Smirnov Sergey Alevtinovich PHILOSOPHER IN THE CITY: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE PLACE Article 1. Mikhail Bakhtin // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 3 (21). P. 43-61

A series of articles in which the author poses the problem of the connection between the life and the biography of the philosopher with the life and biography of the city begins with this work. Through the identification of event links between the biography of a particular philosopher’s person and the places in the cities in which his life took place, the author proposes to examine the problem of how the place’s autobiography is formed. The author considers the specifics of philosophical autobiographies through the prism of the biography of the city. The article proposes a working model for the reconstruction of the author’s habitat. The reconstruction scheme is in an attempt to restore the author’s habitat and events of his life by highlighting layers consisting of socalled “units” and “organizations”. Units of reconstruction are artifacts (things, objects, material objects, results of activity), signs (texts, symbolic structures), values and meanings, events and actions. Artifacts form such organization as urban infrastructures. Signs form a city text. Values and meanings form the memory of the city. Events and actions constitute everyday life in the city. Each author, as a result, creates his own trajectory of life, his autobiography, consisting of these units, which are then restored and reconstructed by researchers. Each specific biography of a particular philosopher will be considered in the language of the proposed construct. This article discusses the biography of M. M. Bakhtin. It is shown that the sources of Bakhtin’s biography (artifacts, texts, etc.) are very scarce. The texts are fragmentary and incomplete. Events and actions are hidden and difficult to recover. Values and meanings, of course, have to be reconstructed. As a result, Bakhtin, as an author, confirms with his biography his own thesis about the outsidedness and unfinalizability of the author’s thoughts and actions. The philosopher himself tried in every possible way to disappear from the geographical map of the territory of residence, forcing researchers to engage more in the interpretation and reconstruction of the author’s life than in analyzing the real facts of his life. At the same time, even the disappearing event point, which Bakhtin as an author is for subsequent researchers, clearly shows his discrepancy with himself and also the auto-reflective, event-related nature of the philosophers’ autobiography in principle.

Keywords: autobiography, philosophical autobiography, memory visualization, city, place, artifact, event, city text

Skórzyńska Agata VISUAL SUBVERSION AND THE RESISTANCE OF MATTER. THE POLITICAL ONTOLOGY OF A “DISCIPLINING CITY” // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 87-105

The article addresses practices of visual subversion undertaken by an independent contemporary art center called The Substation in Singapore. The curator project, “Discipline the City” examines the question of social control written into space and material and technological circumstances in a contemporary, highly urbanized metropolis. Drawing on the accomplishments of contemporary visual studies and urban studies and incorporating “material turn” into their discourse, I examine the issue of control in a disciplining city, where the source of oppression is not institutionalized and objectified power, but the material and visual properties of an urbanized reality. The political ontology of a disciplining city encompasses both forms of oppression and subversion, built into the relationships between objects, artifacts, technologies, people and other organisms that unveil themselves in social practices.

Keywords: urban studies, visual studies, material turn, subversion, political ontology, disciplinary city, disciplining city, urban praxis, The Substation, Singapore

Novoselova Elena Vladimirovna THE CUZCO SCHOOL PAINTING AS A WORLDVIEW MODEL // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 1 (27). P. 124-141

The article considers the phenomenon of the Cuzco School of painting (one of the most original phenomena of cultural life not only in the Andean region, but also in Latin America in general during the colonial period) as a reflection of the worldview of the Indians of the colonial period. Indians themselves created paintings, although under the control of the Spanish clergy, in order to Christianize the local population, which makes these visual sources important. Despite the significance of the topic and the number of studies devoted to it, many aspects of the problem have not yet been fully interpreted. In many ways, this applies to ideological and worldview aspects. In this regard, the author analyses Cuzco paintings in semiotic, rather than purely artistic, terms: what aspects of the worldview are behind a particular symbol and motif. To solve this problem, the author analyzes a number of paintings of the Cuzco School (the most promising for the research) in order to identify the worldview elements – reflected in the images, motifs, and colors – the paintings contain. It is impossible to conduct such an analysis without using comparative data from other sources on the peculiarities of the Indian worldview, especially written ones. The simultaneous creation of both groups of sources allows drawing relevant parallels with respect to the same research objects. For the convenience and clarity of the analysis, the author typologizes worldview elements based on the principle of origin. Traditionally, they can be divided into Indian, Spanish-Christian, and mixed. The author also gives a brief overview of the main artistic traditions that influenced the formation of the school (Spanish Baroque, Indian beliefs and elements of art, etc.). The analysis of the artistic and stylistic features of the works from the point of view of their ideological content allows drawing the following conclusions. Firstly, many of the symbols and motifs of the Cuzco School go directly back to pre-Hispanic Indian beliefs. Secondly, many of these symbols and motifs are not explicit yet can be read without much effort. Thirdly, the Spanish-Christian elements are largely external, declarative in nature, with a number of concessions to pagan motives. All this suggests that the worldview of the Indians of the colonial period was complex and multi-faceted in its composition. At the same time, it is important to note that none of the worldview systems appears in its original form because of the dramatic process of the collision of these two systems and the creation of a new one on their basis. Nevertheless, based on the analysis of the paintings of the Cuzco School, there is reason to believe that in this mosaic system of the Indian worldview, pre-Hispanic elements can be considered pre-existing. All this testifies to a genuine synthesis of worldviews and to the mestizo character of the Cusco School as a cultural and social phenomenon.

Keywords: Cuzco School, history and culture of Peru, colonial period, religion

Forteza Fernandez Rafael Filiberto, Rubtsova Elena Valerievna, Forteza Rojas Saimelyn Aileen CONTENT EDULCORATION AS IDEOLOGY VISUALIZATION IN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSEBOOK // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 4 (26). P. 172-193

Based on post-structural definitions of discourse(s), the article is aimed at criticizing the reductionist essence of canonical definitions of Teacher Language Awareness (TLA)], perceived as a formula for the regurgitation of western discourse practices in the English Language Teaching classroom. Based on a multimodal perspective and an ideological conceptual square, the research reports a case study illustrating how Euro-American imperial history is visualized in its entextualization in the non-language material of an English language textbook. The results of the case study reveal that in the process of re-entextualization the authors have de-emphasized the negative image of the Self by negating not only the Euro-American colonial atrocities but also their post-colonial repetition such as fascism in Spain. This concealment or content sanitation is part of the untarnished image the West projects through ELT as part of its role in the process of globalization and its connection to the neo-liberal empire, a fact that openly challenges the validity of TLA as a construct. The work also introduces the concept ‘content edulcoration’ (education + dulce (in Spanish) + decoration) understood as the means of syntactic and lexical language manipulation as well as its realization in the voice of transcript readers and images, all of which make non-language material suitable for educational purposes. From a practical viewpoint, each of the instances in the case study offers the counter-discourse necessary for resistance to the neo-colonization of the mind. The article suggests a reconceptualization of teacher formation and development in the era of globalization as well as the feasibility of researching similar issues in other major European language teaching textbooks.

Keywords: EFL, discourse(s), ideology, teacher language awareness, content sanitation, content edulcoration, Euro-American colonial history, colonization of mind, multimodality

Afanasov Nikolai Borisovich HAYAO MIYAZAKI IN SEARCH OF THE WORLD // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 2 (28). P. 130-140

The Russian translation of Susan Napier’s monograph Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art is being reviewed. The book should be considered as the most fundamental research on the visual semiotics in the works of the Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki. Through the prism of visuality, the author analyses philosophical meanings that the director put in his films. From the perspectives of cultural theory and philosophy of culture, the monograph is particularly interesting because it allows going deeper into the interpretations of topics, key in the 20th-century culture, in Japanese animation. Among other things, Napiers’s book could be of interest for all academics interested in frontier studies and such philosophical topics as ecological thinking, feminism, new materialism, and apocalyptic thinking. This review is based on the research initiatives of visual semiotics. The analysis of Susan Napier’s intellectual ways of working with the visual nature of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime can be useful not only for those interested in the understanding of the direct meanings of the Japanese animator’s works, it also claims to reveal the internal mechanisms of visual representations of cultural phenomena. In other words, Napier’s book, in addition to revealing the hidden and non-obvious meanings of works of art, contributes to the general theory of working with the visual reality. The review also focuses on a number of inconsistent moves in Napier’s thinking and offers its own interpretation of the controversial aspects in the book.

Keywords: visual semiotics, anime, culture theory, philosophy of culture, social philosophy, ecology, Japan

Bernatonite Ada. V. PASOLINI AND MANDELSTAM: STYLISTIC AFFINITY OF CREATIVE POSITIONS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 3 (9). P. 115-124

In this article the author makes an attempt to trace the spiritual and creative components of Pasolini and Mandelstam worldview, explicate identical patterns in its construction. Careful attention to detail and things, including them in imaging system of verse, animation of the material world and sacrificial attitude toward death unites these two poets, despite the difference of time and language.

Keywords: infantilism, the absurdity of existence, world of things, paradoxes of the mind, the search for meaning, intuitive insight, finding the highest point

Karpowicz Agnieszka “THE THIRD SPACE” AND FOUR WARSAWS. LITERARY CARTOGRAPHY IN THE STUDY OF URBAN CULTURE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 69-86

The article attempts to justify the use of cartography as a method of studying literature rooted spatially and autobiographically, the example being Miron Białoszewski’s map of Warsaw created as part of the project “Topo-Graphies: city, map, literature”. Literary cartography is presented here both as a method of interpreting literature and researching urban culture. At the same time, attention is drawn to its contribution to the understanding of cartography and the theory of space and methodology of cultural studies, as well as to the social and ideological dimensions of creating maps, especially their iconicity.

Keywords: city, urban culture, map, literary cartography, geocriticism, geopoetics, “third space”, topography, Topo-Graphies, Warsaw, Miron Białoszewski, spatial practices, literature as urban practice

Serbina Galina Nikolaevna, Dedyukhina Khristina Vladimirovna, Galitskaya Violetta Aleksandrovna, Schekotin Evgeny Viktorovich VISUAL-ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF PHOTOS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 1 (7). P. 122-131

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

Rybchynskyi Oleh V. CHANGES IN MARKET SQUARES OF HISTORICAL CITIES AND TOWNS OF UKRAINE IN THE 20th CENTURY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 4 (6). P. 76-91

Market square of a city or town is a spatial frame where the notion of lower middle class was formed and in which memorial events took place. Due to the tragic events of the 20th century – the First and Second World Wars, Holodomor (famine) and Holocaust, emigration and moving of peoples, destructions and distortions of town space – market squares have become a certain mythological construct. After the damages of the First World War the market squares were restored and were actively functioning. In the second half of the 20th century, most market squares were completely destroyed. Distortions of the market squares resulted in the disappearance of urban patriotism and deformation of town resident’s identity.

