Comprehending the City: From Perception to Imagination
DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2024-2-103-119
The article analyses various aspects of comprehending the city as a cultural phenomenon, which has both a material, visible side and an imaginary, conceivable side. The author identifies the correlation of perception, representation and imagination in the process of understanding the city and argues that imagination plays a constitutive role in this process. It is emphasised that in urban studies the prevailing approach to the city is focused primarily on the consideration of its visual parameters. However, auditory, olfactory, tactile and other characteristics are significant in the process of perceiving urban spaces, since they also influence the formation of the city’s image and make this image more saturated and multidimensional. Based on the work “Imagination and perception” by P. F. Strawson, the author proves that imagination is a necessary component of the city perception. In addition, knowledge about the city and comprehending the city are considered in the article as different cognitive levels. Representation is associated with the concept of the city, and imagination is associated with comprehending the idea of the city, grasping its meaning. The increasing role of imagination in the process of cognition of sociocultural reality is determined by the change in the interpretation of this process itself in postnonclassical science and philosophy of culture. In the postnonclassical approach, the process of cognition is understood not simply as a mirror reflection of reality, but as the construction of an image of reality in consciousness, conditioned by specific linguistic, symbolic and cultural practices. The understanding of imagination in its transcendental dimension (the productive imagination in Kant’s terminology) is complemented in the article by an analysis of its sociocultural dimension. From the author’s point of view, this dimension is primarily important for understanding the city as a symbolic space of meanings that determine the uniqueness of a particular topos and its value for a person.
Keywords: urban studies, urban epistemology, multisensory perception, urban imaginary, cognitive representation, productive imagination
References:
Arnheim, R. (1984). The Dynamics of Architectural Form (V. L. Glazychev, Trans.). Stroyizdat. (In Russian).
Avanesov, S. S. (2016). Visual Semiotics of Cities: Perspective of Urban Texts Studies. ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ (Praxema). Journal of Visual Semiotics, 4(10), 9–22. (In Russian).
Avanesov, S. S. (2023). Centaur’s Rib: The Theme of Kitovras in the Visual Structure of Russian Urban Space. Journal of Visual Theology, 5(2), 208–264. (In Russian).
Batalova, Ya. V. (2019). The Role of Imagination in the Act of Remembering in 20th-century Western Philosophy. Vestnik Severnogo (Arkticheskogo) federal’nogo universiteta. Ser.: Gumanitarnye i sotsial’nye nauki, 6, 95–103. (In Russian).
Borisova, Yu. V. (2015). Problem of Imagination in the History of the West-European Philosophy of Culture. Proceedings of Voronezh State University. Series: Philosophy, 3, 66–72. (In Russian).
Conway, M. A., & Howe, M. L. (2022). Memory Construction: A Brief and Selective History. Memory, 30(1), 2–4.
Ellard, C. (2016). Places of the Heart. The Psychogeography of Everyday Life. Alpina Publisher. (In Russian).
Fedotova, N. G. (2020). Visual Markers of the Urban Imaginary. ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ (Praxema). Journal of Visual Semiotic, 1(23), 121–139. (In Russian).
Golosovker, Ya. E. (2012). Imaginativnyi absolyut [The Imaginative Absolute]. Akademicheskii prospekt. (In Russian).
Heidegger, M. (1993). Die Zeit des Weltbildes. (pp. 41–62). Respublika. (In Russian).
Jordan, Sh., & Lindner, Ch. (Eds.). (2016). Cities Interrupted. Visual Culture and Urban Space. Bloomsbury.
Kant, I. (1999). Anthropologie in Pragmatischer Hinsicht. Nauka. (In Russian).
Kant, I. (2000). From the Manuscript Heritage. Contributions to “The Critique of Pure Reason”, Opus postumum. Progress-Traditsiya. (In Russian).
Kant, I. (2006). Kritik der reinen Vernunft (N. Lossky, Trans.). Eksmo. (In Russian).
Kaptsevich, O. (2021). Psychological Effects of Urban Environment Visual Perception: A Systematic Review. Psychology. Journal of Higher School of Economics, 18(3), 575–579. (In Russian).
Knyazeva H. N. (2013). Mind’s Eye: Concepts of Mental Imagery and of Imagination from George Berkley to the Modern Cognitive Science. In The Problem of Imagination in Evolutionary Epistemology (pp. 30–51). Institute of Philosophy of Russian Academy of Sciences. (In Russian).
Kolesnikova, D. A., & Savchuk, V. V. (2015). Visual Ecology as a Discipline. Voprosy Filosofii, 10, 41–50. (In Russian).
Kristeva, J. (2004). Selected Works: The Destruction of Poetics (G. K. Kosokov, Trans.). ROSSPEN. (In Russian).
Kuznetsov, V. G. (Ed.). (2007). Slovar' filosofskikh terminov [Dictionary of Philosophical Terms]. INFRA-M. (In Russian).
Lindner, R. (2019). Textur, imaginaire, Habitus – Schlüsselbegriffe der kulturanalytischen Stadtforschung (K. Levinson, Trans.). In Die Eigenlogik der Städte. Neue Wege für die Stadtforschung. (pp. 101–116). NLO. (In Russian).
Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City. Cambridge Technology Press.
Mayorova, K. S. (2020). Sound Studies and the Sonic Renaissance in Urbanism. In Visual Anthropology – 2019. City-University: Living Space and Visual Environment. (pp. 316–324). Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University. (In Russian).
Melik-Gaykazyan, I. V. (2023). A “Post-Normal” State of Science: Confrontation between Impressions and Measurements. Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science, 75, 319–323. (In Russian)
Mitin, I. (2011). Toward an Imaginative Geography: Two Turns, Three Spaces. Topos. Literaturno-filosofskiy zhurnal, 1, 62–73. (In Russian).
Nanay, B. (2010). Perception and Imagination: Amodal Perception as Mental Imagery. Philosophical Studies, 150(2), 239–254.
Pallasmaa, J. (2013). The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture (M. Himanen, Trans). Klassika ХХI. (In Russian).
Pirogov, S. V. (2011). City as the Phenomenon of Culture: Cognitive Approach. Tomsk State University Journal of Cultural Studies and Art History, 2, 31–37. (In Russian).
Rubinstein, S. L. (2002). Osnovy obshchei psikhologii [Fundamentals of General Psychology]. Piter. (In Russian).
Schafer, R. M. (1994). The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Destiny Books.
Schelling, F. W. J. (2020). Philosophie der Kunst (P. S. Popov, Trans.). RIPOL klassik. (In Russian).
Smirnova, N. M. (2013). Imagination in the Structure of Cognitive Practices. In The Problem of Imagination in Evolutionary Epistemology (pp. 9–29). Institute of Philosophy of Russian Academy of Sciences. (In Russian).
Strawson, P. F. (2008). Imagination and Perception. In Freedom and Resentment, and Other Essays (pp. 50–72). Routledge.
Wittgenstein, L. (2018). Philosophical Investigations (L. Dobrosel’sky, Trans.). AST. (In Russian).
( 322.86 kB ) 
( 310.92 kB )
Issue: 2, 2024
Series of issue: Issue 2
Rubric: ARTICLES
Pages: 103 — 119
Downloads: 223