION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 193-207

The article examines the historical trends in icons display throughout the entire period of its existence as a museum object. Museum display of icons which started about a century and a half ago has always reflected relations between museum, society and power as well as changes in understanding of the phenomenon of a museum item as such. Throughout all this time, the status of an icon in a museum space, its interpretation and various ways of display have always been under discussion. The uniqueness of an icon lies in the fact that it gives a vivid opportunity to trace the transformation of meaning of an object when it becomes a museum item, i.e. is transferred from one context to another. The present museum analysis declares that museum is not a neutral storage space for monuments or information. It actively shapes the frames of perception, endows the exhibits with meaning and even grants them the status of the norm and obviousness, actively forming cultural identity. When an object is removed from its initial environment and included in a museum exhibition as a museum item it loses its original meaning, thus acquiring a new, different interpretation. The display policies and museum design have always been the tools with which a museum developed new meanings. As for icons, the opportunity to trace the change of their meaning depending on the ways of display is of interest. For example, how an icon is removed from the sacral context and acquires its secular meaning, how the sacral context is recreated within the secular space of a museum exhibition. Several periods can be distinguished in the history of museum existence of icons. In the 19th-century display the icon detached itself from its sacral space and was regarded as an object for collecting or academic research, thus confirming the value of rational perception. In the early 20th century, museums made first attempts to return to icons their sacral context, but not the ceremonial one, but the philosophic and esthetic. In the 1930s, the exhibitions maximally levelled both the connection of an icon with its native sacral context and its interpretation as a philosophic and esthetic phenomenon. It turned into a historical document, an illustration for educational stories or ideological thesis. By the end of the 20th century, Old Russian Painting items were perceived as masterpieces of art affording an opportunity of aesthetic enjoyment. The current approach synthesizes all previously used ways of display. Nevertheless, placement of icons into their sacral contexts recreated by means of various exhibition methods has become common practice. Thus, all the above mentioned ways of display of icons at different stages of their museum existence show, nevertheless, certain recurrence. Under their impact, an icon is perceived either as a sacral or a profane object. Explanations underlying the exhibition methods of sacralization/desacralization of icons were certainly absolutely different, though they don’t hamper the ability to see typological similarities between common strategies. For all that, only the values forming predominant visual strategies of particular time can influence display practices.

Keywords: museum design, boundary, icon, context, display policies, sacral, secular.

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich VISUAL CONNOTATIONS IN SEMANTICS OF PERSONALITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 3 (5). P. 28-53

The article accentuated the problem of clarifying the meaning of the basic anthropological terms. Science сonvention in anthropological terminology is one of the conditions for the development of knowledge about a man, because it ensures the maintenance of a communicative nature of anthropology. An analytical approach is required to solve this problem. This approach takes into account the historical and cultural transformation of the meaning of the term, the impact of the context of its use on its value. The article analyzes one of the key anthropological terms: “personality”. The author finds that the term was originally associated with visual semantic connotations that persist or evolve along with the development of anthropological reflection. Thus, in the ancient culture the word πρόσωπον depending on the time, the circumstances and the context means the following: 1) an appearance; 2) a face; 3) a mask; 4) a character; 5) a role; 6) an actor. The Latin persona has these meanings. In the Christian culture, this word loses its “theatrical” meaning. Token of the term πρόσωπον are now concentrated around the two semantic points: a) an appearance; b) a particular subject (“who”). The shift in emphasis from the “person-mask” for “person-hypostasis” reflects a radical transformation of thinking about a man associated with the transfer from ancient cosmological paradigm for Christian personalist platform on the basis of which a person as visible acquires a special existential depth and unique value.

Keywords: anthropology, term, meaning, personality, visual aspects

Gorbacheva Anna Gennadevna INTERCHANGE OF VISUAL INFORMATION AND SHORT MESSAGES AS A CONTEMPORARY TYPE OF NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 133-139

We consider such a type of contemporary network communications as interchange of visual information and short messages which became popular due to availability of photo- and video-cameras, rapid and cheap connections, and drastic increase of life pace. We characterize these communications, analyze the reasons behind their popularity, study and predict their influence on people’s life and people themselves. We give some arguments in favor of decrease of the role which human language plays in our life as a mean of data transmission

Keywords: visual communications, Internet, information technologies, language

Simyan Tigran Serzhikovitch VISUALIZATION OF THE ARMENIAN EPOS IN THE URBAN SPACE (BY EXAMPLE YERVAND KOCHAR) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 3 (9). P. 82-96

In this article the principles of the Armenian epos visualization in urban space are analyzed. The material for the analysis is the work of the Armenian sculptor, People’s Artist of USSR Ervand Kochar. The thesis of this article is: Armenian epos is always in the field of the collective consciousness of Armenians and is visualized in the “high” art always reflexively and on a deep level – according to the “laws” of the art. The main methodological premise of understanding the material became semiotics and discourse analysis. The analysis of empirical material showed that the Kochar’s sculpture, dedicated to the epic hero David of Sasun, is a strong marker of the Armenian epos in the urban space and is many times multiplexed in the Soviet and post-Soviet period. In the historical perspective, analysis of the sculpture in the context of the epic has been interpreted in different ways at diverse times, and the “fate” of the statue and the artist Kochar became a prominent “sign” indicating the realities of the Soviet period and the post-Soviet Armenia.

Keywords: epic visualization, urban space, public space, collective memory, the Soviet and post-Soviet era, the epic, the Armenian epos, postfolklor, semiotic translation, interpretation of the epics, equestrian statue, sculpture

Bryzgalina Elena Vladimirovna SELF-TRACKING AS A SKETCH OF DIGITAL MEDICINE AND AN OBJECT OF EPISTEMIC ANALYSIS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 3 (29). P. 55-82

Self-tracking is a phenomenon of digital medicine that allows highlighting trends in the development of medicine as a science and a health care sector. Self-tracking as a sketch is an opportunity to see the features of a future picture already in a gesture drawing. Self-tracking is considered as a social practice of using digital technologies to collect, monitor and evaluate significant medical quantitative parameters of the bodily state and mental status. At the same time, self-tracking is one of the manifestations of the modern phenomenon of corporeality quantification. Against the background of the growing importance of self-control in medicine of the 21st century, digitalization is changing the practice of monitoring bodily states from the perspective of managing them. However, the key subjects of medicine are not uniformly related to self-tracking. Special devices and applications for self-tracking purposes have a wide range of applications, and the practice of using them for self-monitoring generates many contradictions and becomes the subject of analysis in various subject areas, from medicine to philosophy. An epistemic analysis of self-tracking is associated with the consideration of the status of knowledge that arises within the framework of digital self-monitoring and self-control. The result of self-tracking is a data pool characterized by such features as: connection with the individual body and the world of a specific person acting as a producer of knowledge; practical focus on self-management of the subject’s daily behavior; objectivity ascribed by the subject, which becomes the basis for legitimizing changes in behavior. Consideration of self-tracking in the context of civic science allows us to record the formation of new options for conceptualizing the relationship between science and society. Self-tracking has the features of a personal science and requires clarification of real and practical forms of interaction between civil and institutionalized science, as well as an assessment of the prospects for dialogue between them. The conditions for the existence of knowledge that arise as a result of self-tracking are associated with several basic positions. First, it is an analysis of the personal epistemic goals of the self-tracking subject, which vary widely from pragmatic medical indications to self-knowledge: a complex interweaving of goal-setting. With the self-identification of a person using digital technologies of self-examination and self-control, the basis of self-determination is replaced: from self-awareness to a quantitative determination that depends on the social, axiological context of measurement modes. The predominance of visuality with “quantified self” nevertheless leaves room for a departure from reductionism and a high level of understanding of the integrity of the subject in a wide cultural and social context. This actualizes the task of an adequate methodology and conceptual apparatus for combining quantitative and qualitative parameters. The knowledge that has become the result of self-tracking for the subject can be a factor and manifestation of a change in the model of communication between a doctor and a patient in the direction of antipaternalism when approving the interpretation of health as a management project. In the context of “opportunities-limitations”, self-tracking makes it possible to clearly record the request for conceptualizing the relationship between individual responsibility and the role of the state and society in matters of protecting individual and public health. Social practices of self-tracking are associated with an increased participation of subjects in obtaining meaningful medical information, which, on the one hand, opens up opportunities for self-control and management of their own health, and, on the other hand, leads to the emergence of additional channels for managing human behavior with an emphasis on social normativity. Gamification, visualization, involvement in target social groups increase the attractiveness of self-tracking practices, which in turn blurs the line between the private and the public. The inclusion of medical self-monitoring in the economic sphere leads to the emergence of the “digital labor” phenomenon. At the moment, arguments in favor of the development of digital medicine technologies, as well as concerns and fears, lie in the plane of potential benefits and potential risks; there is no sufficient empirical basis for generalizations; the positions of various stakeholders of the process are not explicitly indicated. A critical attitude to the development of self-control technologies is based on arguments about the impossibility of achieving the stated goals through self-tracking, about the availability of alternatives to digital self-control, about the threat to those fundamental values that underlie the bioethical regulation of biomedicine in the late 20th – early 21st centuries. The social practice of self-tracking is ahead of its epistemic analysis, which should include not only the analysis of the status of knowledge in the light of the declared and achieved goals, the means used for this and the real spheres of application of the results of self-description and self-control. Conceptualization should also be aimed at identifying the conditions for the possibility of obtaining and applying knowledge in a wide social context that arises during the medicalization of all spheres of society.