Keywords: market squares, historical town, spatial symbol, architectural monument, town resident’s identity

Krupnik Igor Leonidovich, Karpukhina Svetlana Pavlovna REPRESENTATION OF DEATH EXPERIENCE IN THE S.SALGADO’S CREATIVE HERITAGE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 2 (24). P. 74-90

This article addresses the specific features of visualization of death in the 20th century on the example of the photographic heritage of Sebastião Salgado. Studying death as one of the key elements of collective consciousness French scholar Ph. Aries distinguishes five historical periods of development and modification of the attitude towards death. XX century is tragically known for its numerous wars and dramatic events resulting in massive loss of life and - following the scholar - became the time of “reversed death”. Displacement of death to the periphery of social and cultural life which was noted by Aries, shows the feeling of fear of death which became not worth mentioning taboo. The effort to distance ourselves from death leads to the fact that death becomes available only with help of various indirect methods such as photography. Mediatization of death allows to create a feeling of control over that phenomenon. In creative works of widely known Brazilian photographer S. Salgado one can identify a number of different series dedicated to visualization of mortality. Photo images of death created by the Brazilian photographer become a projection and conceptualization of death. Looking at photo series from South and Central Africa and America one can conclude that the image of death – the central theme of Salgado’s work – gets various ways of representation. The main ways of representation of death became aestheticization and the quest for abstract context for which his works are seriously criticized. The photographic heritage of Sebastião Salgado became an important link between documentary photography of wartime involuntarily filled with images of death and virtual images of death in modern media.

Keywords: photography, death, mortality, Salgado, representation

Abramova Anastasiya Vladimirovna THE POSSIBILITY OF LIBERAL EUGENICS: ABSOLUTISM OF MORALITY VS PARTICULARISM OF MORALITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 3 (29). P. 19-38

Questions of eugenics still remain relevant, which is not only due to the scientific appeal of the subject of the research, but also has a certain social and political subtext. Ethical communication includes a different number of opinions on this issue: their analysis is important for creating a system of moral requirements in comparison with the traditional, classical understanding of morality. In order to talk about the possibility of liberal eugenics, the author of the article sets two main tasks: 1) to determine what the concept “moral system” includes, isolating the boundaries of the action of morality (particularizing) or, conversely, making it universal in its prescriptions (absolutizing); 2) to establish whether eugenic “interventions” associated with genetic variability are possible in this regard, or they are unacceptable. In the course of solving the first problem, the author comes to the conclusion that the logic does not contradict the individual-perfectionist morality: my desire is realizable if it does not infringe on the interests of other people and does not cause them any harm. Consequently, the traditional (classical) understanding of morality, which claims to be universal and universally valid, has outlived itself, and in the context of applied research is unacceptable since moral norms are idealized and abstracted from a specific human life. Therefore, within the framework of the study of the second task, the author believes that moral reorientation is necessary. However, full legalization can lead to the blurring of the boundaries of ideas about good and evil, and, in the case of a paternalistic approach, morality should be based on the precautionary principle associated with responsibility to future generations, which in this case forces us to return to absolute moral restrictions. Human curiosity generates a desire for eugenic research: the author of the article, by analyzing the moral dilemmas presented in specific cases, demonstrates that despite the fact that eugenic prospects seem quite tempting, they are fraught with certain “pitfalls” that can have unpredictable consequences. Therefore, even if moral absolutism does not stand up to criticism, its power remains significant. There is no doubt that the moral permissibility of interventions in the gene structures of potential members of the community should have its own limits of “justification”: if universal criteria are developed, their number will increase over time because it is impossible to grasp and anticipate all the cases of a particular human life, and this will lead to the blurring of the boundaries of the morally permissible. Therefore, the particularism of morality, as a way out of the situation, is not a new moral system, but a kind of a negative belt of heuristics that helps to ethically justify each specific unique case in liberal eugenics. The necessity of semiotic diagnostics of the boundaries of the morally permissible in each unique case has been fixed.

Keywords: semiotic diagnostics of the boundaries of the morally permissible, ethical discourse, biomedical technologies, absolutist moral prohibitions, moral choice, moral risk, pater-nalism, traditional morality, consequentialism

Machtyl Katarzyna THE SURROUNDING AND THE SURROUNDED. DYNAMIC CITY-SUBJECT RELATIONS IN THE LIGHT OF EXISTENTIAL SEMIOTICS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 106-119

The article presents the study of urban space form the existential semiotics point of view. The main notions presented in this paper are the surrounding (i.e. the environment – landscape – city space) and the surrounded (subject – an individual human body). Maintaining the structuralist way of semiotic thinking, the author refers to the concepts of Ferdinand de Saussure (langue and parole), Algirdas-Julien Greimas (englobant / englobé), Michel de Certeau (strategies and tactics) and finally Eero Tarasti (existential semiotics, highlining the figure of the subject). The nature-culture relation discussed here is being presented in the perspective of biosemiotics also. The main part of the article contains the author’s proposal of applying Tarasti’s concept to the city space: firstly, his concept of the landscape semiotics (from 2000) and next the concept of the dynamic “Z-model” (from 2015). As the result, there is presented a complex semiotic study of the city space in the frame of the paradigm of existential semiotics.

Keywords: Semiology, structuralism, existential semiotics, biosemiotics, nature-culture relations, landscape, urban space, subject, environment, Z-model, surrounding, surrounded, tactics, strategies

Shcheblanova Veronika Vyacheslavovna, Loginova Larisa Viktorovna, Surkova Irina Yurievna DISCOURSES OF THE URBAN COMMUNITY OF INTERNET MEMES: BETWEEN CONSTRUCTIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE CIVIC ACTIVITY OF THE YOUTH // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 3 (25). P. 136-155

Internet sites are an additional space of uniting by interests, a place for upholding rights and freedoms. They are becoming more popular for social activism manifestations. Conflicting, destructive interactions in the formats of trolling, fail, and flame are observed in social networks within the seeming freedom of the Internet. A popular way for young people to present their sociopolitical views is the Internet meme: a visual-verbal means of mass communication, a tool for activation, a translator of emotions. The aim of this study is to analyze the visual-discursive features of the information content of the youth regional community “Memes about Native Saratov” posted on the social network VKontakte. “Memes about Native Saratov” is a group of sociopolitical “digital folklore”, the main content of which is Internet memes and their discussion. The criteria for choosing the “Memes about Native Saratov” group were: openness of the official regional Internet community; daily updates with new content; availability of sociopolitical content; publications with radical, rude, aggressive destructive content; quantitative and demographic characteristics. This Internet community has a significant number of young subscribers in Saratov Oblast. The members of the community, jokingly and seriously, draw sociopolitical images of the urban environment, criticize the indifference of the power structures of the region and Russia, the inaction of utility service providers, or the indifference of the city dwellers. The consistently solved research problems were focused on the collection and interpretation of discursive data using the methodology of qualitative and quantitative content analysis. The results of the analysis of three topics indicating the community’s semantic field—“Authorities Serving the People”, “Communal Lawlessness”, “Center–Periphery: ‘Russian sorrows’ ”—are presented in the article. The field included 125 memes. The authors’ understanding of the content of a constructive and destructive civic orientation is formulated in the article. Based on the score ranking, the rating of youth activity within the selected topics of the semantic field of the community for the period of 2019 was compiled. The general episodes and the specifics of discursive content, its destructiveness in Internet memes of various semiotic structures and comments on memes in each thematic area of the “Memes about Native Saratov” community were determined. The tendencies observed in the civic discourses of the youth are revealed, the prospects of manifestations of youth citizenship in the urban Internet community are identified. The study allowed the authors to present the specifics of the content of each thematic area identified within the “Memes about Native Saratov” Internet community, with a focus on the analysis of destructiveness, the discursive features of its content.

Keywords: urban Internet community, youth, civic activity, destructive content, constructive content, memes, visual-discursive content, content analysis

Korshunova Evgeniya Alexandrovna MOSCOW AS A TEXT IN THE WORKS BY SERGEI N. DURYLIN: AUDIO AND VISUAL ASPECTS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 3 (25). P. 72-86

The article analyzes the problems of the poetic style of the “Moscow text” in the works of Sergei N. Durylin (1887–1954) based on the notes V Rodnom Uglu [Hometown. The Life of Old Moscow] (1928–1939) written in the Tomsk exile and the poem from the “Moscow cycle” “A. R. Artyom” (1926), which is being published for the first time. Aside from the traditional approach used by literary scholars, which proposes to consider urban space as a text, the article uses a multidisciplinary visual-anthropological approach, which considers a city as a visual-communicative text and a cultural-communicative environment. This is relevant due to both a new surge of interest in urban issues and due to the peculiarities of the poetic style of the writer’s works. It is the audiovisual code that makes it possible to most adequately consider the “urban space” in Durylin’s mentioned works as the most representative for considering this topic. Durylin’s poem “A. R. Artem” serves as the micro-model of the “Moscow text”. It contains the main audiovisual semiotic “signs” of “urban space” (the image of silence, on the background of which the “sounding world” of the Moscow house and its inhabitants are depicted: Alexander R. Artyom, Anton P. Chekhov, the cat). This emphasizes the importance of the anthropological aspect in the formation of the “Moscow text” model because characters, not cultural objects or loci, are bearers of the “Moscow spirit”. In the course of the analysis, an attempt was made to determine the place of the notes V Rodnom Uglu, which had not been previously analyzed by literary scholars, in the literary process of the era. Along with other Moscow texts, a novel about Moscow by Andrei Bely, poems by Marina I. Tsvetaeva, Happy Moscow by Andrei Platonov, “Moscow” works by Mikhail A. Bulgakov and Ivan S. Shmelyov, Durylin is trying to create his own invariant of the “Moscow myth”. Diverging from the construction of the traditional plot, Durylin creates and depicts the images of the capital (quiet, golden-domed, Great Russian) which acquired an almost mythological status for the writer, expressed Moscow’s unique and timeless face, which is almost always of national significance for the writer, and, one must think, showed the reader a certain perspective on reading the notes that make up the core of Durylin’s “Moscow text”. The writer identifies three important concepts that represent Moscow’s face: the soul of Moscow, the third Rome, dissolved in the historical post-revolutionary second Babylon, became the invisible Moscow-Kitezh, a city that should rise again. It is also important that Durylin presents his supertext about the city primarily as a “human way of being in existence” and, therefore, about space as a cultural dimension of being. Along with this, he presents the sacred archetype of sobornost as culture-forming. Trying to create an objective picture, the author pays attention to the testimonies of foreigners Herbert Wells, Émile Verhaeren, and others.

