Kutuzova Anastasia Aleksandrovna, Schulmann Ekaterina Mikhaylovna INTERNET MEMES AS A PUBLIC REACTION INDICATOR AND A FEEDBACK TOOL DURING THE PANDEMIC // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 2 (32). P. 46-67

The COVID-19 pandemic is the main informational topic of our time. It is reflected both by the members of modern academia and by the broader audiences. The latter actively express their opinions in the virtual space, and one of their ways to comprehend the epidemiological situation in the world is the Internet meme. The scientific study of this phenomenon reveals the needs and the problems of the Internet audience, which is constantly expanding. The article aims to research Internet memes as public reaction indicators and feedback tools during the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical material of the article is the content of the Russian media space from 2020 to 2021. To reach the aim, at the beginning of the article, the authors define the essence of the Internet meme, its functions, and its specifics as a tool of social reaction; based on the obtained theoretical information, they create an algorithm for decoding the symbolic structure of the Internet meme. In the main part of the article, using the created algorithm, the authors analyze popular Russian Internet memes about the pandemic. They consider feedback tools and mechanisms in the context of political communication theory, based both on Laswell's classical positions and on their subsequent critique. The main method of the work is semiotic analysis applied given the linguistic and cultural features of the object. As a result, the authors arrive at the following conclusions. The Internet meme is a media object with a certain status which determines its popularity in the online space: it has a sign nature (verbal and visual components), contains an actual and humorous message created based on already existing cultural patterns. Therefore, memes fulfills not only entertainment and communication functions, but also a social one. The meme is a tool of sublimation and compensation for a person’s negative social and existential tension. As a consequence, the Internet meme can serve as a channel of feedback between individuals and also in the process of political bilateral communication between state and society. The authors confirm this thesis by analyzing Internet memes about the COVID-19 pandemic that have been created by Russian internet users since the beginning of the coronavirus infection. They have become popular in social networks and messengers in Russia. Most of these Internet memes focus both on the existence of the pandemic and on the state measures to prevent COVID-19’s spread. The very subject of ridicule on the part of the Internet meme changes parallel to the way the state introduces, changes, or abolishes certain protective measures. The creation of such content follows the same scheme: the meme author has a pattern already known in the virtual space, and s/he edits it focusing on events in society. As a result, the changed details of an image or an added inscription fill it with new humorous content. A lot of the Internet memes about the pandemic are sarcastic. Therefore, their semiotic decoding can be useful for public authorities: it reveals the cause of people’s discontent, the reaction of the population to governmental measures, and thus allows the use of this knowledge for better policy decisions and more efficient communication strategies for their implementation.

Keywords: political communication, feedback, feedback channels, Internet memes, COVID-19 pandemic, coronavirus, government measures, Internet communication, Russian media space, content analysis

Beskov Andrey Anatolyevich CONSTRUCTING A MYTHOLOGICAL PRE-CHRISTIAN WRITING SYSTEM: NEOPAGAN REPRESENTATIONS OF SLAVIC RUNES IN RUSSIAN TV AND FILMS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 3 (21). P. 225-253

It has been suggested that the modern “screen culture” is a substitute for reality, that it distorts the world around us. Perhaps these fears are somewhat exaggerated, as distorted perceptions of reality can be created by other forms of culture. However, the strong influence of cinema and television on the minds of viewers is quite obvious, so it is important to study the role of this industry in the creation of various modern myths. This article examines the process of formation in the minds of Russian viewers of the Slavic runes myth, which are depicted in films and TV programs as an ancient form of pre-Christian Slavic writing. This article shows that science knows nothing about the Slavs writing, similar to the runic writing. This fact allows us to assert that the idea of the existence of Slavic runes is a modern myth. Its genesis is connected with the appearance of pseudo-scientific historical literature in post-Soviet Russia and its influence on the formation of the literary genre of Slavic fantasy. For the first time this myth, which is very popular among Russian neopagans, hit the screens in 2004, when a four-part film series The Legend of Kashchei was released. The film was the first screen incarnation of this genre of Slavic fantasy. The viewer can see signs very similar to Scandinavian runes in the Slavic deities’ palace. Since that time, runes have become a popular feature of Russian mystical films and serials. Even if the runes do not intertwine directly with the Slavs, they are included in the context of Russian historical and cultural heritage. So viewers get used to associate the image of runic inscriptions with the pagan beliefs of ancient Russia. An even larger contribution to the formation of such representations has been made by TV programs, in particular, those shown on the channel REN TV. The existence of a highly developed Slavic runic written language is discussed as a fact in a number of such programs and fonts, stylized like the Scandinavian runes, are often used in the visual design of some of them. All this is fully in line with the ideas of Russian neo-pagans which, by the way, we can see in all these movies. But if recently it was possible to think that the Slavic runes are part of the marginal subculture of pseudohistory adherents and that it is impossible to see them in respectable media, now the situation has changed. In 2018, in Orthodox Easter, Channel One showed a docudrama The Baptism of Rus’. The subtitles of this film are stylized as runic inscriptions. Thus, despite the Orthodox-oriented nature of the film, it repeats the popular among Russian neo-pagans myth about Slavic runes, fixing it in the mass consciousness. Unfortunately, these ideas are not so harmless, as they contribute to the restoration of Nazi fabrications about the mystical symbolism of runes and the reception of these views by the Russian historical consciousness.