Keywords: philosophy of medicine, digital medicine, digital healthcare, digital health, self-tracking, mobile healthcare

Shcherbinina Nina Garrevna FEATURES OF POSITIONING OF THE CITY AS A BRAND IN THE DIGITAL AGE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 3 (17). P. 192-201

The paper deals with the positioning of the city in a new communicative situation. The social construction of the city’s reality in the form of a discussion on its distinctive features has begun to play a special role. The branding is achieved through giving and maintaining a brand values. Through this communication, a city acquires an identity, distinguishing it from other cities. Today, the very nature of positioning changes when the message in post-modern conversation is given the character of the intertext. Then branding is the management of brand communication in order to make it recognizable and successful. This means that the brand value is communicated to it not only by the brand managing authority, but also by the actively perceiving party. Identity here is the resultant constructive activity of society, forming an adequate model of a sustainable image of the brand of the city.

Keywords: city brand, city image, new communicative situation, positioning, branding, conversation / discussion, social construction of the city as a brand

Gornova Galina Vladimirovna VISUAL SEMIOTICS OF CITY IDENTITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 3 (21). P. 62-74

The article is devoted to the study of the visual semiotic aspects of city identity. The relevance of research on city identity is justified by its direct impact on migration patterns and migration behavior of citizens. The city identity contains a person’s stable image of himself as a resident of a certain city, fixes the citizen’s emotional and value attitudes to the history and culture of the city, to the city community, influences the individual’s self-esteem and his productive activities. The purpose of the article is to analyze the visual semiotic aspects of city identity. The article solves a number of research problems: first, the structure of city identity is theoretically described; secondly, the structural interconnection of city identity components is shown; thirdly, the visual semiotic aspects are highlighted in each component of city identity; fourthly, the influence of the affective and value-semantic component of city identity on the migration attitudes of the practical component is demonstrated. The structure of city identity consists of cognitive, affective, value-semantic and practical components. The cognitive component contains a complex of objective ideas about the city in which a person lives, about the factors affecting the conditions and quality of life in the city. The visualization of these representations is reflected in geographical maps, graphs, charts, tables. In the affective component of city identity, an emotional and sensual perception of the city by man takes place. The ability of a city to generate experiences depends on its history, culture, architecture. The ability of a person to experience the city is brought up. The visual semiotic aspect of the affective component is represented by the appearance of the city, it depends on the complexity of the architectural images, it is comprehended by a person while mastering the skills of visual communication. The positive and negative emotions affect the attitudes of the practical component of city identity. The value-semantic component of city identity serves as a form of harmonization of people’s ideas about the city, expressed in objectified forms of urban culture. The practical component of city identity directly influences the strategy of a citizen’s life choice. The specificity of the visual semiotic aspects of city identity is illustrated by examples from the classic works of domestic and foreign researchers of urban culture, as well as specific examples of the everyday urban life of Omsk over two decades of the 21st century. The article identifies the reasons for the formation of a negative city identity of Omsk residents. The results can be a direction for further research on positive and negative city identity. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using by theorists and practitioners of urban development the ideas about the influence of city identity on the migration behavior of citizens.

Keywords: city, city identity, structure of city identity, visual semiotic aspects of city identity

Smirnov Sergey Alevtinovich PHENOMENON AS A VISUAL CONCEPT IN ANTHROPOLOGY OF CULTURE (FROM CLASSICAL PATTERNS TO NONCLASSICAL EXPERIENCE) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 21-28

The paper raises the problem of the return to basic constructs and patterns of thinking that have been developed at the time in the classical philosophy from ancient authors. These schemes and implementation of constructs suggested phenomenological shift, that is, opening the bottom of things, the whole world, the formation of such vision, which would allow to see the world as it is. In the nonclassical case the phenomenon transformed forms raises the problem of inaccessibility of the world as it is and the need to overcome this secrecy. The idea of visualization as a phenomenological shift and body building vision are introduced. The author provides examples from the history of culture, showing different views of the phenomenon in different authors. The author introduces the concept of visualization and phenomenological shift in the broader context antropopractice, architectonic construction of personality.

Keywords: phenomenon, visualization, phenomenological shift, architectonics of personality, phenomenon of personality, organon of personality

Zagraevsky Sergey Volfgangovich ABOUT SCIENTIFIC VALIDITY OF HIEROTOPY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 1 (15). P. 49-69

Prof. S. V. Zagraevsky undertook a comprehensive analysis of methodology and applications of hierotopy, which is defined as a special kind of activity on creation of so-called “sacred spaces”, and as a special area of historical and cultural research, which identifies and analyzes the examples of this activity. Hierotopy is an extremely broad concept, applicable to actually every scientific discipline (history of architecture and urban planning, and culturology, and ethnography, and philosophy, and art history, and musicology, and religious studies, and political science, and odorology (studying of smells), and many others, down to “mystical knowledge”). The author expressed doubts about scientific validity and practical value of hierotopy, and noted that it is a compilative theoretical layering, which is able to produce scientific achievements only to the extent that it remains within the framework of traditional scientific disciplines. “Superstructure” in the form of an act of faith that almost every artifact is a part of a certain “sacred space” (i. e. has some “higher supernatural sense”) is unproved, therefore, unconvincing, therefore, redundant, therefore, harmful, because overloads scientific text and contradicts to “Occam’s razor” – “Entities should not by multiplied without necessity”. Scientific text must be maximally versatile and should not cause ideological rejection in those readers who do not profess the faith of the author of this text. This is required by basic scientific ethics.