Keywords: “Moscow text”, audio-visual code, multidisciplinary, Durylin, sobornost, archetype

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich UNIVERSITY AND FORMATION OF URBAN REALITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 3 (21). P. 268-276

This report clarifies the position of the university in the modern city. The relationship between the city and the university as cultural and anthropological constructs expressing the existential order of human existence is considered. The author defines the role of the university in the creation, structuring and transformation of the cultural space of the city. The article formulates the university mission, which is the formation of anthropological reality. The position of openness of the university to the city and the city to the university is argued. The prospect of overcoming the university’s strict local binding to a specific place in the perspective of understanding and visual structuring of urban space is investigated. The author outlines the perspective of mutual transparency and the merger of the city and the university in the context of solving the general problem of humanization of habitable space.

Keywords: city, university, inhabited space, visual environment, spatial localization, humanization of urban studies

Robezhnik Liubov V.. COLORISTIC CULTURE AND REALITY OF THE MODERN CITY: FROM THE THEORETICAL BASIS TO THE PRACTICAL EMBODIMENT // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 161-173

This study is devoted to a review of theoretical foundations and concepts in the field of the use of color as an important visual component of the urban environment, as an integral part of any physical form. Color has a significant impact on the person’s emotional perception of space. Also, through color, the human mind actualizes many associative chains, which influence the process of identifying a place, cultural affiliation, etc. The concept of coloristic culture is described, and the main objects and phenomena associated with this concept are identified. Coloristic culture currently carries a certain aspect of binarity. On the one hand, there is an influence of international culture, which forms supranational tendencies in the field of coloristics and, ideally, the action of which should be aimed at the realization of universal human values. On the other hand, the importance of regional culture and its manifestations, including in the field of color, is increasing. It contributes to the deep processes of “rooting” of a person through internal identification of himself / herself with a particular culture, region, place. The rapid growth of cities, the proximity of multi-temporal architectural objects on the same environmental site, the need to search for new techniques and tools in the urban navigation actualized the use of color as an effective means of harmonizing individual city formations and the city as a whole, as well as the means of orientation in a complicated city structure. The next step is to analyze the influence of theoretical concepts on the decision-making process in the field of coloristics of the city at the present time. How real is this process regulated, to what extent is it formed spontaneously, and doesn’t it lead to the significant professional influence? Changes in urban planning associated with the transition from the working out of master plans for the city development for a period of one or two decades to the elaboration of short-term master plans are analyzed. The possibilities of professional and unprofessional influence on the coloristic decisions of the modern city are reviewed. The complex and laborious process of working with historical coloristics is described. The third stage of research includes the description of phenomena and trends in the field of color and plastic, which are only gaining strength in their influence on the urban environment and require further theoretical reflection and forecasting. Examples of the use of new materials and technologies and their influence on the color of architectural objects are given. It is noted that if in the last century architecture was the compositionally dominant color carrier, now there is the possibility of forming a memorable coloristic image of the city through iconic paving and geoplastics, an active navigation system, and the use of landscaping elements with a variety of polychrome. The information content of color, its multitextuality make it an important tool of the “culture of real virtuality” in the information age of the world.

Keywords: city, urban space, urban environment, visual environment, color in architecture, modern architecture, experimental design.

Logutov Andrey Vladimirovich A SOUNDSCAPE OF KNOWLEDGE: LISTENING TO WIKIPEDIA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 2 (24). P. 12-24

The paper’s primary objective is to analyze a particular example of sonification at work, namely the project called Listen to Wikipedia where certain events such as creating, editing or deleting Wikipedia entries or the registration of new users trigger musical events arranged in a somewhat probabilistic, ambient-like sonic output. For that purpose, in the opening paragraphs of the paper we give a brief outline of the current state of the research in sonification drawing from recent handbooks and companions. Next, we discuss what qualities of hearing as a primary medium are important for understanding the limitations and strengths of sonification as a technique of information transfer. Drawing from Michel Chion’s seminal paper on sound in cinema, we also talk about how three listening modes (i.e. causal, semantic and reduced listening) can affect such transfer, and lead to different approaches in sonification. We also discuss the generative nature of sonification and how the generative principles at work within a particular sound interface may be of more importance than the input data per se. The analysis of Listen to Wikipedia proceeds along the lines laid out in the introductory paragraphs. Close attention is paid to the musical side of the project beginning with its rhythmic and instrumental qualities and finally zooming in on its harmonic content. Of equal importance is the fact that the generative principle used in the project draws the listener’s attention from the content of Wikipedia over and across to its metaphorical and virtual existence as a sounding body or a sonically active medium, whose transformations are being translated into a chain of musical events. This body may be assigned a density (corresponding to number of links amongst the entries) and a size (growth in larger increments produces lower sound, and vice versa). Thus, the causal and the reduced listening modes seem to be encouraged in the listener whereas the semantic mode is somewhat downplayed. The euphony and sonority of the resulting sound feed opens up the possibility of perceiving it as a natural process not much different from a purl of water or a bustle of leaves, which makes one wonder whether the distributed subjectivity is what really being represented in the sonification. We also point out, based on our previous research, that sonic practices and phenomena very often serve as dynamic interfaces between the private and the public, and Listen to Wikipedia may also be construed as such an interface. The nature of the audio feed creates an immersive environment facilitating the process of joining Wikipedia, and presenting the latter as a conflict-free, harmonious medium.

Keywords: sonification, auditory display, connotation, sonic humanities, sound studies, soundscape, Wikipedia

Ladov Vsevolod A. GOTTLOB FREGE’S SEMANTICS IN MODERN ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 3 (33). P. 97-110

Frege’s well-known “semantic triangle” (sign – sense – reference) assumed ontological implications of Platonism, since the sense of the sign was understood here as an ideal, objective entity, by analogy with Plato’s eidos. One of the most fundamental opponents of Platonism in the tradition of analytic philosophy was the late Ludwig Wittgenstein, who proposed the concept of “meaning as use” in which the idea of sense (meaning) as some kind of stable, immutable, ideal essence was completely denied. However, in recent decades, analytic philosophy has shown a revival of attention to metaphysical problems. Moreover, the representatives of neo-Fregeanism blame Frege himself for the failure of the Platonist ontological program in the analytic philosophy of the twentieth century arguing that he expressed correct intuitions, but did not give weighty arguments in defense of his position. This allowed his opponents to take a dominant position in the modern philosophy of language. The article discusses the arguments of Jerrold Katz’s concept of linguistic Platonism against the views of the late Wittgenstein on the nature of the meaning of a linguistic expression. The author shows that the demonstration of these new arguments can make Frege’s semantics more viable in relation to criticism from the late Wittgenstein. The author invites modern Russian analytic philosophers to join the discussion on this topic, evaluate the weight of the arguments of each side, and draw their own conclusions based on the considerations presented in this article.

Keywords: Frege, Wittgenstein, Katz, sense, meaning, reference, language, semantics, syntax, grammar, word, sentence, naturalism, skepticism, metaphysics

Panciuchin Joanna THREE MONTHS IN POLAND. RESISTANCE PERFORMANCES ON WROCLAW’S STREETS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 57-68

The article concerns resistance performances, which can be considered as one of the most important elements of modern democracies. Citizens are looking for new forms of influence on the representatives of the authorities and other decision-makers. Forms such as pickets, protests, demonstrations, and marches over the years have become the basic tools used by members of modern democratic societies. They reflect not only social problems and tensions resulting from systemic transformation (in terms of politics, law, and economics), but also strivings, aspirations, attitudes, cultural patterns of behavior and lifestyle changes. Of course, they take on various, often extensive forms, and their participants use a variety of performative strategies. In the colors used, in the materials used, in the sounds, shouts, slogans written on banners, in graphic signs, symbols the axiological order is present. After William J. T. Mitchell and Judith Butler, it can be stated that the very presence of a “physical” body of protesters in public space is a concrete form of resistance. The evoked performances, of course, are not limited only to being in a specific place and time. They have adopted and are still adopting very diverse forms, which in turn are closely related to the ideological layer. It is about the axiological order made present in the slogans, symbols, actions, street performances. In this article, the author attempts to conduct a cultural studies analysis of three events that took place in Wrocław between November 2018 and January 2019: a march on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of regaining independence by Poland, a demonstration against the mass shooting of boars and the silent march after the assassination of the president of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz. Each of these forms is characterized by different aesthetics, and also shows the diversity of ways of life, thinking of Polish citizens, and, consequently, the axes of disputes and conflicts dividing them.

Keywords: resistance, performance, manifestation, demonstration, march, Poland, city, public space, urban space, axiology

Martishina Natalya Ivanovna A MYTHOLOGICAL COMPONENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IMAGE OF THE CITY AND URBAN IDENTITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 3 (25). P. 168-178

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of constructing urban identity in the rapidly growing Russian metropolis. The author analyzes the social construction of the image of the city and urban identity based on the epistemological concept of the diversity of types of cognition. In the framework of this concept, religion, mythology, art, etc. are considered as various logical systems that use specific methods of presenting and processing information; moreover, each of the types of cognition has its own, not completely replaced by other types, functions in the overall cognitive process. As a result, we see the combining and interweaving of everyday experience and scientific information, mythologies and ideological attitudes, artistic representations and philosophical generalizations in the construction of complex epistemological images such as the image of the city. The regularity of the presence of a mythological component in the construction of the image of the city and urban identity is related to the fact that some cognitive patterns of the myth solve some problems arising in this construction more efficiently than the rational forms of thinking. The most important of these mythological schemes are: (1) the anthropomorphic nature of mythological representation, which allows personifying the image of the object and thereby creating a human attitude to it; (2) the case determinism: the myth explains social facts by unique events that have occurred in the past and have shaped this or that tradition. The case determinism makes it possible to construct explanations when other grounds are unavailable; (3) the special semantic load of the naming procedure in mythological thinking, which includes, among other things, the ability to change the status and fate of an object by changing its name. This scheme is also in demand in conditions of lack or obscurity of other, more pragmatic ways of changing social reality. The functional complementarity of the types of cognition clearly manifests itself in a situation of a shortage of objective grounds for the image of “my city”. In cities with a long history and prevailing cultural traditions or with special distinctive features of the climate, nature, location, the construction of the image of the city is based on objective characteristics, and the scientific (historical, cultural) knowledge, as well as the artistic component, dominates in it. In the absence of features that clearly mark the city, the non-rational, including mythological, component of the image of the city increases. We can trace this trend by example of Novosibirsk—a relatively young technological metropolis. The mythological component in the image of the city is strong both in the mass consciousness of the citizens and in official rhetoric. The main mythological schemes in the construction of the image of Novosibirsk are the personification of the moment of the emergence of the city by strengthening of the figure of the demiurge—a person who creates the city as a new social world by his own free will and independent decision; the purposeful creation of iconic places with the subsequent attribution of history to them (an analogue of a mythological precedent); the formation of the tradition of preserving all historical names when naming streets in order to create the effect of “depth of history”.