Keywords: modern mythology, runic writing, pseudohistory, neopaganism, Nazism, Russian historical consciousness, Russian TV, Russian cinema, screen culture

Shelekhov Igor Lvovich, Belozerova Galina Victorovna, Martynova Anna Igorevna S. FREUD’S AND C.G. JUNG’S CONCEPTS AS THE METHODOLOGICAL BASIS FOR INVESTIGATION OF IMAGES, SYMBOLS AND DREAM CONTENT // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 3 (5). P. 137-149

The article presents the description and investigations of Zigmund Freud and Karl Gustav Jung concepts, who suggested the theories of dreams. Freud’s theory of dream is analyzed, dream functions are characterized, the basis of dream theory is given in this paper. There is a detailed characteristic of two kinds of dream (a clear dream and a hidden sleep) in the article. Freud’s method of dream investigation is described in detail. C. G. Jung‘s investigation point of view is considered. He criticized Freudianism and proposed his own concept, which was later called «analytical psychology». In this paper the basis of Jung’s dream theory is given, the method of his dream investigation is described. The authors suggested graphical images (schemes), which clear illustrated Freudianism and classical psychoanalysis concepts. The article is based on a wide range of sources, which include works of classical author of psychoanalysis in Russian and original language.

Keywords: dreams, image, symbol, psychology, methodology, system, structure, personality, Freudianism, classical psychoanalysis

Shelekhov Igor Lvovich, Belozerova Galina Victorovna HISTORY OF DREAM STUDY: FROM ARCHAIC NOTIONS TO MODERN SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 1 (7). P. 47-70

The article deals with historical aspects of the research of images predominantly of visual character occurring during a sleep period. The review of prescientific and scientific concepts related to the study of sleep and dreams is carried out. The paper presents the analysis of a wide range of literary sources, including papers of researchers and scientists in source languages and also in Russian. It should be noticed that the given research characterizes only the history and culture originated in Africa (Ancient Egypt) and Europe. Reviewed history of views and assessments of the phenomenon of dreams and approaches to the study of this psychic phenomenon is given in chronological sequence.

Keywords: dream, dreaming, Ancient history, Classical Antiquity, Middle Ages, Renaissance, religion, philosophy, culture, scientific concepts

Shelekhov Igor Lvovich, Belozerova Galina Victorovna VISUALIZATION OF THE FAMILY SYSTEM: B. HELLINGER’S METHOD IN THE CONTEXT OF A SCIENTIFIC PARADIGM // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 1 (11). P. 86-103

According to B. Hellinger, the method of family constellations is being analyzed through the prism of natural-science concepts. It was the first time B. Hellinger’s concepts were systematized and represented and thereafter accepted by the academic science. The object and the subject of the psychological correction were selected, the methodological basis of the method was described, methods, target audience, indications and contraindications to the application of the method, equipment and materials, the peculiarities of the method were described. The family was analyzed in the function of systematic education, the psychological laws that are active in family systems were described. Difficulties and conditions that limit the use of the method were defined. The method’s modifications were highlighted. There was given a detailed, step-by-step description of the classical systematic family constellation scheme introduced by B. Hellinger. The author’s view on the issues under the investigation is also suggested. The importance of B. Hellinger’s method as a unique tool of visualizing the structure of the genus and family is highlighted. Author’s graphic images (charts) that vividly illustrate the family system of a client, the psychological laws of family systems, the sequence of phases of placement client’s family system were designed as a result of the analysis of literary sources. Information that is given in the present article complements the existing theoretical principals and analysis of empirical experience of classical systematic family constellations suggested B. Hellinger. According to the data of the conducted research the following conclusions were made. The method of «Systematic family constellations» proposed by B. A. Hellinger is flexible and specific. High capacity correction of the method allows you to recommend it for use in practical psychology. Multiaspectual method of B. A. Hellinger is a unique instrument that helps to visualize the structure of the genus and the family, to demonstrate the differences between hierarchical, chaotic and harmonious family systems models. Method of systematic family constellations can provide psychological assistance in areas related to tribal, family and parent-children relationships. Constellations conducted within the B. A. Helinger’s method create conditions that are good for conflict resolutions, understanding and optimization of the life scenario, development of the personality. The psychological mechanism that ensures the effectiveness of the system of family constellations is presented as expansion of human knowledge about its relationship with the world around him and the subsequent transformation of his own personality which results in the change of the objectively existing reality.