Keywords: hierotopy, methodology, architecture, town-planning, scientific research of culture

Kasavin Ilya Teodorovich, Tukhvatulina Liana Anvarovna EDUCATION AS THE “CONTINUATION OF POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS”: J. S. MILL AND W. WHEWELL ON THE IDEA OF UNIVERSITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 4 (18). P. 148-168

The authors reconstruct the concepts of university by John Stewart Mill and William Whewell. They argue that modernization of Russian society requires a deep reconsideration of the idea of university education, especially, in terms of the humanities. The analysis of the discussion between Mill and Whewell could contribute to the understanding of the spirit of Victorian England as well as of some significant controversies between liberals and conservators in their debate on the social purpose of the university. The authors claim that this debate is still relevant for the current Russian reform of higher education. In the first part of the paper the authors discuss anthropological assumptions that gave rise to Whewell’s and Mill’s differences in viewing the human nature as well as in the meaning of history. While following empiricism, Mill accepted the idea of tabula rasa. Hence, he argued that the university should firstly give space for self-realization of individuality. At the same time, Whewell considered the human nature as an inalienable part of cultural tradition. In accordance with this, the university should primarily provide connection of the times and integrity of intellectual tradition. The authors discuss the ideological attribution of Whewell’s ideas, namely, his so-called “traditionalism”. They argue that Whewell should not be considered as an old-fashioned hunker, since he claimed that tradition was to be saved as long as it generated some new fruitful ideas. The authors pay special attention to Whewell’s philosophy of history. He considered rises and falls of civilizations as a cyclic process, which was congruent to the periods of dominance of mathematics and philosophy in culture. Whewell argued that the decline of Greek culture was predetermined, when simple geometrical conceptions of the school of Plato were debased and weighed down by a cumbrous apparatus of crystalline spheres. The authors claim that this visual image comes from the basic presumption of Whewell’s philosophy of science: the development of scientific knowledge should be considered as an advancement in a clear and definite understanding of object. Hence, clearness and visual simplicity of model representations are the most reliable proof of knowledge enhancement. The authors analyze the historical context of the Whewell-Mill debate. They put Whewell’s ideas into the context of his reformist activity in Cambridge University. They argue that Whewell tried to adapt W. Humboldt’s model of the university to the context of Victorian England. In the final part of the paper, the authors discuss how Whewell’s ideas could be used for the modernization of philosophy education in Russia. They propose that the integration of the STS (science & technology studies) into the university programs in philosophy could make philosophical knowledge more relevant and attractive for scientists. This turn to the more “practical” (in Whewell’s sense) way of teaching philosophy could be used for the justification of the heuristic potential of philosophical knowledge in science as well. The authors conclude that nowadays this mode of self-representation of philosophy is the most relevant one.

Keywords: Whewell, Mill, philosophy of science, reform, liberals, conservators, university, education, philosophy, Victorian Age, STS, social context of knowledge

Gavrilenko Stanislav Mikhaylovich THE CARTOGRAPHIC DISPOSITIF: FEW REMARKS ON “GLOBES” OF PETER SLOTERDIJK // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 2 (24). P. 131-150

The author starts from the premise that the second volume of Peter Sloterdijk’s Spheres contains the conception of what could be called cartographic dispositif and tries to reconstruct separate provisions of this conception and relate them with some ideas made by contemporary specialized studies on the history of cartography. One of the main points, which Sloterdijk shares with these studies on maps and cartography, is that maps are too complex to be simple expression of spatial facts. Inscribing arguments about cartography in context of own theory of terrestrial globalization, Sloterdijk shows that cartographers were among its main actors and maps and globes of Earth were among its basic representational mechanisms and practical tools. The article provides description of what exactly was said by Sloterdijk about cartography and cartographic representations, extremely powerful tools of visualization and epistemic accumulation, but at the same time of political and economical control and of re-ordering of space. The main conclusion of the article is that Sloterdijk’s conception of cartography is in a unique position to support the sense of dizzying and intriguing complexity of cartographic representation and its historical types and forms (their very diversity is good enough reason for dizziness). This sense stands against deceptive obviousness (“we all know what a map is”), generated by equally deceptive “democratization of maps”, their pervasive presence and everyday uses. And if, as Matthey Edney says, “a map is representation of space complexity”, the very map is complex, being a strange hybrid of intelligible and empirical, theoretical and obvious, imaginary and real, what is seen and what is read, scientifical and political, actual and virtual, representation and performativе. But maybe this principal complexity of cartographic representation makes it a worthwhile object of research and fascination.

Keywords: globe, map, cartography, cartographic dispositif, visualization, Sloterdijk

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES (3). SEMANTICS OF THE INTERIOR OF THE SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 2 (12). P. 30-78

In this article, I continue the study of sacred topics of Russian cities. The difference between the concepts of the “new Jerusalem” and the “new Rome” with reference to the early Russian city (on the example of Kiev) is substantiates in the article. The analogy between David, Constantine and Vladimir, on the one hand, and Solomon, Justinian and Yaroslav, on the other hand, as organizers of the sacred city space, is considered and argued. The continuity of architectural dominants in the process of implementation of the Constantinople / Jerusalem’s spatial topics in Kiev (Church of the Tithes – St. Sophia Cathedral) shows in this paper. Semiotic analysis of the image of the Virgin in the apse of Kiev Sophia in the context of the cathedral interior was made by the author. The conducted research allows to make the following conclusions. First, in the syntactic aspect, the picture of the Virgin Oranta is compositionally incorporated into a single visual system with the image of Christ Pantocrator in the dome of the cathedral; this system produces communicative internal temple space. Secondly, the semantics of the image of the Virgin includes such Her meanings as the Queen (the level of denotation), the Church, the Temple, the Eucharist and the City, or the “Indestructible Wall” (the level of connotation). Thirdly, in the pragmatic aspect, the Virgin-Oranta acts as the initiator and mediator of the collective prayerful performative action oriented towards Jesus Christ as Divine Wisdom, that is, Sophia. It is this altar image that is the semantic center and visual core of the city space of Kiev as the “new Jerusalem” and, consequently, the semantic center of the space of the entire Russian state.

Keywords: visual semiotics, Eastern Christianity, city, sacred architecture, visual organization of space, cultural semiotic transfer, St. Sophia Cathedral, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, iconography, performative image

Burnakov Venariy Alekseevich IMAGE OF FROG IN FOLKLORE AND RITES OF KHAKAS PEOPLE (END OF 19TH – MIDDLE OF 20TH CENTURIES) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 243-265

The aim of the work is to characterize the image of the frog (pāa) in the oral folk art of the Khakas. Based on the goal, the following tasks were set: to analyze the folklore and ethnographic information and to identify the key constituent elements of this mythological being, to discover the semantic links of its image with natural objects and elements. The chronological framework of the work covers the end of the 19th – middle of the 20th centuries. The choice of such time limits is determined by the state of the source base for the research topic. The work is based on an integrated, system-historical approach to the study of the past. The research methodology is based on historical and ethnographic methods – a scientific description, a concrete historical, semantic and relic analysis. As a result of the analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1) the frog was given an important place in the culture of the Khakas. This reality was due both to the prevalence of this animal in the nature of Khakassia, and specifically because of its zoological specificity; 2) in the mythological perception, the specified amphibian was endowed with contradictory dual characteristics and caused mixed feelings in people, often negative ones. In the traditional consciousness of the people, the frog’s unpresentable appearance contained the repulsive intrinsic qualities of its character, which was reflected in folklore and verbal magic; 3) in the ideas of the people, the designated amphibian, as a creature that lives in two elements – water and land, was consistently associated with the Lower World. Moreover, its image is often introduced into mythological and fairy-tale schemes with the participation of other chthonic animals, for example, mice, snakes and lizards. In the Khakas oral folk art, the entire life support system of the demonic characters of the underworld, which included housekeeping and food, was directly connected with this amphibian; 4) animalistic images presented in folklore can be considered not only as purely symbolic, but also as totemic representations; 5) great importance was attached to the image of the frog in the shamanic practice. The animal in question had a direct relationship with both the spirit master of the water – sug eezi, and the lord of the underworld – Erlik Khan. The identified specificity of the frog contributed to its inclusion in the composition of key shaman helpers who mediated between the world of underground spirits and people: 6) among shamanists worship of amphibians reached such a high level that a cult of the patron of sheep appeared, whose external data included amphibian and reptile features. This character carried out protective, protective and healing functions in relation to not only domestic animals, but also to people.

Keywords: mythical image, myth, folklore, Khakas, frog, rites, shamanism.

Dulgheru Elena Dmitrievna SHOOTING ARCHE-TYPES. SACRED IN MOTION, OR SERGE PARAJANOV’S CINEMATIC ARCHEOGRAPHY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 2 (4). P. 29-43

The study presents the main concepts of Parajanov’s cinematic poetics, which is deeply bound with the filmmaker’s Weltanschauung: a mixture of ancient, medieval and modern civilizational models, of Oriental and Western, Christian, Islamic and pagan patterns of behaviour, of mythic-archaic, soviet and postmodern anthropological models, that melt together in harmony only in the unique topos of Transcaucasia.