Keywords: modern mythology, image of city, urban identity, social construction, types of cognition

Lurie Zinaida Andreevna THEATER OF THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD: BETWEEN “SCHOOL” AND “CITY” // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 4 (26). P. 98-111

The article, based on the material of late medieval Germany, examines the place of the theater as a communicative channel in urban space. The author proceeds from the idea that paratheatre (processions, various games, etc.) played an important role in the dialogue between the authorities and the city community, whereas performances themselves, starting from the first decades of the 15th century, were a channel of intercity communication. Different classes had access to the production of performances, which led to the generally neutral nature of theatrical texts that performed mainly conservative and entertaining functions. Has the role of the theater changed in connection with the development of humanism and institutionalization of the theater within the school system in the Early Modern Period? The article attempts to answer this question on the material of the works of the early Protestant writer Sixt Birck. In historiography, his works are viewed through the prism of the political dimension, and he is classified as a very refined, intellectual writer. However, according to the author of the article, Birck’s texts differ little from the late medieval tradition. The analysis shows that Birck maintains the same values of stability and medieval topoi. However, the "School" clearly pushes the "City" to comprehend social experience.

Keywords: Reformation, fastnachtspiel, humanism, Conrad Celtis, dramaturgy, performance

Pichugina Viktoriya Konstantinovna, Mozhajsky Andrey Jur'evich TRAGIC VISUALIZATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL SPACE OF THEBES IN STATIUS’ THEBAID // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 3 (25). P. 99-117

The Thebaid by Publius Papinius Statius is the most extensive surviving account of the war started by the sons of the Theban king Oedipus—Eteocles and Polynices. This fratricidal war is a crime that Statius wants to tell the reader about, having established himself in the role of a moralizing poet who is equally Roman and Greek. In the case of Oedipus’ children, the war is a divine instruction-punishment that mortals cannot or do not want to prevent. Eteocles and Polynices, as described by Statius, are young men evil by nature, experiencing the innate hatred of each other and lust for power. Having mixed the genres, Statius created a new version of the mythological events, which both ancient Greek and ancient Roman playwrights turned to. In his version, Eteocles and Polynices are not the last generation to whom the curse passed. Though the curse descended on the male line among the descendants of the Theban king Laius, it inevitably affected the female line as well. As if giving Eteocles and Polynices a chance to become better, Statius keeps delaying the beginning of the war, which allows Polynices to have a baby who is destined to become the fourth generation of the “wicked family”. Statius does not report on the fate of this child, giving readers the right to decide for themselves whether he will become the next pedagogical fiasco or turn into a pedagogical victory over the curse of the House of Laius. The article also analyzes the terminology used by Statius and Hyginus regarding the burial of Polynices—one of the key points of the plot. To refer to the funeral pyre, Hyginus uses the word ‘pyra’ borrowed from Greek (πυρά). Statius chooses to use the Latin word ‘bustum’ to refer to the funeral pyre of Eteocles, where Antigone and Argia place the body of Polynices. The scene of Antigone and Argia burying Polynices, described by Statius and Hyginus, is reproduced on a marble sarcophagus dating back to late II AD (Villa Doria Pamphilj). The fact that the version of Antigone and Argia buried Polynices was not invented in the Roman times but is rooted in an ancient Greek tradition going back to the archaic period is confirmed by the artifacts from material culture: for example, a sarcophagus from Corinth dating from the middle of the second century AD, which demonstrates a classical Greek influence, and an Etruscan amphora dating from approx. 550 BC (Basel: Inv. Züst 209), which depicts a combat between Polynices and Tydeus that Argia and her sister Deipyle watched.

Keywords: anthropology of city, tragic visualization, education space of city, Statius, Thebaid

Nikulushkin Konstantin Vladimirovich SEMIOTICS OF THE ANTIQUE PLOT IN NATIONAL AESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ERA OF PETER I (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE DESCRIPTION OF A SOLEMN GATE OF 1703 AND 1704) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 4 (10). P. 82-92

The paper is concerned with the esthetic arrangement of the new elements of Antiquity in structure of the national cultural consciousness that interprets the borrowed ancient text in a perspective of political changes. New antiquity forms were entered by Peter I into the field of Russian semiotics and founded beginning for new cultural ideas in historical formation of Russian esthetics. The Antiquity which is revealed in forms of the Byzantine model is a substratum of the Russian spiritual culture of which its linguistic parameters were set by formulas of works of East Fathers of church in national literature of Russian Middle Ages. Peter the Great’s era combines subject lines of two historically developed modes of ancient art in space of Russian esthetics: East (Greek) and Western (Latin). Article purpose is to analyze connecting of two antique paradigms in ontology of the Russian culture by means of esthetic categories: ‘beautiful’ / ‘ugly’. The research has been conducted on the example of the authentic texts of the beginning of the 18th century on the basis of philological and hermeneutical methods.

Keywords: Russia, Peter the Great, text of ancient art, semiotics, antique mythology, interpretation, art form, semantic field, aesthetics

Ermolova Aleksandra Ivanovna URBAN PUBLIC SPACE OF CHILDHOOD: BORDERS AND NETWORKS (AN EXAMPLE OF ONE TOMSK PLAYGROUND) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 2 (20). P. 177-192

The paper deals with the results of research the everyday family practices in public urban environment. The work is based on the empirical research results (interviews, participant observation). The author uses an interdisciplinary approach, theoretically relying on the work of representatives the sociology of everyday life (I. Hoffman). Improvement of urban environment and consideration the needs of families with children come to the forefront in modern cities. The central part of the city is the most development in urban space, since the center of the city is its face. New city areas are equipped with safe and comfortable playgrounds for children and parents. While the old city areas that came from the Soviet past are poorly equipped and unsafe. The main object of our research is the playground in old city areas, as a place for communication of parents, children and other citizens. The author tried to understand: who are the modern visitors of children’s playgrounds in old city areas? W hy do they need public spaces of childhood? The paper concludes about the heterogeneity and non-obviousness of communities spending time at playgrounds, as well as its wide functional capabilities. This allows us to note the large social potential of children’s playgrounds as possible objects for constructing comfortable public spaces in the city.

Keywords: city, visual environment, public space, playgrounds, network interaction, childhood

Pigalev Alexander Ivanovich THE LIMITS FOR THE VISUAL REGIME OF MODERNITY: THE SYNCRETIС IMAGERY AGAINST THE UNIFORMITY OF SEEING // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 12-30

The paper retraces the formation of the way of seeing of modernity with a view to identifying its limits and thereby the contact zones as the social spaces where it engages with other ways of seeing. The starting point of the analysis is the statement that modernity in the aspect under consideration should be defined by means of pointing at the centrality and even the hegemony of the sight, but only taking into account the peculiarities of man and society that have been transformed by the modernization. The shift from immediacy of societal relations to prevalence of mediation in modernity discloses the fact of social and cultural construction of vision that becomes entangled in a network of mediating structures and turns into visuality as a way of seeing which depends on them. The consideration focuses on the concept of visuality as a representation that, albeit it presupposes the dualism of the signified and the signifier, cannot be interpreted as barely reflecting, imitating, or copying reality. What is at issue in the construal of representation is not the quiet and relaxed relation between the signified and the signifier, but the pervasive ordering of reality to be represented. Just the assumption that the subject coercively frames reality from a certain point of view makes it possible to construe the modernity in tune with Martin Heidegger’s understanding as the age of the dominance of representation. In the issue, the admission of the coercive element of representation makes it possible to specify the way of seeing in modernity as the visual regime. Such approach opens up possibilities, on the one hand, for specifying the ways of seeing which precede modernity and, on the other hand, for the detection of similarities between the theory of the linear perspective and the concept of subjectivity. The consideration proceeds from the point that the imagery of the pre-modern ways of seeing that is characterized by the insufficient structural order contains the syncretic combination of heterogeneous entities or “bricolage” as such random multitude was designated by Claude Levi-Strauss. The transition from the pre-modern way of seeing to the rudiments of the visual regime of modernity is regarded as comparable to the emergence of metaphysics and logic. They had embedded the coercive element in unorganized thinking and besides opened the door for the dominance of representation. The invention of linear perspective is interpreted as the climax of the concept of representation and in the same vein as the counterpart of the formation of subjectivity. It is also pointed out that the linear perspective underlies the only visual regime which seems to be compatible with the philosophy of modernity without reserve and therefore this visual regime is often called “Cartesian perspectivism”. Nevertheless, the question of other ways of seeing does not look as if it is closed and the visual regimes of Northern Renaissance and Baroque as often as not also have a claim on belonging to modernity. In the paper it is argued in favor of the plausibility of another trying to find the sense of alternative visual regimes and hence to decide the issue of the relevance of their attribution to modernity. In fine the concept of baroque in the wide sense is supposed to be the research tool through which the syncretic visual regimes could be studied as the limits for the visual regime of modernity.

Keywords: modernity, visuality, representation, subject, visual regime, linear perspective, Cartesian perspectivism, baroque, syncretism.

Smirnov Svatoslav Viktorovich “TALKING HEADS”: MODES OF NARRATIVENESS OF THE ROYAL HELLENISTIC COIN PORTRAITURE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 2 (24). P. 251-266

The present paper focuses on analysis of narrative of the Hellenistic royal portraits depicted on coins. Unlike most of the portraits in sculpture, mosaics and frescoes, coin portrait has traditionally received only an additional scholarly attention. Coin portraits were usually integrated into research as an optional means to identify portraits of other visual genres. However, the representation and replication of coin portrait with individual traits in the Early Hellenistic period shows the shift from the collective (polis) mind to the individual (monarchy). For Hellenistic kingdoms, the royal coin portrait was not only a key tool of the political propaganda, but also a visual representation of the kingship. For the study of royal coin portrait, the analysis of aesthetics and physiognomic theories of Aristotle and Peripatetics is of a great importance. The Aristotelian heritage highly influenced the Hellenistic art and was of a great importance for all artists. The body as a single sign system becomes an important means of visual narrative exploited by the power for creating positive image of the king and kingship. The ‘Physiognomy’, attributed to unknown follower of Aristotle, reveals some striking parallels with artistic devices, widely used by Hellenistic artists - ‘melting’ eye of Alexander, curly hairstyle of kings, anastole. One of the key motifs of ‘Physiognomy’ was a so-called ‘lion’ style, which indicated virtue and generosity. Some traits of this ‘lion’ style could be found in the Alexander’s portraits and then in the coin portraits of many Hellenistic kings, who to some extend imitated the image of Alexander. The royal coin portrait was made under a strict iconographic canon, where the decorum was important. Thus, it is well known some variations of royal coin portrait – in a diadem, in a helmet, in a kausia, in lion and elephant skin and in a radiate crown. Each of this headwear has its own symbolism. An important aspect of the study is a correlation between legend and image. For the Eastern Hellenistic coinage the process of artistic degradation of coin portrait and simultaneous process of growth of the legend occurs. This process shows a shift of visual and textual priorities from implicit nature of visual narrative to explicit one. Another component of the artistic narrative is a presentation of a ruler as a goddess. This tendency represents a ruler cult, which was widely developed in Hellenism. The visualized image of deified king was widely depicted on coins.