Keywords: psychological training, methodology, system, structure, element, B. Hellinger, family, genus, constellation, visual perception, visualization, systematic approach, phenomenological approach

Shelekhov Igor Lvovich, Belozerova Galina Victorovna PSYCHOCORRECTIONAL METHOD OF IMAGES, SYMBOLS AND PLOT OF DREAMS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 2 (8). P. 108-123

The article contains a detailed description of the psychocorrectional method of images, symbols and plot of the dream developed by the authors. The paper substantiates the background of the given psychological practice for providing individual psychological treatment and for development of the comprehensive psychocorrectional and rehabilitational programs. The stepbystep guide of transformation of the initial dream is provided. Practical use of the original method is illustrated by clinical example. Peculiar features of the proprietary methodology, the psychologist and patient problems arising during psychocorrectional process are described. The paper presents the efficiency and the results of approbation of the developed psychocorrection method.

Keywords: dream, sleep hygiene, dreaming, image, symbol, plot, psychocorrection, psychotherapy, personality, intrapersonal conflict

Zagraevsky Sergey Volfgangovich TO THE QUESTION OF PATRIARCH NIKON’S PROHIBITION FOR HIPPED-ROOF TEMPLES CONSTRUCTION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 33-44

This article is devoted to the analysis of the issue of one episode of the history of Russian temples construction – of the prohibition imposed by Patriarch Nikon on the construction of hipped-roof temples, which played an important role in the semiotic structure and aesthetic design of the space of Russian cities and monasteries. In the last years some researchers question the fact that Patriarch Nikon’s prohibition for hipped-roof temples construction in the middle of the 1650s took place. After analyzing all arguments “pro” and “contra”, I show that this prohibition actually took place, and its reasons were as follows. Firstly, the Patriarch took some kind of “monopoly” for such roofs, having decided to erect a tent-roofed rotunda in his New Jerusalem. Secondly, the Patriarch was obliged to take care of the financial and material sides of Church life, and hipped roofs were too expensive, technologically complicated and inefficient from the point of view of temples capacity. Thirdly, hipped roofs did not satisfy Nikon by personal (e. g., aesthetic) reasons. There is also the statistics of hipped-roof temples construction in the article: since 1513 until the beginning of the XVII century about 30–35 such temples were built, ands approximately the same quantity – since the late 1620s until the mid of 1650s. Then such construction was stopped due to Nikon’s prohibition for some decades.

Keywords: Russia, architecture, hipped-roof temple, patriarch Nikon

Uvarov Mikhail Semjonovich TARKOVSKY AND CHRISTIANITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 4 (14). P. 124-145

The article by Mikhail Semenovich Uvarov (1955–2013), offered to the attention of the reader, was previously published in the periodical “Solov’ev Studies” 2012. 3 (35). P. 16–28. We reproduce this text because of its significance for the visual semiotics of the cinema and for the continuation of the discussion about the art work of the famous Russian film director in our journal, and also as a sign of respect for the scientist and philosopher who recently left us. The article deals with the Christian aspects of Andrei Tarkovsky’s creative activity. The author considers the problems associated with interpretation of the ideas of the Christian and Orthodox theology in Tarkovsky’s films. The author outlines the challenges the Russian philosophy of art faces with in the context of the Tarkovsky’s creation activity. In the article the author revealed the specificity of the «Russian philosophy of art» conception. The questions about the religious motivation of Tarkovsky’s artistic method are discussed. The author analyzes the specific religious content of Tarkovsky’s films and controversial issues of his work. The aspects of Tarkovsky interpretation of “popular Christianity” in Russia are discussed. It is shown how religious motives in Tarkovsky’s films influenced to the contemporary Russian cinema. It is concluded that the films of Andrei Tarkovsky affect delicate strings of human soul that can awaken religious faith and great art. According to the author, Tarkovsky attained higher synthesis of human and Divine spheres, and it is Tarkovsky’s main contribution to the world art. A short essay on the life and philosophy of Professor M. S. Uvarov precedes his article.

Keywords: works of Andrei Tarkovsky, philosophy of art, religious art, religious philosophy, Divine, human, faith, Christianity, Orthodoxy, Catholicism, “Russian Golgotha”.