Keywords: immersion into myth, language of stage convention, Byzantine man, the invisible war, postmodernism, cinegenic arche-types, sacred in motion, cinematic archeography

Smirnov Sergey Alevtinovich ANTHROPOID CARTOID AS A MEANS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL NAVIGATION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 1 (15). P. 34-48

The article gives a conceptual distinction between the doctrinal and navigational methods used in anthropology. The first involves the desire for the essential and objective determinations of man. The second presupposes alignment of orientation and navigation practices with the aim of finding a event place for people in being. The author analyzes the experience of using the concept of anthropological navigation introduced by the author in concrete visual and pedagogical practices. The description of the tool of anthropological navigation, anthropoid cartoid, and the way of working with it is given. A distinction is made between the geographical cartoid and the anthropoid cartoid. The author analyzes the experience of developing cartoids for their application to specific situations related to building personal life trajectories. The first lessons of this experience are described.

Keywords: anthropological navigation, anthropoid cartoid, geographic cartoid, resource map, place in being, trajectory of personal life, ontological topic of the self-determination

Aleksandrov Evgeny Vasilievich TRANSITING FROM PERCEPTION TO DOCUMENT (FUNCTIONAL AND GENETIC STRUCTURE OF VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY MEDIUM) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 2 (4). P. 55-68

The article consists of three interrelated parts. The first one establishes promising visual anthropology’s future in light of expanding anthropological theory. The second part defines the functioning of visual anthropology and emphasizes the creation of pointed specific screen materials – a medium between specified culture and viewing public. Moral responsibility seems the important attribute that determines a very visual-anthropology function during all stages. The third part attempts to reveal connections between the structure of visual messages regarding anthropology substance and general modern worldview.

Keywords: Visual Anthropology, documentary film, moral responsibility of anthropologist, cultures’ dialog

Pervushina Nina Andreyevna PEDAGOGICAL BIOETHICS: A SEMIOTIC ASPECT // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 4 (18). P. 186-201

Education is permanent and not always purposeful process in which the brain changes physically. It is important which information people get and how they do it. At the same time, the interrelation of cognitive and corporeal impacts of information invokes a bioethical aspect of the problem. Bioethics as a form of modern culture emphasizes the right of an individual to be what one wants, and the duty of society is to provide an individual with this opportunity. Currently, bioethics protects the individuality of a person in the medicine field but not in fostering and education. The specific characteristics of modern times make it necessary to use bioethics in the field of pedagogy. Firstly, visual presentation of information largely replaced the verbal one. Secondly, life itself became a product of technology, so it turned into an artefact. Thirdly, the pace of innovation reveals how frail intellectual traditions are. Fourthly, the innovations of convergent and biomedical technologies create new risks. And, finally, existence in the environment of new risks requires a new degree of responsibility for choice made by an individual. In this case, an individual must make both bodily and mental choices on a constant basis. Bioethics is placed at the intersection of some trends: it protects individuality from the arbitrariness of biomedical operations, assesses new risks, retains the moral positions of philosophical traditions for determining the permissible limits of intervention of the artificial into the natural. Since education deals with different personalities, different situations, a high-quality usage of visual teaching aids requires relying on cultural traditions of perception and individual characteristics of the perceiver. Effectiveness cannot always be achieved using only one point of view. Therefore, it is possible and necessary to use different approaches and methods. This allows speaking about the need to combine different approaches and designate limits of their applicability, and the very combination of different approaches makes sense since each of them is focused on a single aspect. The understanding of the scope of these aspects is fundamental, which is clearly demonstrated by the research model of an information-synergetic approach chosen by the authors. The research position presented in this work opens up opportunities to categorize theories of visual information perception, which is undoubtedly relevant for a methodological regulation of their application in pedagogical bioethics.

Keywords: pedagogical bioethics, bioethics, synergetic, perception of visual information, symbolism of bioethics, information-synergetic approach

Belgorodskaya Lyudmila Veniaminovna, Drozdov Nickolai Ivanovich, Vonog Evgenii Anatoljevich THE VISUALIZED DAILY LIFE OF THE CIVIL WAR IN SIBERIA: A SOURCE ANALYSIS OF THE AMERICAN NEWSREEL “ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCES IN SIBERIA” (1918–1920) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 3 (25). P. 9-26

The article focuses on daily life visualized by the video material “Allied Expeditionary Forces in Siberia”. The uniqueness of this newsreel is that it is the only historical source among the famous films of American and British intervention that reflects the cinematics of the Civil War period in eastern Russia. Historians have not comprehensively studied this newsreel; moreover, its earlier analysis contains errors and inaccuracies, which explains the relevance of this work. The authors aimed at identifying the filming locations; determining the daily routine features of soldiers of the interventionists’ armies, the Whites and the Reds; revealing the peculiarities of the life and behavior of Siberians in the areas of hostilities and front lines, clarifying the chronology and attribution of the events captured by the camera. The authors analyzed written sources to supplement video materials, which made it possible to verify the attribution of the film frames. On the basis of their method (“cutting scripts”), the authors were able to identify the following: places captured in the film; time of action; images of various groups of the Civil War participants. It has been established that the recording was conducted in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Spassk, at the Pogranichnaya Station, Nikolsk (nowadays Ussuriysk), Harbin, on the Circum-Baikal railway, in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, and at other places of the Trans-Siberian railway. The visual images of the military of several foreign states such as Americans and their allies in the Entente (British, Japanese, Canadians, Italians, and French) have been identified. The authors examined the images of Germans and Czechs as representatives of the Fourth Union as well as the visual images of representatives of the Russian White Army and Red Army forces. The documentary frames allowed evaluating the external manifestations of people’s feelings in the period of disruption. The newsreel frames visualize the everyday life of civilians in the front line and in the territories controlled by the Whites (including the characteristics of moving around the country, arranging life in temporary housing, supporting prisoners, and observing military parades of the interventionists). The models of child behavior in the front line zone captured by the camera are of particular interest. The authors analyzed the range of the emotional reactions of the participants in those events: the vivid manifestations of feelings among the interventionists and the restrained manifestations among Siberians. For most of the latter, the sense of what was happening was not so clear. The constituent parts of the empirical material and the method of the analysis contributed to the study of the everyday routine concerning the front and the front-line life: the emotions and behavior of the participants in the events as well as the details of Siberians’ and refugees’ life.

Keywords: film “Allied Expeditionary Forces in Siberia” (1918–1920), visual history, semiotics of cinema, Civil War in Siberia, American Expeditionary Forces, United States Army Signal Corps

Pisarev Alexander Alexandrovich IMAGERY OF TAXIDERMY IN SCIENCE MUSEUMS: FROM SYSTEMATICS OF SPECIES TO SYSTEMATICITY OF VIOLENCE AND POSTHUMANIST NATURE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 2 (24). P. 91-130

The article is devoted to the transformations of the imagery of taxidermic objects in natural history museums. By examining several cases these transformations are linked to changes in a network of heterogeneous contexts - scientific theories and paradigms, the role of the museum, national politics, and public morals. While discussing the topic a taxidermic object is understood as an object of science with its own materiality and history and science museum is considered as a space for the representation of nature, scientific categories, and moral and political ideas, and as an instrument of collective empiricism. The history of taxidermy in a museum is the history of erasing its artistry and artificiality in favor of an objective representation of nature “itself". This naturalization makes it possible to turn the stuffed animal, now anonymous and standardized, into a taxon of Linnaean taxonomy, inseparable from considerations of public resource management. The consequences of such entry into the museum for the visual nature of taxidermy are written out. Next, we consider the change in taxonomy in the XIX century and the introduction of the idea of life in taxidermic exposition through dioramas and biological groups. A concrete example demonstrates the use of taxidermic dioramas as a tool for moral and political transformation of individuals through the aura-like experience of nature. In the middle of the XX century, the decline of taxidermy begins. Due to the withdrawal of up-to-date science from natural history museums, changes in politics, collective imagination, and the ethics of dealing with colonial heritage and nature, museums are losing funding and visitors and are gradually shifting to the periphery of culture. It is shown that they find themselves in a twice contradictory position between their own anti-historical and naturalizing scientific nature and the historicity of denaturalized exhibits, between the ambiguous aesthetics, history of taxidermy and the changed moral order. Museums tried to resolve these contradictions and return to the current culture by including in the communication about the environmental agenda and the environmental reinterpretation of taxidermy exposition with the help of occasional material and discursive interventions that turn stuffed animals into allegories of extinction. This move allows them to stay within the boundaries of the natural science discourse of preservation species diversity, while simultaneously appealing to the moral sense of the visitor and influencing the collective sensibility. At the same time, it reproduces the mythologem of the "golden age", based on the opposition between nature and culture, natural and artificial. Thus, these contradictions are not completely resolved. The first possible way further are artistic interventions on the territory of the museum, in which the Museum delegates to artists the right of critical reflection on scientific ideology and power. A number of examples of such interventions are provided and analyzed. The second way are new taxidermy collections, initially created not as a result of the objectifying approach of science, but as a manifestation of systematic violence and a new nature, indifferent to the above-mentioned oppositions. Such taxidermy can become a tool for understanding the new nature in an era so aptly called the anthropocene, and a working object of posthumanistic imagery.