Keywords: Hellenism, narrative, portrait, numismatics, Seleukids, Alexander the Great

Gornova Galina Vladimirovna THE CONFLICT OF URBAN IDENTITY: VISUAL ASPECTS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 3 (25). P. 27-40

The article analyzes the visual representation of the conflict of urban identity. Urban identity is understood as one of the facets of personal identity that exists in the synchronic and diachronic unity. The theory of social roles allows exploring the synchronic aspect of urban identity, highlighting the “transport roles” of the city dweller and the conflicting aspects of “transport identity”. The conflict of urban identity in the synchronic aspect is actualized with sharp and irreparable changes in the urban environment. The conflict affects people’s alienation from the city, the destruction of their urban identity. The diachronic aspect of urban identity is closely related to memorial culture, which contains a wide range of identification choices. Visual representations of memorial culture influence the development of urban identity, the formation of people’s stable representations about themselves as residents of a certain city, the value experience of their connection with the city.

Keywords: city, urban identity, conflict of urban identity, memorial culture

Yakovleva Alexandra Fedorovna, Selezneva Antonina Vladimirovna, Emelyanova Natalia Nikolaevna THE IMAGE OF SCIENCE IN THE VIEWS OF YOUNG SCIENTISTS: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIMENSIONS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 4 (26). P. 194-213

The article is devoted to the main features of young scientists' views about science in the conditions of transformation of the social and cultural environment of modern cities. In the context of implementing "smart cities" projects, it is vital to consider not only the issues of their technological equipment but, first of all, the formation of a distinctive social and cultural scientific environment. The author notes that semiotic effects of both self-presentation of science in one's environment and presentation and representation of this sphere in society have a significant impact on the formation of images of science perception. Especially among young scientists who, due to their age, remain representatives of a particular group of society, but also begin to identify themselves consciously as members of the professional scientific community. It is up to young scientists to build a "visual anthropology" and shape the future space of modern cities. It is noted that the most important role in the formation of public ideas about science is played by the channels of popularization and scientific communication, the development of which in recent years allows us to talk about the communication space in which young scientists form their ideas. The article presents the results of a sociological study conducted in 2019 among the scientific youth of the Central and Siberian districts, designed to identify how the youngest cohort of scientific youth (from 18 to 35 years old) “sees” science, how it perceives its role in its living space, how the image of science in Russia is characterized for them, whether its image is attractive or not. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is a political-psychological approach included formalized interviews and the method of unfinished sentences. The interview materials were subjected to quantitative processing and qualitative analysis. In accordance with the political-psychological approach, the content of young scientists' ideas about science was examined, their cognitive complexity and emotional sign were determined. The study showed the importance of significant judgments and stereotypes, as well as motivational attitudes and professional requests of this group in the context of individual large branches of scientific knowledge. It is concluded that the formation of the living space of a «smart» city is impossible without the development of human capital, serious work with young scientists (including socio-humanities) who will participate in the formation of a full-fledged urban infrastructure of knowledge in a meaningful way, and develop the sociocultural role of science as a certain type of specific activity in the formation of the living environment of cities.

Keywords: «Smart» city, science, young scientists, sociocultural, political-psychological approach

Sazonova Nataliya Ivanovna THE SACRED AND THE SECULAR IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH: ON THE PROBLEM OF BORDERS AND INTERACTION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 1 (27). P. 142-156

The article analyzes the interaction of sacred and secular elements in the space of the Christian Church, the problem of the boundary between the secular and the sacred, and options for its solution in the history of the Christian Church. The nature of the interaction between the sacred and the secular is determined by the cosmic character of Christianity. Christianity seeks to sanctify the surrounding world and change it by divine principles, since the world was created by God and has His image. The highest form of transformation of the world is the sacrament of the Eucharist. The final transformation of the world, according to the Christian doctrine, is possible after the Second Coming of Christ. Since the first centuries of Christianity, the border of the sacred and secular spaces in the temple was mobile, and the service involved the active participation of the laity. In the first centuries of Christianity, the altar of the temple stood out from its space, but was not separated from the faithful. Lay people were able to see what was happening in the altar and participate in the sacraments through offerings. Such features are typical for both Byzantium and Russia of the 10th–13th centuries. Later, the problem of disturbing the balance of the secular and sacred elements appears; it is solved differently in the West and East. The Christian West has taken the path of integrating the sacred into its secular life. Initially, this was manifested in the performance of prayers and sacraments “facing people”. There was an idea that such a performance of prayers corresponds to the Last Supper of Christ and the apostles. For the same reason, the bishop’s place in the church was moved closer to the praying lay people. Later, there was a transition to perform liturgy in national languages. All this led to the progressive desacralization of liturgy. In the East, liturgy developed in a different way. The separation of the sacred and secular spaces became a priority, which was manifested in the increase in the height of the altar barrier and in the appearance of a high iconostasis. Then the activity of lay participation in liturgy decreases, and, in the 17th century, the final separation of the sacred and secular spaces takes place. As a result of Patriarch Nikon’s liturgical reform, the position of the priest changes. A priest is understood as a bearer of grace, whose position is higher than that of a lay person. Words that have a secular meaning are removed from the texts of the service. The sphere of secular life that is separate from church life appears. This leads to the secularization of culture. Thus, Western and Eastern Christians came from the Christian idea of sanctifying the world in different ways to the secularization of culture and worship rather than to the sanctification of the space of people’s lives. But liturgy and the arrangement of the temple in the Christian East, with its tendency to separate its space from the secular, still preserve the sacred content of Christianity to a greater extent than the West.

Keywords: sacred space, secular space, liturgy, liturgical text, temple, laity, priests, Western Christianity, Eastern Christianity, Patriarch Nikon’s liturgical reform

Fereński Piotr Jakub TOMSK. AN IMAGE OF THE TOWN BASED ON A HANDY SKETCHBOOK // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 44-56

Text concerns on visual dimension of urban space. It’s based on analyses of historical and contemporary processes and phenomena shaping that space. The main topic is urban landscape of Tomsk (Russia). Nevertheless, the article contains a theoretical and methodological proposal that connects anthropological-semiotic approach with the idea of presenting various urban aesthetics of the city in context of relations between systems of values and political and economic disputes over the urban space. It’s reflection on patterns of behaviour, norms, beliefs, expectations and needs of citizens. For author, city is not only a physical place structured by material objects but also as a human communicative environment  semiotically and axiologically marked space, which reflects the position of a human being as a cultural subject initiating the cultural activity. On example of wooden buildings, he shows relationship between the socio-cultural and architectural complexes. The author analysed architecture and architectural environment of the city as a text (semiotic construct), which manifests different types of lifestyle, aesthetic preferences, modernisation projects, ambitions of power, political strategies. He is particularly interested in the transformation of “reality” – the impact of urban texts on the perception of space and thinking about space (also in dimension of community and social differences).

Keywords: city, urban space, architecture, culture, cultural heritage, activities of residents, semiotics of urban space, urban studies, urban research, Tomsk, Siberia

Harris John MORAL BLINDNESS –THE GIFT OF THE GOD MACHINE (Translation of R. R. Belyaletdinov) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 4 (22). P. 244-253

The article “Moral Blindness – The Gift of the God Machine” by John Harris is an example of a lively scientific critical discussion. It is written in the form of a refutation of the opponent’s statements and refers to the key problem of ethics: why something should be done. The choice of this article for translation is determined by its polemical fervor, which allows seeing the track on which neurotechnologies actualize the old philosophical discussion about the benefit of and respect for autonomy. Professor Harris indicates the reasons why the development of the biotechnological concept of morality contradicts the very spirit of ethics as a free and creative acquisition of the value of moral action.

Keywords: moral enhancement, the value of life, feminization, the all female world

Tsarev Vjacheslav Nikolaevich LANGUAGE OF THE CONDUCTING GESTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF PEDAGOGICAL PRAXEOLOGY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 232-242

In the article, from the standpoint of system analysis the author considers some features of a fairly young conductor art in the dynamics of its genesis and development, due to the progressive evolution of musical art in general. From the standpoint of pedagogical praxeology, specific examples of outstanding performers (Arnold Katz, Evgeny Mravinsky, Herbert Von Karayan, Alexander Sveshnikov, and others) describe the professional and personal qualities that an orchestra conductor or choir should possess (especially a novice conductor), and features of the creative interaction of the leader collective and performers. Describing conduction as an object of visual perception, the author identifies the leading role of Ilya Aleksandrovich Musin in the formation of the technique of conducting art in Russia, designating the gestures of “triad” – “attention”, “breath” or “auftakt” and “attack of sound”. At the same time, determining the true nature of the art of conducting, the unity of the two main components is noted – the technical side and the expressive one. Emphasizing the primacy of the production, the technical equipment of the manual apparatus, the author updates the significance of the artistic interpretation of the conductor’s gesture, which presupposes the emotional expression of the intention, color, soul of the composer.

Keywords: conductor, conducting gesture, conducting technique, musical performance, language of artistic expressiveness.