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich URBAN SPACE AS ANTHROPOLOGICAL PHENOMENON // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 2 (16). P. 10-31

The article is devoted to the study of the main anthropological parameters of urban space. The basis for this study is the humanitarian approach in urbanistics. According to this approach, the city is a specific, complex cultural construct, embodying in its material “arrangement” the fundamental aesthetic, social and philosophical attitudes of people. This embodiment has a “two-way” character. The visual organization of urban space, on the one hand, captures cultural meanings, values, myths and priorities. On the other hand, it produces certain emotions, organizes a specific goal setting, affects a person’s life strategy and his daily activity, prescribes norms and guidelines for the person. This dual functionality of the city anchored in visual signs and markers. Any material object that enters the “fabric” of the urban environment can be read as such a sign or marker. The study of the “human” parameters of the urban space should take place in the perspective of convergence of semiotics and urbanistics in the general context of anthropological knowledge. This will allow to understand and form the urban habitat as a sphere of communicative praxis of the townspeople. The article considers three fundamental principles of organization of the urban environment: space, time and values. These principles express the basic parameters of human existence: the uneven extent of material corporeality (different semantic intensities), the historicity of being (the presence of the past and the future in the present), and normativity (value orientations). Practical axiology of urban spaces forms the separate loci in such a way that, on the scale of the general space of the city, they can become spaces of solidarity and complicity. The values of social memory, national traditions, cultural history, civic identity, personal life, constructive development (through the cultural accumulation of meanings) orient the activity of citizens on such solidarity as an integral goal. These values can unite both ordinary citizens and city government officials in their activities in the visual construction of urban space. On this path, a certain contrast can be overcome between the planned “cybernetic” activity of administrations and the spontaneous creativity of the inhabitants. This path leads to the collective urban asceticism – to caring for the city as the common “body” of its inhabitants. Urban space, which is perceived as an anthropological and not a physical phenomenon, is a visually structured sphere of human communicative practices. As a result of such practices, a general biography of the city and its inhabitants develops.

Keywords: city, urban environment, visual semiotics, axiology, humanitarian urbanistics, communicative practices, anthropology of city, space, time, values

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich WHAT CAN BE CALLED VISUAL SEMIOTICS? // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 1 (1). P. 10-22

The article considers the question of the meaning and the use of the term “visual semiotics.” The subjective scope of visual semiotics and its correlation with other areas of the Humanities is determined here. On the one hand, visual semiotics is a part of semiotics as a whole; on the other hand, it acts as a complex research area, including visual aspects of various socio-cultural (communicative) practices in its sphere. The study of the visual aspects of communication confirms the thesis about mainly pragmatic nature of the sign as an element of the communication system. The author comes to the conclusion that the term “visual semiotics” may be called multidisciplinary research field that is formed by scientific interest to visual communication, carried out in different “optically” organized forms of cultural activity.

Keywords: visual semiotics, pragmatics, sign, cultural communication, multidisciplinary knowledge

Barandova Tatiana Leonidovna, Vorontsova Elizaveta Aleksandrovna VISUAL SEMIOTICS OF RUSSIAN FASHION IN THE PROCESS OF POLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 1 (1). P. 41-60

In this article authors attempted to discover (identify and describe) changes of the symbolical meanings/marks/codes of political transformations within visual representations on the basis of Russian fashion magazines materials covering period between 1980 and 2013 years. On the example of 918 pictures from magazines and 135 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia 2012/2013 photos, this research completed in screening design of studying processes of political changes with “steps” connected to significant stages of regime transformations. Authors conclude that through fashion magazines, intensively filled with visual tokens, public political processes are not just reflected which allows to clarify their semantically-communicative codes, rather is ongoing anticipatory legitimization of social order and political regime changes, probably, initiated and/or supported by powered groups.

Keywords: visual political studies, Russian political regime, representations, fashion, gender

Simsky Andrew Dmitriyevich HIEROTOPY AS PRINCIPLE AND INSTRUMENT // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 2 (16). P. 62-85