Keywords: science museum, natural history museum, taxidermy, exposition, nature, visuality, contemporary art, posthumanism

Sherayzina Roza Moiseyevna, Donina Irina Aleksandrovna, Aleksandrova Marina Viktorovna IMPLEMENTATION OF IDEAS OF DIVERSIFICATION MANAGEMENT IN THE MANAGEMENT OF A MODERN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 4 (18). P. 251-262

This paper reveals the ideas of diversification management, and analyzes the possibility of their implementation as a conceptual basis for the management of general education organizations. Evolutionary and globalization world processes determine one of the leading trends, which is reflected both in the labor market conditions and in the conditions of the educational services market, and is characterized by the diversification of the workforce and the diversification of consumer preferences. This trend, reflecting certain difficulties and advantages of the development of public relations, can be applied by heads of educational organizations to improve management effectiveness in the context of using the human potential of the subjects of the educational process and ensuring the competitiveness of the educational organization. Most often the studies on this issue discuss the categories of “diversity management”, “diversity management” and “diversification management”. Migration processes and inclusion processes actualize the search for new content, methods and technologies of the educational process within the framework of the federal state standards of general education, since there are various schools, including multinational groups of students, and, consequently, parents. This trend requires a search for managerial, social and pedagogical strategies for the successful development of the school and of education quality in the new conditions. Today, the skills of the head of a general education organization, related to the successful management of personnel of different age, gender, physical abilities, ethnicity and race, are more in demand than ever. These skills in school management are no less important for interaction with other subjects of the educational process: students and their parents. The quintessence of organizational behavior in a modern school is the management of the diversity of subjects of the educational process, which requires acceptance of individual and sociocultural characteristics, special attention to them, as well as manifestation of tolerance towards them. Today, heads of general education organizations are forced to seek not only ways to “coexist” for teachers and support staff, students and their parents of different religions, nationalities, age and sex, but also ways to manage effectively the “potential difference”. Implementation of this goal is facilitated by the concept of diversification management, which serves as a methodological basis for the search for effective management strategies in the current situation. The paper was prepared within the framework of the research “Formation and Development of the Pedagogical Metatheory of Diversity Management in Educational Systems”, state task of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation No. 27.2617.2017/4.6.

Keywords: general education organization, diversification management, competitiveness of organization, heterogeneous pedagogical staff

Dobrenko Evgeny Aleksandrovich VISUAL STRATEGIES OF REPRESENTATION OF THE WAR IN SOVIET “FICTION-DOCUMENTARY” CINEMA IN THE LATE STALINIST ERA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 4 (6). P. 28-46

The article examines the effect of the victory in WWII on the status of the Stalinist regime and on the representations of power in Soviet war films. Already in the last stages of the war (e.g., Fridrikh Ermler’s The Great Turning Point) the experiences at the frontline and on the home front were being transformed into a narrative of Victory, which started to replace the Revolution as the focal point of the myth of creation of the Soviet nation; the creation of a “useful past” was initiated. These moves were then fixed in a range of socalled “feature documentaries” that were supposed to recreate on the big screen the history of victorious “Stalinist blows”: Igor Savchenko’s The Third Blow, Vladimir Petrov’s Battle of Stalingrad, Mikhail Chiaureli’s The Fall of Berlin. These films had a particular kind of poetics and were very different from the pre-war Staliniana, giving a visual form to the transformed myth where Stalin was no longer just Lenin’s confidant, best pupil and heir, but where he was the only saviour of the country and the winner in the great war.

Keywords: late stalinism, soviet cinema, Great Patriotic War, representation of power, Fridrikh Ermler, Vladimir Petrov, Mikhail Chiaureli

Gashenko Anton Evgenyevich SEMANTICS OF INTEGRITY OF CITY CENTER // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 2 (8). P. 82-96

Urban morphology of the city center is considered as an integral phenomenon. Their topology localization, structure and semantics of own text is represented in the observers reflection. I attempt to reveal the essence of the integrity as characteristics of a system in architectural context and show the types of its manifestation in the various examples. The article describes а syntax of urban morphology and its influence on the perception of centrality.

Keywords: integrity, city center, urban morphology, perception, urban environment

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich TOMSK: VISUAL CONSTRUCTING OF LOCAL URBAN SPACES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 1 (11). P. 41-47

The ways of constructing of local urban spaces by the means of visual presentation are analyzed in this article. I use the concept of space as a cultural-anthropological construct having a communicative (sign) nature. I show that the local spaces of a city as a complex semiotic system are organized in the process of zoning (division into specific zones) of the common urban space with simultaneous visual marking of the specific specialization of the formed zones. I establish here three types of visual-semiotic acts forming local urban spaces: a) creating of space, b) transforming of space; c) transfer of space. The creation, the transformation and the transfer of urban loci are practical means of influencing overall look of the city, accessible to the inhabitants of the city. These means are illustrated by examples of the formation of local spaces of Tomsk.

Keywords: city, space, zoning, visual constructing, visual semiotics of city, participation in culture

Knyazeva Helena Nikolaevna VISUAL IMAGES IN THE SERVICE OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 58-75

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge where the most significant scientific breakthroughs take place in the 21st century. They are significant both for the development of convergent technologies and for the dissemination of interdisciplinary and integrative trends in research that connect areas previously thought of as completely incompatible, including natural sciences and the humanities. The author shows that in cognitive science, despite the highly theorized and narrowly special focus of many its areas of research, visual images are quite often and productively used. Some of them, such as a cognitive map, cognitive niche, cognitive landscape, cognitive field that echoes the concept of a dynamic field in Gestalt psychology, the wandering around the field of meanings, a search tree are discussed in the article. A special role is also played by mental imagery, which forms a basis for the work of productive imagination and creative thinking, studied in cognitive psychology. It is substantiated in the article that such visualization tools are essential not only as initial “scaffolding” for the development of theoretical concepts, but also for clarifying the nuances of the meaning of complex scientific constructions. In addition, in today’s cognitive science, the phenomenological approach and the so-called “first-person methodology” are gaining popularity, taking into account that the meaning of theoretical constructions begins to live and work, being unpacked in the lifeworld of each particular personality. Thus, the inseparability of figurative visual knowledge and abstract verbal knowledge gets additional justification through the understanding of the inseparability of the ordinary and scientific knowledge.

Keywords: visual thinking, visual images, imagination, cognitive map, cognitive niche, cognitive landscape, meaning, phenomenal consciousness.

Chubar Polina Ivanovna VISUAL SELECTION OF URBAN SPACE PERCEPTION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 56-59

There is a problem of emotional fatigue of society in the modern city that was caused by plenty of visual information. In this paper author analyzes the characteristics of visual perception of urban environment: apathy, irritability, anger, scopophilia and phenomenon of the clipped look. Repressive advertisement makes some problems, which author proposes to solve by visual ecology.

