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HARMONY BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE MAN: PROBLEMS OF FORMING CITY IDENTITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 3 (17). P. 43-56

The article considers harmony between the city and the man, city identity and human scale of the city. It is noted that imperativeness of the thesis about the person as a measure of all things is presented in harmony between the city and the man. The influence of collective memory and practices of commemoration on collective identity, including city identity, is shown. The article suggests a methodology for exploring the city. City ideals, myths and metaphors make it possible to comprehend the spiritual culture of the city, social practices and options for their citizens living strategies. It seems that the city identity is formed on the basis of the harmony between the city and the man: the mutual correspondence of the subjects of interaction – man and city. The material and, in part, social aspects of harmony are reflected in the professional activities of architects and urban planners, the spiritual aspects of the harmony of the city and man are the subject of philosophical analysis. The article proposes a methodology for investigating the proportionality of a city and a person, based on an analysis of objectified forms of city culture – urban ideals, myths and metaphors. Objectivized forms of city culture are found in the texts, activities and behavior of people. The city ideal is concretized and justified in the myth. The ideal and myth reflect the phenomenon of the city in its integrity, in the unity of essence and phenomenon. The aspiration to the laconic expression of the essence of the city finds its expression in the city metaphor. The problems of formation of the harmony of the city and man are demonstrated on the analysis of objectified forms of city culture of Omsk. The leading city ideals of Omsk (the imperial ideal and the ideal of an industrial city), the basic myths (city-fortress, White capital, eschatological mythological motives), city metaphors (variations of metaphor ‘city-garden’) are singled out. The current migration patterns of citizens, discursively expressed in the Internet space in the form of the Internet meme ‘Do not try to leave Omsk’ and the artificially constructed hashtag ‘# I stay’ are analyzed. The limited nature of the communicative potential of the artificial structure is explained by its inconsistencies with the personal narratives of the citizens and the lack of commitment in the city culture of Omsk. The example of the city of Omsk demonstrates the specificity of the identification processes of citizens: social ambivalence and conflictual city discourse. It is concluded that negative city identity predominates.

Keywords: city, harmony between the city and the man, city identity, urban ideals, myths and metaphors, migration patterns

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

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

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

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

THE CITY IN A LABYRINTH OF REFLECTIONS: FROM A CRAFT SAMPLE TO AN IMAGE OF THE CITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 1 (31). P. 12-23

The article explores the ideal, reference image of the city. The aim of the article is to analyze the correlation of the ideal image of the city with its similarities, reflections of the prototype. To illustrate the functioning of the image of the city as an ideal object, the image of Amber from Roger Zelazny’s work The Chronicles of Amber is used. The objectives of the article are: (1) to carry out a theoretical description of the metaphysical construction of Platonism and Neoplatonism reproduced in Zelazny’s work; (2) to show, with the help of the methodological approach of Carl Gustav Jung’s analytical psychology, that the hero’s desire to return to their city can be interpreted as a movement along the path of individuation, in which the archetype of the self is actualized, and a person’s desire to achieve the fullness of being is realized; (3) to trace the use of the metaphor of reflection in the urban discourse of world culture, expressed, in particular, in the “reflection of names”, to reveal the mechanism of changing the hierarchical position of the prototype and reflection; (4) to demonstrate the multidimensional and paradoxical nature of urban reflections on the material of the St. Petersburg text of Russian culture; (5) to trace the genetic link between urban planning and handicraft activities of the pre-industrial era. The result of the study is a description of the material, procedural, subjective, and social forms of reproduction of the sample, in which the ascent from the craft sample to the image of the city is made. One of the versions of the beginning of city design is proposed. The conclusion is made about the similarity between urban planning design and handicraft activity, the creation of metaphysical systems, and the construction of scientific theories.

Keywords: image of city, craft sample, The Chronicles of Amber, metaphor of reflection