Hierotopy is a novel concept, originally developed by Alexei Lidov, that is defined both as the creation of sacred spaces viewed as a special form of human creativity as well as a related academic field of study. Sergey Zagraevsky has challenged the scientific validity of hierotopy in his opinion article published in the preceding issue of this journal. As he argues, hierotopy studies a poorly defined “sacred space”, the very existence of which has yet to be proven and can only be postulated in an act of faith. The present paper offers a response in defense of hierotopy. I analyze both Zagraevsky’s arguments as well as the assumptions underlying them, and elucidate three fundamental misconceptions within his critique. Firstly, he misinterpreted the interplay at work between the religious and the scientific in hierotopy. While he directly states in his paper that hierotopic research necessarily involves a mystical revelation by the researcher in accordance with the researcher’s own beliefs, I explain why this is a clear misapprehension of hierotopy, and, in essence, confuses the object of study with a research program itself. Secondly, his perspective on hierotopy from the standpoint of an architecture historian prevents him from recognizing the key role played by icons and iconicity in the construction of sacred spaces as well an important role of performativity. Thirdly, in attempting to assign hierotopy a fixed position within the established structure of scientific disciplines, he has overlooked its essentially holistic character and its function as an interdisciplinary discourse with its own focus. It is due to these misunderstandings that Zagraevsky arrives at a skewed conception of hierotopy, namely, that hierotopic research consists in nothing more than an attempt to divine ephemeral, sacred meanings by way of mystical inspiration, and that it is but a terminological “superstructure” that has no proper object of study, relying instead on substantial content borrowed from traditional disciplines. But in reality, as this paper argues, the main subject of hierotopy is the culturehistorical process of the formation of sacred spaces viewed as products of conscious human creativity. Its methodology is free from mysticism, even while the motivations of the actual creators of sacred spaces can be, and frequently are, influenced by religious views and tinted with mystical ideas. The invention of hierotopy has been a logical result of the evolution of the theory of sacred art, with iconography serving as its essential point of departure. Hierotopy has earned wide recognition and academic validation.

Keywords: hierotopy, methodology, discourse, sacred spaces, spatial icon, visual semiotics of religion

Krutkin Viktor Leonidovich HUMAN MOVEMENTS IN THE EXPERIENCE OF COMPREHENSION OF THE WORLD // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 2 (2). P. 45-54

Man finds himself in the world not as pure mind or consciousness, but as embodied being. This embodiment is not a simple natural fact, man is not the product of his or her own body, on the contrary, people in history always have bodies as their own objects and representations. French anthropologist M. Moss believed that for construction unified concept of human being we must base on different sciences – sociology, psychology and physiology. In this article concept “techniques of the body” analyses through the theory of motions developed classic psychophysiology N. A. Bernstein. It is hypothesized that different types of movements can be generalized by notion “gesture”. Gesture – is a movement that is able to experiment with space and time, it is the way by which a person can transcend his own boundaries. In a gesture of material and intentional sides fused together. Gesture suggests The Another Man. The human body takes on the role of media. Understanding of environment can carried out through the body and senses, not only through logic and language.

Keywords: techniques of the body, M. Mouss, schemes of movements, N. A. Bernstein, symbolical coordination, gesture, media, image.

Evlampiev Igor I. ON THE RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF ANDREI TARKOVSKY (BASED ON THE SCENARIO “LIGHT WIND”) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 2 (2). P. 75-87

The article discusses Andrei Tarkovsky’s religious views expressed in his works and diary 1970. Tarkovsky very carefully considers the problem of man’s relationship to God and the problem of immortality. The most important work of the director in this context is the scenario “Light Wind”, which was not implemented as a movie. The protagonist of the scenario most fully expresses the image of a religious prophet in works of Tarkovsky; director understands God as incomprehensible and infinite depth in the man, and immortality – as an infinite sequence of lives, like earthly life. In these unusual religious beliefs Tarkovsky is the ideological heir to F. Dostoyevsky.

Keywords: Andrei Tarkovsky, the film script Light Wind, religion, immortality

Dulgheru Elena Dmitrievna THE SACRED IN THE FILMS OF ANDREI TARKOVSKY. THE ARCHETYPE OF THE HOUSE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 2 (2). P. 88-100

The study defines the archetypal meaning of the house (in the classical and the Jungian sense), as an architectural object with aesthetic, psychological and narrative functions, in the scenographies of Andrei Tarkovsky, and oversees the functioning mode and the semantic enrichment of this archetype in the economy of the films. These functions of the house are put in relation with the narrative functions of the main characters, in order to reveal the fundamental role of the house as a temple or a space consecrated to the meeting and communicating between man and God.

Keywords: archetype; sacred space; dome-shaped space; space open to infinity; thaboric space; house of the soul

Pirogov Sergey Vladimirovich PROJECT IMAGES OF THE CITY AND TECHNOLOGY: FOUNDATION OF UNITY OF THE TWO SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 1 (1). P. 61-77

The author discusses the basis of isomorphism of urban and technological systems relying on the fact of congruence of the morphological structure of the city and the type of technology. The main thesis is the assertion that every type of city is characterised by a certain way of life, by the type of technology used, and by everyday life things. The article gives a distinction of three types of things: the pre-industrial thing, the industrial thing, and the virtual thing – the image. Project as a cognitive structure of a possible life has different shapes: mythological, scientific, ideological and virtual – in the form of an image.