Gorelova Julia Robertovna, Mamatulina Alexandra Martanovna THE ARCHITECTURAL COMPONENT OF THE CITY'S IMAGE IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE (ON THE MATERIALS OF OMSK) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 4 (26). P. 41-74

This article aims to examine the reflection of figurative characteristics of the city’s architectural environment in artists’ landscapes. By analyzing individual figurative interpretations by different artists, the authors attempt to determine global tendencies in the reflection of the city’s architectural environment in general, and in its individual elements (architectural objects and spaces) in visual arts in particular. The authors focus attention on the specifics of the presentation of different types of urban spaces, both public and private. Analyzing public spaces of the city center, which form the “grand portrait of the city”, the authors concentrate on the reflection of the city’s landmarks—the most significant semiotic architectural objects and spaces that form a positive and presentable image of the city. Some parts of the urban space are favorite topics of urban landscapes by Omsk artists. It is these spaces that residents perceive as landmarks; they represent the most valuable, in semiotic terms, parts of the urban text. In Omsk, undoubtedly, the landmarks of the city are architectural ensembles in Lenin St. (Lyubinsky Prospect) and Tarskaya St.; ensembles of the Sobornaya and Nikolskaya Squares; the buildings of the Drama Theater, of the Seraphim-Alekseevskaya Chapel and of the River Boat Station, etc. Artists have favorite perspectives in depicting the architectural spaces of the central part of Omsk. One of them is a view from the windows of the House of Artist on the Om’ River, the bridge, and the perspective of Lubinskiy Prospect, which is on the other bank of the river. Artists show Lubinskiy Prospect in different ways: due to not only the chosen angle, but also their mood and attitude to the space they depict. Some artists go to the deep level of a philosophical understanding of the surrounding space, while others illustrate it as ordinary. Private landscapes, as usual, show parts of urban environment that are relatively isolated from public central urban spaces. Yards and arches are examples of it. Private spaces usually have a close, intimate atmosphere. Most private spaces are anonymous. The most vivid examples of the private urban space are yards. Omsk artists also reflect the motif of multistorey buildings, mainly concentrated in the outskirts, in their works. Some artists depict the outskirts as an empty space, while others interpret them as a habitual, familiar space full of utilitarian functions and arranged by people to meet their needs.

Keywords: image of city, image of architectural environment, scenery, landscape, city landmarks, public space, private space

Konstantinov Mihael Vladimir THE ROLE OF CLICHÉS IN CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL AUDIOVISUAL ARTS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 2 (28). P. 43-62

In this study, I analyze the role of clichés in contemporary digital audiovisual arts. The use of clichés in the author’s high art is considered to be a manifestation of a low artistic level. But the same use of clichés in folklore and popular art is not considered to be a “primitive” performance. Clichés in art are defined as a formula. The article presents an approach to formulaic art by John G. Cawelti and Juri Lotman. This approach is the methodology of my study of the role of clichés in the creation of virtual space and hyperreal fictional world. Since clichés play a very important role in contemporary popular culture, I present the data by Lev Manovich, the researcher of digital visual culture. He analyzes the digital component in the digital audiovisual medium. Thus, for the first time, I link Cawelti and Manovich in the analysis of contemporary digital audiovisual art. Speaking about the digital component in art, I should mention that the interface, defined as a formulaic construction, is its important feature. The article states that the cliché in modern digital audiovisual art is one of the main structural elements of a work of art which affects the aesthetic form and content of an audiovisual work. Using clichés, we create virtual and hyperreal worlds that help the addressee to feel escapist feelings and get immersed in these fictional worlds. Also, clichés give us the opportunity to see the new in the already familiar in the perception of art. I define the vision of “new in the already familiar” as defamiliarization by Viktor Shklovsky. The listed properties of the cliché are manifested in all digital contemporary audiovisual arts: cinema, video games, video art, and video installation. The examples are given below in the study. The obtained results are relevant for studying the new types of digital audiovisual arts such as Internet art, interactive cinema, science art, computer art, and others. These arts are now at the stage of their formal, aesthetic and content formation. The obtained results will help to understand the new processes taking place in our postmodern society

Keywords: cliché, formula, formulaicity, Cawelti, Lotman, popular art, audiovisual arts, hyperrealism, Baudrillard, postmodernism, virtual space, End of Art, Manovich

Moiseev Viacheslav Ivanovich IMAGES OF MENTAL VISUALIZATION IN BIOETHICS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 3 (29). P. 140-152

The article provides a brief outline of the antinomic nature of bioethical discourse and the possibilities of its geometric visualization. Two visualization options are considered. The first is associated with the representation of a particular situation as a system of polarities, which in turn is modeled in the framework of a vector model. In the simplest case, the thesis and the antithesis are considered as two orthogonal vectors P1 and P2, and the synthesis is considered as their vector sum S = P1+P2. In this case, we can also introduce a more quantitative estimate of the “measure of multidimensionality” M(P) of the polar system – as the magnitude of the projection of its vector representation P on the sum vector S, i.e. M(P) = (P,es), where es = S/|S| is the unit vector of the vector S, and (P,es) is the scalar product of the vectors P and es. Using these constructs, the author analyzes one example from bioethics related to the clash of the principles of mercy and truthfulness (the problem of “lying for salvation”). An act (action or omission) is interpreted as a kind of an operator on events that transforms some events into others. It is assumed that the subject considers various possibilities in their actions and chooses those that maximize a particular value measure of the subject, in our case, the measure M(P) of the vector projection of the polar vector P of the situation on the sum vector S – the vector of synthesis of basic polarities. The second version of visualization is related to the concept of antinomies – such contradictions that are not formal logical errors – in bioethics. In contrast to errors, in antinomies, both the thesis and the antithesis have their moment of justification within the framework of certain conditions. The concept “antinome” is also used; it is the logical subject of antinomy, which is predicated by the thesis and the antithesis of antinomy. Antinomy reductions correspond to two extreme aspects of the antinome, which are called its “reducts” – by analogy with the reduction of the wave function in quantum mechanics. Various examples of antinomes are given: bioets, globolocs, and holomers. In bioets, one reduct expresses the biological (bioreduct) definition of the antinome, another the ethical (ethoreduct) one. In globolocs, global (globoreduct) and local (locoreduct) types of reducts are distinguished: the former expresses more global (universal) ethical definitions, the latter more local ones, related to the values and norms of a particular local community. Finally, holomers are a kind of antinomes in which the definitions of the whole (holoreduct) and the part (meroreduct) are antinomically connected. They are interpreted as multidimensional mental objects in some generalized space, so that their extreme aspects (antinomy reductions) can be represented as generalized projections of a more multidimensional state within certain constricted conditions (reduction intervals). In this case, it is possible to geometrically visualize such states as, for example, three-dimensional objects in space, through which antinomes can be modeled, and their reducts as two-dimensional projections of a three-dimensional body on certain projection planes (intervals of reducts). In this case, one of the central tasks of bioethics is to determine the boundaries of the demarcation of some intervals from others. For example, in solving the problem of abortion and the status of the human embryo, such a demarcation is expressed in the search for a time point that would separate the phase of a more biological definition (bioreduct) of the embryo from its more ethical state (ethoreduct). In conclusion, the author suggests that bioethical problems are connected with the idea of mental multidimensionality, which forms the basis of a possible visualization as an interpretation of mental multidimensionality in its vector representation.

Keywords: antinomy, antinome, bioethics, bioets, visualization, geometrism

Surovtsev Valery Aleksandrovich SELF-REFERENCE, THEORY OF TYPES, AND CATEGORIZATION IN WITTGENSTEIN’S PICTURE THEORY OF STATEMENTS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 4 (30). P. 213-233

The article analyzes the source of logical paradoxes Bertrand Russell identified in the foundations of mathematics proposed by Gottlob Frege. Russell proposed self-reference of expressions as the source of paradoxes. To solve paradoxes, he developed the simple and ramified theory of types. Ontological presuppositions are well substantiated for his theory; they depend on semantic, but not syntactic, preference. Contemporary approaches in symbolical logic prefer syntactic methods. But Wittgenstein’s approach in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is more interesting, especially from the perspective of his picture theory of statements.

Keywords: logical paradoxes, Bertrand Russell, simple and ramified theory of types, semantic and syntactic approach, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s picture theory of statements

Mozgunova Aleksandra Dmitrievna JAPANESE ADVERTISEMENTS AND COMMERCIALS IN THE CONTEXT OF PRECEDENT-RELATED PHENOMENA: IDEAS AND IMAGES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 2 (32). P. 112-135

Philosophers of postmodernism consider language to be not a passive mediator between reality and consciousness but a prism, through which people interpret the reality: J. Baudrillard said that mass media demonstrate people signs instead of reality. It is similar to the role that advertisements and commercials play. Ads and commercials reveal and, moreover, help create intentions and desires of society, and have a close relationship with it, being a kind of a guide for the recipient. It seems to be an issue of high importance to investigate the usage of precedent-related phenomena in Japanese advertisements and commercials to distinct how Japanese society represents, evaluates, and reflects itself, what images the society and the recipient can create through them. Precedent-related phenomena are verbal and non-verbal elements which are repeated in the discourse of a linguacultural community. There are several types of precedent-related phenomena such as precedent-related text, name, phrase, and situation. Being important in emotional and cognitive ways, precedent-related phenomena are often used in connotative meanings in order to reveal cultural values and associations within the recepient: precedent-related phenomena help express values and cultural concepts of a group or society. They make possible to estimate the product or to manifest one’s position on a global scale by comparing or contrasting a real situation with a precedent-related one. Therefore, precedent-related phenomena impact the recipient with all their linguacultural information, and imply additional characteristics. Precedent-related phenomena are used not only in oral or written speech, literature, but also in advertisements and commercials, which borrow all the above-mentioned features. Thus, such phenomena help imply positive meanings to the object of ads, draw attention to it, imply characterization, become a source of argumentation through emotional cognition, entertain the recipient and bring them aesthetic pleasure when a well-known precedent-related phenomenon becomes, for example, a part of a pun or a core part of narrative advertising. Precedent-related phenomena are frequently used in headings or slogans to catch the recipient’s attention or set the tone of an advertisement, to create a more complicated image of a product via associations. The analysis shows that, among all precedent-related phenomena in advertisements and commercials, names are used more frequently. Perhaps this is due to the necessity to introduce the protagonist, who will express the product’s advantages, into the conception. A precedent-related name can also build direct or indirect arguments. Recipients follow the advertisement’s plot, where familiar precedent-related names appear, and its twists and turns help hide the intentions of utilitarianism marketing. Precedent-related phenomena can also serve a function of a password: phenomena based on national culture dominate in Japanese advertisements and commercials. Among the different source-fields of the phenomena, the “History” field predominates, the “Fairy-Tales” comes second. This highlights Japanese society’s respectful and positive attitude to their history and culture. Ads and commercials create an image of a mono-national society, who understand and value their link to ancestors and their heritage, which all the Japanese are truly proud of.