Keywords: urban space, image, media, emotional fatigue, scopophilia, evolution of perception, visual aggression, advertisement, visual ecology

Smirnov Sergey Alevtinovich VISUAL JOURNEY AS A METHOD. GENESIS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 1 (11). P. 9-26

The paper describes the genesis of idea of the way as a method of cognition. The author admits that the idea of the way as a method of knowledge of the world and oneself in this world was the first in the history of culture. Gradually, as civilization developed, the method of knowledge as conquest became increasingly dominant, and the study of the world began to be built on the principle of fixation and extraction of the object of knowledge. In both cases, visualization and visual experience play a key role. The author shows that vision plays a different role in different paradigms of knowledge. In the method of capturing the vision becomes a tool of capture. In the method the way the vision becomes a means of seeing the sense of things and mark man’s place in the world.

Keywords: method, way, visual journey, capture

Shcherbinin Alexey Ignatevich SMART CITIES AS A TREND OF THE 21ST CENTURY: THE CURRENT CHALLENGES AND RUSSIA’S PRACTICES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 3 (17). P. 179-191

The present research deals with the smart cities as a phenomenon of the 21st century and as a new paradigm in the history of the city, which has challenged industrialism and urban archaism. The problem is analyzed in the light of new managerial, social, and technological practices from various parts of the world. The paper demonstrates obstacles and difficulties of the introduction of this project in a city with objectively high intellectual potential. Structurally in the article an image of the future “smart cities” is revealed through analysis of the formula of “smart city”: “smart authority – smart community – smart technologies”. The emphasis is on increasing the leading role of smart communities. The transformation from a technocratic approach to a humanitarian approach is shown. This is reflected not only in the evolution of the concept and world practices of “smart communities”, but also in changing the vision of the mission of the “smart cities” themselves in our era.

Keywords: smart cities, smart communities, Russia, image, creativity

Fedorov Viktor Vladimirovich, Levikov Aleksandr Vasilevich URBAN SPACE AS THE SYSTEM OF VISUAL DISCOURSE MARKERS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 51-55

The urban environment is organized on the basis of the functional relationships, meaning-ful linking buildings and structures into a a single whole. In it visual discourse markers are present – multifunctional elements, wich are deprive of denotation, but influence to the process of perception and understanding of the environment. Small architectural forms are considered as an example of discourse markers in the urban environment.

Keywords: urban environment, small forms, visual discourse markers

Danilova Elena Aleksandrovna MANAGEMENT OF THE IMAGES OF RUSSIAN TERRITORIES THROUGH GROWING OF AN INNOVATION POTENTIAL OF THE UNIVERSITIES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 60-65

The paper is devoted to research of the problem of forming of a territory image (country, region, city) through an innovation potential of the universities in its borders. In the paper the system of key state measures for support of the image of an innovation state is analyzed. Innovation educational environment and forming of the system of the bearing innovation universities are considered in the aspect of the effectiveness of positioning of the universities and the territories which they represent. The universities are researched both a significant innovation subject for formation of Russian innovation economics and an instrument for positioning of innovation inland and in the global world

Keywords: innovation university, innovation instrument, positioning of innovation, image of territory

Próchniak Paweł MEMORY THEATRE: A CASE STUDY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 150-155

The article deals with the issues of cultural memory, memory as a commitment and ethical and artistic aspects of remembering (including memory and oblivion of Shoah victims). The author presents these issues in the context of Robert Fludd’s concept of “ars memoriae” and discusses them on the example of artistic, social and educational activities of the “Grodzka Gate - NN Theater” Center in Lublin (Poland).

Keywords: memory, remembering, memory theatre, Shoah, Lublin, “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich DRESSED PERSON (ON THE PROBLEM OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL SEMIOTICS OF POWER) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 1 (7). P. 34-46

The problem of the semiotic correlation of body and clothes from the point of view of the implementation of power in interpersonal communication is investigated in this paper. The main functions of clothes – adaptation, identification, sovereignization and manipulation – are reviewed in the text. It is shown that the clothes acquire inverse character by manipulating; at the same time it become in means of influence and aggression’s tool, in the method of the conquest of another’s will. The body which is opened by means of clothes becomes a tradable commodity, and the way to move goods market, activating the mechanisms of seduction. In this context, a problem of women’s emancipation is formulated in a new way. Besides, themes of “scattered” power and semiotic mechanisms of its implementation in the culture are investigated. Semiotics of power implies, however, not only the direct but also the inverse power vector: clothes can express the internalization of norms and exteriorization of personal existential positions. Therefore, clothes are at the intersection of semantics and pragmatics. The vector of power, which is not only expressed, but also carried out through clothing in her relationship with the dressed / undressed body, depends on the fundamental pragmatic presupposition: either it is a vector of violence and the subordination of the will of others, or it is a vector of retention of their own and other people’s privacy norm, of self-organization and self-management norm.

Keywords: visual anthropology, visual semiotics, dress, power, manipulation, norm, visual expression, privacy border

Orlova Nadezhda Kh.., Beržaitė Dagnė LITHUANIAN SEMIOTIC STUDIES: FROM THE HISTORY OF DOSTOEVSKY’S THEATRICAL “TRANSLATIONS” IN LITHUANIA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 2 (16). P. 110-131

In the article it is investigated the place of a literary heritage of Dostoevsky in the Lithuanian verbal and visual culture. We chose two directions for our research: 1) the translations of books of the writer on the Lithuanian language; 2) “translations” (adaptations) of novels of Dostoevsky in the Lithuanian theatrical tradition. In the first part of article authors analyze different approaches to the translations of texts of Dostoevsky on the Lithuanian language. It is shown that in modern Lithuania almost all works of the great writer are translated; however there are problems and perspectives. In the second part of article we reconstructed in a historical retrospective the experience of theatrical experiments with texts of the writer in Lithuania. It is obvious that the Lithuanian national theater used on available literary translations. It is shown that the history of the Lithuanian theater isn’t thought without Dostoevsky’s heroes today. It is possible to tell surely that many performances according to Dostoevsky’s books were included into gold fund of theatrical tradition of Lithuania and World Theater.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, theatrical tradition of Lithuania, Lithuanian national theater, adaptations, Dostoevsky’s heroes, Vilnius theater of the Russian drama

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES (2). SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL: SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 3 (9). P. 25-81

In this article, I continue the study of sacred topics of Russian cities. Comparison of syntactic functions and dedication’s semantics of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Constantinople is made in the article. The semantic link between the Old Testament character of God’s Wisdom and the composition of city in Eastern Christianity is picked. I revealed the fundamental idea which lies in the base of the town planning: the supernatural protection exerted to the city in response to his dedication to God. This dedication is visually expressed in the sacred complex consisting of the cathedral as an urban dominant and the gates in the city wall. I made a distinction between two meanings of the concept of Wisdom in Scripture and Tradition: 1) as a direct naming the person and 2) as the description of the name content. On this basis, I made a comparative analysis of the “sophia’s” icons, and I realized their general classification. The semantic analogy between the sacral dominants of Jerusalem, Constantinople and Kiev is demonstrated. It is proved that the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople has the same dedication as the Holy Sepulcher (Anastasis) of Jerusalem. On this basis, I conclude synonymy of these cathedrals, along with the identity of their syntactic positions in the urban text.

Keywords: visual semiotics, Eastern Christianity, city, sacred architecture, visual organization of space, St. Sophia Cathedral, syntax, semantics, iconography, cultural semiotic transfer

Atmanova Yulia Georgievna THE DYNASTIC PRIDE OF THE GREAT MUGHALS AND THE FORMS OF ITS MANIFESTATION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 1 (11). P. 48-65

As shown by current research in the field of metaindividual psychology of art, emotional response to some action/event can have different forms of realization and manifest not only in the verbal form, pantomime or behavioral strategies, but also in visual art. The analysis given in the paper is an attempt to show the forms of manifestation of the Mughal dynastic pride on a specific empirical material and to explore meanings and value which could be assigned to the material objects of Timurid art and Mughal culture. The pictorial manifestation of dynastic pride of the Great Mughals was predominantly implemented in the field of visual propaganda (state regalia and miniature painting).