Keywords: project images, thing, image, city, technology

Korol Denis A.. THE CULT OF MELANCHOLY AND ‘SATURNIANISM’ IN THE EARLY MODERN IMAGERY OF WESTERN EUROPE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 4 (10). P. 32-52

The paper deals with the concept of ‘Melancholy’ – one of the four humors in Hippocratic medicine, practiced in Europe and Middle East from Antiquity till the very end of the Modern time. Being a “daughter of Saturn” in the late-medieval world view, it went through a curious conceptual metamorphosis along with mythological Saturn himself during the 15th – 17th centuries. In that period, a peculiar trend of Hermetic Natural Philosophy gave rise to an utterly new type of intellectuals. Model of the enlightened genius and poet-philosopher was continuously connected with the character of Melancholy among them. Its effect on the human nature was modeled not upon the gloomy anticipations of the Aristotelian school, but the solemn definitions of Plotinus, G. Piko della Mirandola, and Agrippa von Nettesheim. Seen previously as a ‘God of death and inexorable time’, ‘the Reaper’, Saturn had been transformed to become a patron of wisdom and a mentor of melancholical ‘heroic enthusiasts’. Rich iconological diversity of practically identical motives in the art of the 15th – 17th cc. illustrates these theses.

Keywords: Saturn, melancholy, humors, astrology, hermetism, iconology, Renaissance, post-medieval, Vanitas

Gavrilenko Stanislav Mikhaylovich HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER, JAN WANDELAAR AND THE EMPIRE OF OBSERVATION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 4 (18). P. 84-102

This paper deals with an interpretative experiment, in which two images compare with an idea formulated by American historian of science Lorraine Daston. According to Daston, in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, scientific observation was theorized and its wide dissemination led to the formation of a veritable empire of observation. Two images in question are The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger (1533) and the frontispiece to Carolus Linnaeus’s Hortus Cliffortianus (1748), designed and executed by Jan Wandelaar. The main issue is what these can tell us about the empire of observation as a politico-epistemological assemblage (practices, procedures, techniques of representation, modes of description, institutions, selves and styles of life), assuming that such an assemblage represented and legitimated itself not only by various types of discourse, but through visual representations. The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein through its visual order documented (beyond their numerous enigmas) the moment in history of Europe when the political apparatus began to constitute itself as an apparatus of observation. In this context, the ambassador (as a sovereign’s representative) is first of all an observer. Particular attention is paid to the terrestrial globe, depicted on Holbein’s picture, as a mechanism of synoptic vision and totalizing representation, serving concurrently as an epistemological instrument and as an instrument of political domination. In contrast to the seemingly realistic manner of Holbein’s The Ambassadors, Wandelaar’s frontispiece exploits mythological motifs and plots, which however refer to real aspects of the empire of observation: to Europe as a geographical zone of appropriation and consumption, organized by nonequivalent exchanges, but also as a privileged territory of epistemological accumulation, and to the space of observation as an ordered space. In conclusion it is stated that these two images, despite their complex symbolic and allegorical structure, reflect the factual modes of knowledge and epistemological regimes whose formation and consolidation they supported.

Keywords: botanic garden, empire of observation, globe, Hans Holbein the Younger, Jan Wandelaar, map, observation, politico-epistemological regime, space of observation, visual representation

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich VISUAL SEMIOTICS OF CITIES: PERSPECTIVE OF URBAN TEXTS STUDIES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 4 (10). P. 9-22

I analyze here the interpretation of a city as a complex transphysical phenomenon which has communicative and semiotic nature. This formulation of the problem will allow to approach the study of a city as a difficult organized space. Its visual marking expresses not only the functionality of individual objects and areas how much human notions of existential comfort, historical and mythical narratives and axiological prescriptions. Epistemic ‘optics’ of visual semiotics will provide an opportunity to review and understand a city not as a physical place, which is structured by material objects, but as a human communicative environment, as difficult organized, semiotically marked space. This space reflects a features of human being and initiates (translates in time) the cultural and communicative human activity.

Keywords: visual semiotics, visual communication, visual text, urban space, anthropology of city, contemporary urban studies

Schulmann Ekaterina Mikhaylovna, Kutuzova Anastasia Aleksandrovna THE POLITICAL REALITY OF MODERN CARTOONS: REGIME TRANSFORMATIONS AND SOCIAL CONTRADICTIONS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 2 (28). P. 81-95