Keywords: advertisement, commercial, precedent-related phenomena, communication, recognition, Japanese culture, history, literature, folklore, print

Uvarov Aleksey Sergeyevich TWO ICONOLOGICAL NOTES. PUBL. BY S. S. AVANESOV // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 2 (12). P. 165-169

Count Aleksey Sergeyevich Uvarov (Mar. 12, 1825, St. Petersburg – Jan. 10, 1885, Moscow) – Russian archaeologist, honorary member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences, founder and leader of the Moscow Archaeological Society (1864) and the Historical Museum in Moscow (1883); the founder of the Archaeological Congresses in Russia. He conducted archaeological excavations in the south of Russia, in Suzdal and in the Taurida Governorate. Count Uvarov is the author of books “Studies of Antiquities of Southern Russia and of the Black Sea coast” (1848), “The Merya people and their way of life by results of the burial mounds excavations” (1851), “Archeology of Russia. The Stone Age” (1881). He published his articles in the journal “Antiquities” of the Moscow Archaeological Society (since 1865), as well as in the “Archaeological Herald”. He is the founder of the Uvarov Prizes of the Academy of Sciences (1857), named after his father. A. S. Uvarov’s “Collection of Small Works” was published in 1910 to the 25th anniversary of the death of the Count by his widow Praskovia Sergeevna Uvarova (1840–1924). Countess Uvarova is a well-known Russian archeologist and historian; from 1885 to 1917 she headed the Moscow Archaeological Society, having replaced her husband on this position. Two texts from the above-mentioned “Collection” are presented below: 1) a small note about the mosaic “Virgin Oranta” from the basilica of Urs in Ravenna as a prototype of a similar image of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev; 2) a brief remark about the symbolic meaning of the iconographic plot “Savior the Blessed Silence”. The texts are published in the original spelling.

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich EDITORIAL // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 7-9

.

Fedotova Natalia Gennad'evna PRACTICES OF VISUALIZING NARRATIVES OF THE CITY’S CULTURAL MEMORY: THE CITY’S BRAND AS A MYTH // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 1 (31). P. 54-74

The article is dedicated to the study of practices of visualizing narratives of the city’s cultural memory on the example of the analysis of brand as a myth. The relevance of the research on the practices of visualizing narratives of the city’s cultural memory is confirmed by the increased scientific interest in the phenomena that symbolically determine the urban reality, as well as by the episodic nature of research related to the study of the city’s cultural memory. According to the author, narratives that represent the symbolic repertoire of fragments of the city’s cultural memory play a special role in the processes of representation of images of the city’s past. In this regard, the city brand is considered as a myth that conveys and supports the idea of the city for various audiences through the accessible symbolism of visual forms, evoking stable associations that identify the city through cultural meanings. Considering three levels of the narrative, the author reveals various aspects of the brand-myth functioning in the urban environment: a) the formation of a stable identification of the place and its “distinctiveness”, b) the construction of a cultural collage, parts of which form coherent texts of the city in chronology and in space, с) the implementation of social practices aimed at the reflection and interpretation of the brand idea. Since the narrative text assumes the presence of semantic sequences, the brand idea should be presented in the urban reality by regularly deciphering the meanings embedded in the brand. As an illustration of the proposed theses, the author refers to three types of city branding practices that visually manifest different ways of place uniqueness: the brand myth of the city, based (1) on folk crafts and cultural traditions, (2) on historical events, and (3) on the sacred meanings of nature. The symbolic nature of myth allows considering the city brand as one of the practices of visualizing narratives that construct urban reality through images of the city’s cultural memory. The visual media of the urban myth represent one of the modern ways of representing the narrative, which, using accessible forms, “packs” complex meanings of the city’s cultural memory into simple forms understandable for most people. Meanwhile, the mythological nature of the brand makes it a powerful determinant of structuring cultural meanings and therefore a factor in constructing urban reality. The author states that brand should be considered not only as a means of increasing the attractiveness of the place, but as a tool of understanding the city for citizens. In this regard, city branding is one of the directions of the symbolic policy of regional elites.

Keywords: city, values, meanings, city brand, cultural memory, memory narratives

Pichugina Viktoriya Konstantinovna ANTHROPOLOGY OF EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE OF THE CITY: PRACTICES AND IMAGES. ALL-RUSSIAN SEMINAR // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 204-210

This material is a response to the speeches and discussions that took place at the All-Russian Seminar on September 13 and 15, 2018 at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Novosibirsk National Research University. The seminar was organized within the framework of the project “Educational landscape and anthropopractices of the ancient and modern city” with the support of the Russian Science Foundation. The author does not aim to give an exhaustive overview of the participants’ reports and / or to sum up the results of the event. Rather, on the contrary, the reader is presented with an intermediate reporting material, activating a further interdisciplinary study of the phenomenology and anthropology of the urban educational landscape.

Keywords: city, ancient city, educational landscape, anthropology of the city

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich VISUAL SIGNS OF ARMENIA IN SIBERIA: CITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 2 (20). P. 81-92

In this article the principles of approach to the history of a city as its biography and autobiography are justified. Autobiography is an active creative reflexive process in which the author coincides with the hero. The city can be described both as a place of creation of the autobiography, and as its most important context. Moreover, the city itself in its historical dimension can be read as a visual autobiography, sponsored by all its inhabitants – past, present and future. Every citizen, actively forming the cultural environment of the city, is the author of his own and urban biography. In an era of strong intercultural exchange and influence the city grows in time and space as a dynamic multicultural spatial structure. Using the example of Tomsk, I show how Armenian culture takes part in shaping the appearance and image of the Siberian city. The bearers of the Armenian cultural tradition mark their presence in Siberia with the help of visual signs, which are grouped into two semantic headings: faith and cuisine. Each of these headings is represented by its own set of signs, symbolizing the connection of a certain local space, group or activity with Armenia. In addition, a new theme for urban visualization appears: commemorative signs in honor of the existing friendship and cooperation between the peoples of Russia and Armenia.

Keywords: urban space, visual environment, signs of identity, Tomsk, Siberia, Armenia

Malkov Ihar Georgievich, Evstratenko Anzhelika Vladimirovna ROADSIDE SERVICE AS PART OF THE TOURISTIC INFRASTRUCTURE IN BELARUS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 2 (20). P. 202-216

The paper considers the importance of highways in Belarus and the special role of roadside service facilities as a component of the tourism infrastructure. The objects with additional functions have an extended visualized structure and can provide services to representatives of various consumer groups. The factors hindering the development of the tourism industry in Belarus are presented. The authors analyze prerequisites for the formation of roadside service facilities as a tourist component, types of adjacency to tourist zones, some features of architectural formation. The general structure of these objects is proposed.

Keywords: roadside service, tourism, infrastructure, visualization, tourist neighborhood, architectural and spatial construction

Selivanova Elena Alexandrovna, Kalko Valentyna Vladimirovna AN ANALYSIS OF TITLE FUNCTIONS (ON THE MATERIAL OF DARYA DONTSOVA’S IRONIC DETECTIVE NOVELS) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 1 (27). P. 157-179

The aim of the article is to examine the semiotic nature of the titles of detective novels by Darya Dontsova based on the three dimensions of semiosis: semantics, syntactics and pragmat-ics. Semiotic analysis serves as the main research method. Contextual interpretation, structural, stylistic and pragmatic analysis, metaphorical modeling and genre questionnaire are auxiliary methods. The research hypothesis lies in a supposition that the basic function of the title of a lit-erary text, unlike that of a mass media, scientific, etc. text, is to label, index a text as an integral sign. An informative function of the title can be realized after understanding the whole text, de-termining its genre, and taking into consideration the overall dialogism of the text with the au-thor’s oeuvre and with the intertext of the literary process. For advertising purposes, some titles are not intended to predict the sense of subsequent texts. The features of Dontsova’s titles are paradoxicality (elements of titles are semantically incompatible), abundance of precedent signs, intertextuality, intersemioticity, carnivalization, language game, parody, persuasion, and sug-gestiveness. The semantic parameter of title semiosis presupposes clarifying the content-related link of the titles not only with subsequent texts but also with the reader’s intertextual and in-tersemiotic knowledge. The semantics of the titles of Dontsova’s ironic detective novels is corre-lated with the frequently secondary structural components of this genre and is characterized by the metaphorical borrowing of lexemes from different source domains. The syntactics of the ti-tles is realized through relations with different components of the texts, with megatext and in-tertext, with nonverbal cultural semiospheres, including precedent phenomena. The pragmatics of the titles is to spark interest, curiosity, desire to resolve the paradoxes of the title by reading and understanding the content of the book. Paradoxicality, inherent to titles of ironic detective novels, serves as a powerful means of suggestiveness, affecting both readers’ consciousness and the unconscious resources of the psyche. The prospects of this research are to focus on the stra-tegic programs of the communicative influence of titles of popular literature, to conduct experi-mental studies on the index of the title informing properties and on the title predictive value for subsequent texts.

Keywords: title, index, semantics, syntactics, pragmatics, intertext, language game, parody, persuasiveness, suggestiveness, paradox, carnivalizition, precedent phenomenon

Kotlyar Elena Romanovna ETHNO-CULTURAL PARALLELS IN THE SEMIOTICS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL DECOR OF MODERN STYLE PERIOD IN SIMFEROPOL // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 3 (21). P. 98-112

The essence of the study consists in symbolic and semantic analysis of the main circle of architectural decor elements, specific to the decorative and applied art of Crimean nations. The main objectives of the study include general characteristic of Crimea, as a multi-ethnic region, saturated for many centuries with a variety of cultural later developments, which were reflected in arts and crafts as well as architecture. Due to such a variety in the architectural decor Crimea, lots of symbolic pictorial elements are traced, for which reason the author faces two more tasks: identification through the method of historicism and the comparative semantics method of each symbol and belonging thereof to a particular ethnic culture. Symbolism and allegorical character of decorative images are also associated with the long-term formation of Islamic pictorial culture in Crimea, based on plant and geometric elements, and wide influence thereof on the art of surrounding nations. Temporal area of the study covers the period of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, when Art Nouveau comes to the Crimean architecture, the overall elegant eclecticism of which contributes to the introduction of various elements of the national decor. Decor elements of buildings could indicate the ethnicity of their owner, and also contributed to the formation of the so-called “Crimean style” in the architecture of the region, which is characterized by an abundance of small “lacy” molded elements, elegant ornamentation, light colors of the facades, which, in combination with a predominantly blue sky, creates characteristic southern charm of the city.