Keywords: dynastic pride, heirloom, family tree, genealogical seal, dynastic portrait, Great Mughals, Timur, Timurids

Nikulushkin Konstantin Vladimirovich TERMINOLOGICAL AND CATEGORICAL PROLEGOMENONS TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL TEXT OF URBANISTICS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 2 (12). P. 79-91

The paper is concerned with the theoretical field of urban philosophy regarding its terminological and conceptual development. Numerous cultural analyses of the historical and modern city text allow to draw a conclusion that the city space in structure of a civilization has an own synergetic existence, i.e. ability to generate cultural energy and to make her exchange with other systems of human society in the course of his evolution. The similar assumption allows to allocate limits of the term “urbanistics” as the certain area of a philosophical research and to define it as the multidimensional semiotics object having strong interpretation potential. The position of urbanistics in a philosophical view establishes intrinsic approach to intellectually level of the city space that develops the movement of sense in the cultural text between a form and its significance. One of the main gnoseological tools of philosophical knowledge is the categorical framework. The purpose of this work is an opportunity to define the new philosophical and theoretical directions in categorial system of urbanistics. The philosophical structure of the categorial apparatus of urbanistics is being formulated. The substantial philosophy of R. Descartes serves as intellectual model for system creation of categorial hierarchy. This study at inclusion of hermeneutical and dialectic methods has found out that in general the urban text can be represented in two forms – an extended, encompassing the space of visual semiotics, and a mental, endowing with perpetual cultural meanings every element of urban ontology. The interrelation of two specified forms reflects the dialectic union forming the hypertext of city space and demands further conceptual expansion in structure of a philosophical research.

Keywords: city structure, conceptual model, conceptual categorical apparatus, semiotics, substance, philosophical urbanistics

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich HISTORY OF FINE ARTS AS ANTHROPOLOGY AND SEMIOTICS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 2 (4). P. 12-28

The author offers for readers a review of the recently published book by Oleg Voskoboynikov “Millennial Kingdom” (Moscow, 2014). The methodology, based on which the author of the monograph investigates of European culture of the Middle ages, is considered. The specificity of the organization of the text is defined: the combination of encyclopedic knowledge and the author’s narrative. It is shown how the author of reviewed book interprets the meaning and function of the middle Ages artworks, regularly emphasizing the relationship of visual images with the fundamental characteristics of human existence and human consciousness. Actuality of Voskoboynikov’s book is argued in terms of the development of art history and in the field of modern methodology of the human sciences.

Keywords: anthropology, semiotics, history of culture, fine arts, Middle Ages, monograph, book review

Pichugina Viktoriya Konstantinovna, Mozhajsky Andrey Jur'evich VISUAL INSTRUCTIONS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDIES ABOUT ORESTES AND ELECTRA: DISCOURSES OF WORD AND IMAGE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 3 (21). P. 113-134

Great playwrights, whose names are associated with the “golden age” of the ancient Greek theater, often put on tragedies on the same subjects and even with the same names. Turning to the existing interpretations or creating new ones, they tried to teach a lesson to the city and instruct its audience-students on a certain interpretation of the current events. The polemic between the authors of the ancient Greek tragedies gave an additional flavor to the theatre agons, and the polemic between the modern researchers studying it has created a space for an interdisciplinary dialogue on the features of the ancient visual culture, amongst other things. In the article, a comparative analysis of three versions of the mythological plot about Orestes and Electra, presented in the tragedy by Aeschylus “The Libation Bearers” and the tragedies of the same name “Electra” by Euripides and Sophocles, is carried out. These ancient Greek playwrights represent a hierarchy of the significance of the main characters – the brother and the sister, who are carrying out a plan of vengeance for the death of their father Agamemnon, through the hierarchy of their virtues and life principles. The comparison of the three tragedies is carried out according to a scheme that allows you to see these hierarchies: 1) at the beginning of the tragedy, where the first meeting of Orestes and Electra, during which they begin to try to assert their right to instruct themselves and others, takes place; 2) at the moments when the heroes come into conflict in point of who has the right to instruct under the supervision of the gods as the supreme instructors, and in what subjects; 3) at the end of the tragedy, when the heroes see the results of their instructions. The city, in which the tragic action unfolds, is either narrowing down to the particular family, where everyone thinks of himself as a mentor to the others, or expanding to the intellectual and political community of citizens who can be instructed by the example of their rulers. Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles offer the reader / spectator different “formats” of visual instructions in which the divine will and human desires are combined. In addition to the ancient Greek literary tradition, the mythological subjects about Orestes and Electra were reflected in the material culture (ancient Greek vases, relief images and bronze artifacts), which is another level of visualization of the instructions, this visualization being primary to the theater in some cases, and secondary in others. The tradition of depicting the mythological scenes about Orestes and Electra on the artifacts had taken shape long before the theatrical productions of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, partly predetermining their “discourse of the word’ and “discourse of the image”, and being partly transformed under their influence.

Keywords: anthropology of city, visual instructions, theatrical visualization, Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Electra, discourses of word and image in the ancient Greek drama

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES (4). INTERIOR OF THE SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL: SEMANTICS OF GATE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 45-70

In this article, I continue the study of sacred topics of Russian cities. Here I analyze the semantic connection between the inscription above the altar of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and the mosaic image of the Virgin Oranta in the apse. This inscription is a quotation from the book of the Psalter; it originally refers to Jerusalem as a sacred city. Reproduction of this excerpt in the Kiev cathedral denotes the sacred status of Kiev as the new Jerusalem and the “mother” of Russian cities. In addition, the phrase “God in the midst of her” indicates the Mother of God, which became the “house” of God (or the “temple” of Wisdom). Thus, the icon of Oranta, inscribed with a quote from the Psalm, appears as a visual symbol of the Christian city, in the sacral center of which is the cathedral dedicated to Sofia. The image of Oranta is flanked by the Annunciation scene, located on the altar pillars. This scene semantically corresponds to the metaphysical entrance of God into the space of the human world. And the configuration of the entire altar complex represents a metaphor of the gate, referring to both the religious status of the Virgin Mary and the hierotopic model of the visual organization of the space of the Eastern Christian city.

Keywords: visual semiotics, Eastern Christianity, city, sacred architecture, visual organization of space, St. Sophia Cathedral, gate, Annunciation, semantics, iconography

Genisaretsky Oleg Igorevich JERUSALEM’S ANATOPY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 2 (4). P. 126-131

The article discusses the ways of visual transfer of Jerusalem and the Holy Land cultural realities on the Russian Christian culture. The specificity of this culture maximally expressed in the temple action. The relationship of the liturgical time with a real topography of the Holy Land as the place of the events described in the Gospel is investigated in this article. It demonstrates the meaning of the liturgical action as a pilgrimage to the holy places of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. The meaning is expressed in the semantic connection of historical events, its Palestinian localization and the liturgical “reproduction”. A temple area’s Palestinian “marking”, which is complemented by the iconic (sacral-visual) line is noted. When the liturgical tradition based on the Palestinian topic is transfered, reverse movement arises, i.e. the liturgically fixed topical markers are spread on space surrounding a temple. In consideration of the typological affinity name and image, the author draws attention to the iconic images as anagrams. He offers to define visual spatial complexes presented in such images-anagrams as “anatopy”. This images involve all semiotic features of anagrams, which indirectly marks a historical reality and its eschatological sense.

Keywords: temple space, iconic image, anatopy

Bernatonite Ada. K.. THE MAIN TRENDS OF MODERN RUSSIAN CINEMA: SEMIOTICS OF HERO AND HEROISM // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 99-115

The article covers certain specific aspects of modern cinema that are developing in accordance with certain tendencies. We are in the presence of children’s and youth’s cinema rebirth engaging the mechanisms of spiritual and moral values. Powerful metaphysical basis in cinema leads to a change of visual space and time as well as to the forming of parable genre specifics. Modern cinema refers to the Soviet cinema therefore the heroic basis and the reference to history are increased.