Popular culture reflects not only events, but also the nature of the modern era and problematic aspects that require the attention of the state and society. The article examines new vectors of socio-political transformation of modern society and their reflection in animation. The study of modern cartoons shows that they have replaced traditional myths and began to broadcast social norms and their transformation. Special attention is paid to the growing role of horizontal ties and the increase in the value of the family and the institution of reputation, caused by the highest degree of transparency of the modern information society. This is clearly emphasized in the plots of such cartoons as Frozen, Moana, Brave, Inside Out, Finding Nemo, and Coco. All cartoons show the hero’s rebellion, which results in an understanding of family ties’ value. In addition, the article notes a change in ideas about romantic love. At the same time, the value of individualism fades into the background, giving way to mutual assistance to achieve the common good. The article emphasizes that atomization and individualism were characteristic of human culture for a fairly short period of time. They appeared after the collapse of traditional society, urbanization and the next industrial revolution. However, later urbanization was replaced by hypeurbanization along with information transparency, which, relying on new technical means, revived many features of the traditional society. Moana’s plot demonstrates the reduction of the atomization of modern society, the negative side of the high level of individualism, which is increasingly difficult to demonstrate today due to the rapidly increasing role of social connections. The conflict of civilizations described by Huntington is not reflected in modern multiplication. Anyone who seemed to be the enemy and the embodiment of evil, upon closer examination, turns out to be either a victim in need of help, or a potential ally. In this specific, often repeated plot, it is not difficult to see the influence of postcolonialism as a direction of modern thought and public discourse. Illustrations of the formation, functioning and destruction of authoritarian political models in modern cartoons are analyzed. The relevance of the theme of the fight against tyranny in animated films is shown. Examples include Toy Story 3, A Bug’s Life and the animated series Watership Down. In the first case, the dictator imposes on society the ideology of a hostile external world, which forms the authoritarian political model’s ideological basis. Its organizational basis is represented by a repressive mechanism consisting of security, surveillance and a closed perimeter. This brings the presented model closer to totalitarian political regimes, because modern autocracies do not hinder the intention of those who disagree with leaving the country. This helps them maintain their power for as long as possible. In order to maintain this regime, a privileged caste is created, represented by the power apparatus (guards who are allowed gambling and additional consumption). In addition, the security apparatus has the right to carry out violence against all other members of society. The plot of A Bug’s Life also shows society’s struggle against tyranny, which is carried out through a combination of the direct threat of violence and propaganda. The method of intimidating the tyrant Hopper shows that he does not perceive himself as a legitimate bearer of power and recipient of resources. Internal recognition of its own illegitimacy provokes a reluctance to make concessions, reach a mutually acceptable compromise and negotiate, as the legitimate government usually does. Direct political content is also found in Watership Down. Within the framework of the narrative for children, the main attributes of the classic fascist dictatorship are politically realistic. The authors draw attention to the fact that the basis for the alternative to dictatorship is not atomization and chaotic violence, but civic organization and mutual assistance.

Keywords: horizontal ties, political regimes, cartoons, tyranny, social norm, information society, generational values

Simsky Andrew Dmitriyevich PROTESTANT HIEROTOPY IN DUTCH GOLDEN AGE PAINTING // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 10-32

This paper employs the concept of Protestant Hierotopy to explore the spiritual roots of Dutch Golden Age Painting. Hierotopic methodology, as developed by Alexei Lidov, focuses on the creation of sacred spaces as a form of human creativity. Though the Reformation may have done away with the sacred spaces of churches and sanctuaries, it introduced in their place a new kind of hierotopy: a sacralization of the whole of Creation, with a particular focus on human environments. The admiration for nature was imbued with religious feelings, while cleanliness and domesticity came to be seen as closely akin to holiness. In this paper I interpret Dutch Golden Age Painting as an iconography of this new sacrality. I argue that what we find in this art ought to be understood, not as a purely descriptive objective ‘realism’ conceived for its own sake, but rather as a ‘fervent’ or even ‘sacred’ naturalism motivated by admiration for God’s creation and enhanced by a Protestant sense of cooperating with the Creator. Such motives can be found at work in all genres of Dutch fine art. Still lifes, especially bunches of flowers, extremely lifelike and physically impossible at the same time, can be seen as icons of God’s Creation. Modest bourgeois dwellings, embellished by palace-grade Oriental carpets and marble flooring, are elevated in painted interiors to the level of veritable temples of domesticity. Early modern admiration for God’s Creation was inspired by Calvinistic teachings with regards to Nature as God’s manifestation, as well as by neostoic pantheism and by the contemporary scientific passion for the visible world and its study by observation. All these diverse influences worked together to inform a whole new worldview of Protestant Hierotopy in which the natural and the domestic acquired an aura of sacrality, while their representation in art took on an iconic dimension.