Keywords: Crimea, Simferopol, Art Nouveau, architecture, ethnic ornament, eclecticism

Belyaletdinov Roman Rifatovich MORAL BIOENHANCEMENT AND AUTONOMY: THE RISK OF A VISUALIZED GOOD // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 4 (22). P. 254-267

The aim of this article is to map the issue of moral bioenhancement in two ways: (1) to show the basic premises and connotations of the conflict between traditional and biotechnology-oriented processes (using the problem of reducing subjective autonomy as an example); (2) to demonstrate how metaphorical visualization of the good allows one to transfer the conflict of interpretations of the good and autonomy into the space of the ontological conflict of autonomy and the good. Personal autonomy is one of the dominant ideas of modern biomedicine. Technoscience as the most significant trend in building relations between a scientist, a doctor and society is based on the idea of an active subject interested in shaping their own lifestyle and turns to the subject’s autonomy as a source of the legitimacy of the good. Meanwhile, personal autonomy is also a source of risks associated with actions, the consequences of which can be extremely destructive and completely unpredictable. The precautionary principle, whose functionality is determined by distinguishing between critical and non-critical risks, demonstrates its inefficiency in the context of an engineering and technological society. The development of neurotechnologies and brain research, as well as the active development of genetics, gives reason to believe that many behavioural strategies that can be regarded as ethically correct or ethically deviant are biologically determined. The problem of moral biologization arises on a ready-made substrate, as a process of involving neurotechnologies into solving social problems. Modern biotechnology thus somewhat goes beyond the boundaries of traditional moral and ethical discourses on autonomy and the good. With new explanations of such processes as the tendency and the possibility of moral behaviour, the predisposition to one or another type of activity, predicting a possible tendency to certain diseases in advance with high certainty, biotechnologies force us to look at a person from a certain angle: to look for the biological causes of social and moral behaviour. Despite the fact that a biotechnological commentary is considered only as an auxiliary tool for ethical norms, which explains how autonomous choice is influenced by certain biological factors, the biologization of social space is a real philosophical challenge, the essence of which is to rethink what moral choice is, how it arises and what modern autonomy and the good that flows from it are. Moral bioenhancement is a constructivist approach to morality whose task is to biotechnologically transform autonomy for the good. In this regard, it ignores the already existing discourses of autonomy and the good and, on the other hand, needs to use a metaphor for self-identification and identification of contradictions with the existing discourses of autonomy and the good. The article concludes that moral bioenhancement problematizes autonomy and, in fact, can be regarded as a form of biotechnological paternalism.

Keywords: autonomy, benefit, visualization, metaphor, human occupation by technologies, moral bioenhancement, technoscience

Margaryan Ervand Grantovich THE BRITISH FRENCH AS A MIRROR OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, OR HOW SOVIET LEADERS FROM LENIN TO GORBACHEV DRESSED // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 4 (26). P. 112-136

The article shows the evolution of the costume of the leaders of Russia and the Soviet state, from the February Revolution to Perestroika, and the connection between the image of the head of state and the era that it embodies. The image of the leader of the state of the victorious revolution was the image of the “silovik” (power man), dressed in the military style and leading an ascetic lifestyle. Typical objects of the image of a power leader are a french, high boots (leggings), a military-style cap, a khaki or gray raglan cloak, a leather jacket, a smoking pipe, and a chevron mustache. After the victory in the Great Patriotic War, the government abandoned the ascetic image in favor of a pathetic, ceremonial one. In the army, officer ranks, shoulder straps, and stripes were restored, and generals, marshals, and even the Generalissimo reappeared. A special architectural style, informally called the Soviet (Stalinist) Empire, was developed for the construction of important state institutions. Imperial pomp and heaviness, until the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, became a characteristic feature of the post-war era. In the era of the Thaw, the de-Stalinization and desacralization of power began. The leader of the country, Nikita Khrushchev, abandoned the military style and began to dress exclusively in civilian clothes, reminiscent of everyday home clothes or rural clothes in the Slavic ethnic style. A characteristic part of his outfit was the soulful Ukrainian embroidered shirt, implicitly indicating his Slavic orientation and adherence to a democratic style of government. The desacralization of power, the democratization of society, the weakening of censorship, the broader-than-ever possibility of self-expression undermined the foundations of the power of the bureaucratic apparatus. This inevitably had to lead to a confrontation between officials and Khrushchev, which resulted in the overthrow of the latter. The subsequent era of stagnation is characterized by internal stability, unprecedented corruption, low productivity, general deficit, and dependence on resource exports. Stagnation affected the economy, science, culture, and sociopolitical life of the country. A characteristic feature of this era was the privileges for the party nomenclature and state officials, which distinguished them from the general population. At this time, the official-bureaucratic dress code, with a predominance of black and dark colors, finally prevailed. This style remains unchanged today.

Keywords: image of country’s leader, power dressing, French jacket and high boots (leggings), embroidery, ethnic style of people’s ruler, black and white dress code of bureaucrat

Shestakova Marina Anatolyevna, Batyr Tatiana Borisovna MAIN APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF VISUAL THINKING // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 4 (30). P. 256-272

Studies of visual thinking represent one of the trends expanding our views on the principles and mechanisms of human thinking. The present paper outlines three main approaches to the study of visual thinking. The psychological approach has been set apart based on the analysis of works by Rudolf Arnheim who demonstrated that visual thinking might be understood in terms of the psychology of thinking. Arnheim presented visual thinking as a mode of thinking that allows singling out the essential – common for the whole class – properties of the observed objects. The legitimacy and relevance of the psychological approach can be circumstantially proved by a large number of visual intuitions in philosophical epistemology. The neuroaesthetic approach has been singled out based on the analysis of works by Semir Zeki and V. S. Ramachandran. The founders of neuroaesthetics came to the conclusion that visual perception is not the reflection of an object by the eye, but an active brain activity aiming at completion or modelling of an object in accordance with certain laws such as the peak shift principle, the law of isolation, the law of symmetry, etc. Developing the ideas of neuroaesthetics, we can note that these laws of visual perception are suitable for describing the procedures of abstraction and idealization. A broader interpretation of the laws of visual perception and their application to intellectual procedures seem to be a promising perspective. The gnoseological approach has been examined on the example of the notion of “point of view”, which refers both to visual and abstract thinking. Johann Martin Chladenius used this notion in the methodology of historical knowledge, treating the latter as a vision of the past under a certain angle. Another way of developing the “point of view” is presented in Frank Ankersmit’s conception. Being a representative of the narrative philosophy of history, Ankersmit interprets the “point of view” as a narrative substance which allows integrating separate utterances into a single historical narrative. The notion of “point of view” demonstrates that historical knowledge is treated as a certain vision of the past and that historical research is interpreted in terms of visual thinking. All the three mentioned approaches point out a strong link between the visual and the abstract and thus open up a particular perspective on the study of human thinking, which may, for instance, be of interest in the study of artificial intelligence.

Keywords: visual thinking, neuroaesthetics, “point of view”, Rudolf Arnheim, V. S. Ramachandran, Semir Zeki, Frank Ankersmit

Mikhel Dmitry Victorovich VISUAL STORIES ABOUT PRIMATES AND PRIMATOLOGY AS STORIES OF SOMETHING MORE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 3 (29). P. 116-139

The aim of the study is to analyze a series of visual stories characterizing the cultural experience of perception of primates and primatology in the Soviet Union in the 1930s and in the United States from 1963 to the present. The object of the study is illustrative materials for the book The Chimpanzee Child and the Human Child (1935) by Nadezhda Ladygina-Kots; photo and film materials of the mid-1930s depicting experiments with chimpanzees that were conducted in the laboratory of Academician Ivan Pavlov in Koltushy; photos and videos of Jane Goodall’s field research work in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, presented in the publications of “National Geographic”; a series of films about the Planet of the Apes created by the 20th Century Fox during 1968–1973. The article argues that visual stories about primates and primatology are always stories about something more because they are another type of text that unfolds according to how we see and feel it, how we experience it, and what we still know about the objects that are reflected in these images. This article discusses the following questions: What did these stories tell their contemporaries about? What can they tell us today? What else can we learn about through these visualizations? The article shows that the visual narrative, presented in the illustrations for the book by Ladygina-Kots, can be considered not only as another type of narrative about research work, but also as a story about the private life of a female scientist, who turned it into a field of scientific experiment. Images of chimpanzees participating in the experiments of the scientists of Academician Pavlov’s laboratory, presented in the issues of the Ogonyok magazine of 1934 and 1935 and in the popular science film Rosa and Rafael, can be perceived as a fragment of a visual narrative about the greatness of Soviet science and the Soviet way of life. Photos and videos of Jane Goodall’s work in the African forest, which were produced by National Geographic, are undoubtedly a story about the hidden dream of Western civilization about how to return to the primitive paradise, which has long been lost. The epic film Planet of the Apes, created by Arthur Jacobs and his team, is nothing more than an experience of visualizing the long-standing fears of American society preoccupied with racial conflicts and the uncertainty of its future. Visual stories about primates and primatology are always stories about what else can be seen over time.

Keywords: visual stories, primates, primatology, Nadezhda Ladygina-Kots, Academician Pavlov’s chimpanzees, Jane Goodall, National Geographic, Planet of the Apes

Kornev Alexandr Nikolaevitch, Balčiūnienė Ingrida Jono VISUAL SEMIOSIS IN THE CHILD’S PAINTING ACTIVITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 2 (28). P. 63-80

Among the multiple examples of visual semiosis in culture, particular attention is paid to painted (or drawn) objects such as pictures, book illustrations, separate items and some compositions in design and ads. There is a lot of evidence to recognize painting as the means of communication in the cultural space and as a visual language. Still, it should be noted that, from a semiotic perspective, painting has been discussed less than writing in literature. The question “What should be recognized as a sign in a painted object?” is still open. The issues of the main semiotic features of the visual sign, its structure and semantic components, as well as its pragmatic meaning are still debatable. In the current study, visual semiosis development is the main topic of discussion. The theoretical background of this study includes the culture-historical theory of Lev Vygotsky, the culture semiosphere concept of Yuri Lotman, and some conceptual arguments about the visual semiosis stated by Charles Sanders Peirce, Roland Barthes, and Winfried Nöth. In children’s subculture, painting is a highly attractive and frequent activity. There is a plenty of evidence that children’s painting activity is usually communicatively oriented, and this is an essential point of the pragmatics of visual semiosis. Following Lotman, the authors divide children’s visual communication into the Self-Other and I-I types. Visual communication is highly represented in both of them. In fact, the given communication types are relevant to personal and cross-cultural communication. The latter one means a dialogue between the child and the adult culture. The current study is based on multiple research publications about the development of children’s pictorial language and on the authors’ own data. The study addresses the genesis of structural, semantic, and pragmatic features of the visual sign. From the perspective of the modern neuroscience studies, the authors discuss the extent of the imaginative and objective iconicity of visual signs. From the perspective of the semantics of visual sign analysis, the authors discuss the relation between separate elements of the visual sign and the relevant semantic features; the visual sign is recognized as a syntactic unit. The comparative analysis of the data of Russian and other cultures reveals many similar features of visual signs. To sum up, the authors suggest the concept of the triple nature of children’s painting activity semiosis; on the one hand, it is a derivation of the adult culture; on the other, it is a product of children’s subculture; finally, it is a language for a dialogue with the adult culture.

Keywords: painting activity, children, communication, self-communication, visual semiosis, children’s subculture