Keywords: children’s and youth’s cinema, semiotics of hero, new type of hero, metaphysics, parable, historical context, heroism

Dorozhkin Aleksandr Mikhailovich THE ROLE OF TRADING ZONES IN FORMING AN INTEGRATED WORLD-PICTURE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 4 (22). P. 110-125

The article aims to analyze the evolution of an integrated world-picture in the empirical subject’s mind within trading zones. The author proposes and briefly describes a typology of trading zones, including Galisonian (collaborations within and between scientific communities), Humboldtian (interactions in education), and non-Humboldtian (interactions between scientists and society). He assumes that, under certain conditions, Humboldtian and non-Humboldtian trading zones can proceed by using everyday language rather than scientific one. The translation of a scientific phenomenon’s depiction into laypeople’s language is illustrated with an example of using visual representations. The author relies on Peter Galison’s concept of trading zones, as well as on a few approaches to visual representations in science (by Russian scholars F.M. Zemlianskiy, A.I. Nikonov, and V.P. Branskiy). By elucidating the specifics of trading zones, the author discusses major conditions for the evolution of an integrated world-picture in the subject’s mind. It is shown that, nowadays, such an evolution can be possible only with rather significant approximations. Based on a peculiar artifact within a Humboldtian trading zone, the author considers an evolution of an integrated world-picture, viewing this process as largely similar to the growth of knowledge in the hypothetico-deductive model. He concludes that an integrated world-picture in a Humboldtian trading zone emerges in the mind of a tutor (transmitting information) rather than a student (receiving information), and that a similar situation can occur in non-Humboldtian trading zones. The article also provides arguments on why, despite the many difficulties, non-Humboldtian trading zones are needed, and suggests the necessity of a mediator in them. The author substantiates an idea that it is the philosopher that is most beneficial in such mediation.

Keywords: trading zone, Galisonian trading zone, Humboldtian trading zone, non-Humboldtian trading zone, integrated world-picture, visual representations

Smirnova Alina Andreyevna, Pleshkevich Irina Borisovna, Pyanzina Angelika Viktorovna, Aleksandrova Veronika Vladimirovna VISUAL-ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF PHOTOS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 2 (12). P. 155-164

The academic discipline “Methodological bases of visual anthropology” is taught in the Philosophy faculty of the Tomsk State University for master’s degree students in the direction of “sociology” from 2012. Master students acquire the skill of system theoretical explication of anthropological meanings contained in the photographic image, as part of the study of this discipline. They demonstrate their competence in this area in the respective thematic essays devoted to the conceptual interpretation of photo selected by them. Here are some work of master student in sociology, devoted to the analysis of the photographic image from the perspective of visual anthropology.

Keywords: photography, visual anthropology, analysis of images

Muraviev A. N. ANTIQUITIES AND SYMBOLICS OF ST. SOPHIA CATHEDRAL IN KIEV // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 116-132

This anonymous text, published in Moscow in 1863, is devoted to the theological and semiotic analysis of the paintings program of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, preserved by the middle of the 19th century. Judging by the note of the publishers, this text was written by the author of “Letters on Divine Service of the Eastern Church”, published by the first edition in St. Petersburg in 1835, – by Andrey Nikolaevich Muraviev, known Orthodox historian and art historian, traveler, writer, Chamberlain of the Russian Imperial Court, Chief secretary of the Holy Synod, an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. A. N. Muraviev was born in 1806 in Moscow, died in 1874 in Kiev, where he lived permanently, resigning. It was A. N. Muraviev who saved the historic center of Kiev in the second half of the 19th century, including the architectural ensemble of St. Sophia. In 1864, he became chairman of the missionary St. Vladimir Brotherhood established on his initiative; he was also the trustee of the St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Kiev. A. N. Muraviev was the author of numerous works devoted to the history of the Orthodox Church, pilgrimage, apologetics and art history. His “Letter on Divine Service” withstood 12 editions (the last – in 1993). The following text contains a description of the mosaics and frescoes of the St. Sophia Cathedral, with interpretation of their historical, dogmatic, liturgical and symbolic meaning. The author consistently explains the “cause and significance” of key iconic images and compositions of the cathedral, individual images and their details, regularly comparing them with the iconography of St. Sophia of Constantinople.

Keywords: St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, interior, iconography, symbolics

Varkhotov Taras Aleksandrovich GAME OF THRONES: THE RISE AND FALL OF A PERFECT TV SERIES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 4 (22). P. 60-91

The article discusses several epistemological problems of media theory: clarification of meaning and use of the “cult” concept as applied to audiovisual media objects; analytical tools and determinants of television series’ success; and, finally, the ontology of a television series as an object of spectator (consumer) and professional (research) perception. Based on the example of one of the most successful television series of the 21st century, Game of Thrones, the principles of the television series’ arrangement, its relations with its literary prototype, the role of script and structural features are considered. Particular attention is paid to the differences between the audiovisual and literary works, as well as policies of television channels as the most important determinants of television series production. On the basis of the history of HBO and the television adaptation of Game of Thrones, the logic of the evolution of the television series, its capabilities and limitations associated with both economic and internal reasons related to the very form of the television series’ existence are revealed. In the first part of the article, the concept of “cult” is considered using ideas of Umberto Eco and Philippe Le Guern. The elements of the social construction of “cult” are shown, and the need for some inner causes belonging to the object itself, not only to the practices of its use, is claimed. In the second part, the story of HBO is briefly observed for revealing the causes and meaning of its turn to TV serial production. In the third part, Game of Thrones is examined in the context of correlations between the book and the film, the book and the script, the film and critics, the film and viewers, and, most of all, the reality of the film and the reality of viewers. It is shown that, unlike the standard analytical optics used for working with television content, the key factor for the success of Game of Thrones and, at the same time, the failure of its final season is the “World of GoT”: a system of perceptual objects and events accessible to the audience that produce a subjectively significant psycho-emotional response. The existence of the “World of GoT” is provided mainly by the perceptual fabric of audiovisual forms and is relatively independent from the narrative structures, which makes Game of Thrones a cult television series despite the rejection of the final season from critics and fans.

Keywords: Game of Thrones, TV series, film theory, media studies, epistemology of media

Surovtsev Valery Aleksandrovich, Rodin Kirill Aleksandrovich LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN ON COLOR CONCEPTS AND THEIR LOGIC // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 4 (18). P. 222-234

The paper suggests some keys to understanding Ludwig Wittgenstein’s late notes on colors. The authors point here at the crucial difference between the internal and external relations. This distinction is comparatively common for the later Wittgenstein and appears one of the main contexts in Wittgenstein’s investigations of colors as research of kinds of logical differences. The authors also consider Wittgenstein’s scattered notes in accordance with the following main contexts: language games and their dependence on perception, the relationship between color concepts and empirical judgments about the color of everyday objects, identity, interdependence between colors as a kind of a logical system and everyday language games. The paper also focuses on various exceptions from our color system (from the cases of color blindness to the natural relativization of color logic within a variety of language games). Finally, the authors consider the problem of meaning in connection with the study of color concepts.

Keywords: color, color concepts, identity, logic of colors, language games, internal and external relations

Inishev Ilya Nikolaevich, Biedash Yuliya Anatolyevna THE VISUAL, SOCIAL, AND IMAGINATIVE: VISUAL PERCEPTION AS A FACTOR OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 1 (7). P. 9-25

The main theme of the article is the notion of paradigmatic character of visual image for the topical and methodological self-consciousness of the visual culture studies. Among main questions under consideration are the following: what is a structural unity between material and meaningful aspects of visual representations? How is this unity connected to the ways the socially relevant visual representations circulate in contemporary culture? One of the key conclusions of the article: the notion of the specific iconic materiality – the structural interconnection of modes of seeing, understanding and presence, put into effect in some perceptive acts – is able to function as an explanatory model for a set of important processes in contemporary visual culture such as the current priority of visual forms of communication, historical durability of cultural imagery (despite instability and diversity of their visual embodiment), enhancement of the role of visual literacy and, as a consequence, necessity of the revision of current educational standard.

Keywords: image, visual culture, iconic materiality, iconic rite