Keywords: Dutch painting, Dutch Golden Age, hierotopy, Protestantism, Calvinism, Baroque, Neostoicism, Natural Theology, art theory, iconography, iconology, realism, still life, landscape, domesticity

Sukhanova Sofya Jur'evna, Vorobyova Darya Olegovna THE VISUAL (THE ARCHITECTURAL EKPHRASIS) IN OVID’S POEM “METAMORPHOSES” // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 4 (14). P. 105-115

The article is devoted to the analysis of visual in the ancient literature, which the researchers consider the forerunner of the development of the visuality of the Renaissance and New Times. The purpose of the article is to study the architectural ekphrasis in Ovid’s poem “Metamorphoses”. The object of the study are descriptions of the palace of Phoebus (Regia Solis) and the Philemon and Baucis hut, converted into a temple (Tectum Philemonis et Baucidis). Ekphrasis Regia Solis, being a translation of the visual code into a verbal one, appears in the text of the poem on the border between the world of people and gods, pointing to a mix of real and unreal life. The image of the architectural object appears gradually, as the young Phaethon approaches the place of sunrise (ortus). The semantics of the word ‘ortus’ allows us to assert that the ekphrastic description not only reconstructs the model of the author’s reality, but also is the beginning, the birth of a new reality. Description of the house of Philemon and Baucis is a folded ekphrasis, does not contain a detailed representation, it is used as a motivation, a generalized image, characteristic of the temples of ancient culture. The architectural ekphrasis appears in the process of metamorphosis and also constructs a new reality. The parameters of this new reality, framed by conditional ekphrasis boundaries, are considered in the article.

Keywords: visual, ekphrasis, Ovid, “Metamorphoses”, ancient literature

Afonasina Anna Sergeevna ANCIENT LITERARY SOURCES ON PAINTED STATUES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 1 (1). P. 31-40

The Greeks painted their statues. This fact is not readily accepted even by specialists, as some mistaken translations and misinterpretations of the ancient sources amply testify. In the paper I analyze the most famous ancient testimonies and suggest, in some cases, their correct Russian translations. Thus, andrianta graphonta (Plato, Rep. 420 c 4) must be understood as an indication of painting of a statue, rather than a picture; equally well, circumlitio in Seneca (Letter LXXXVI) is related to a colorful painting, not waxing as some authors still think, etc. Ancient techniques of painting are finally illustrated by an outstanding example: a reconstruction of the funeral statue of a beautiful girl, called Phrasikleia (Athenian National Museum; Brinkmann et al. 2010).

Keywords: ancient aesthetics, scientific reconstruction of art objects, painting, colors, Greek statues, Euripides, Plato, Pliny, Seneca, Quintilian, Plutarch

Gornova Galina Vladimirovna 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

Slavinsky Sergey P.. “CITY CODE” AND ITS REFLECTION ON THE EXAMPLE OF TOWN-PLANNING DEVELOPMENT OF VELIKY NOVGOROD // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 3 (17). P. 128-144

Article represents the review of basic elements of planning structure of Veliky Novgorod. Stages of their formation and change are considered. The planning structure most fully reflects territorial and spatial characteristics of town-planning system. The short historical and genetic review is devoted to identification of initial properties of elements of planning structure and the mechanism of their inheritance. Full preservation and development of the historical cities is possible provided that changes don’t contradict a town-planning genetic code and are in limits of the regularities reproduced in the course of genesis of town-planning system. Knowledge of a genetic code furnishes the clue to the langage on which not only the history of the city, but also a prerequisites of its evolutionary development are written down. To learn this code, it is important to track the interactions and processes, connecting elements of modern town-planning system with their embryonic stage. Such historical and genetic analysis of the city allows to reveal peculiar features and anomalies of the planning organization of the modern city, to find appropriate explanations for the surprising mechanism of inheritance of “congenital” properties of planning structure and to define the steadiest and stable components of town-planning system. In article the landscape as a basis of formation and development of planning structure is emphasized. The elements, constituting the town-planning center of Veliky Novgorod, are specified. Stages of formation and evolution of defensive buildings and their influence on volume and spatial composition of the city are considered. Process of formation of the city transport infrastructure, where the river was always the main functional and composite axis, is shown. Analyzing the buildings’ complexes formation, the author notes skill of the Novgorod architects during the organization of system of high-rise dominants in structure of the housing estate. In the process of examination of the city’s planning structure components an attempt to mark out the steadiest town-planning principles and techniques, which were transferred and reflected in the course of evolution of the city, is made. The study of the mechanism of inheritance of town-planning traits of Veliky Novgorod is at a stage of accumulation and primary comprehension of historical and townplanning material. Identification of the genetic code and following it will allow to return historical architectural and town-planning sense inherent to the city.

Keywords: town-planning code of the city, Veliky Novgorod, historical and genetic review, planning structure

Sazonova Nataliya Ivanovna VISUAL IMAGE OF ORTHODOXY AND MODERN CULTURE: ON A PROBLEM OF INTERACTION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 1 (1). P. 78-87

The article considers the principles of the visual image of Orthodoxy and the related features of translation of religious values to the culture of modern society. It is concluded that the current problems of perception of Orthodoxy in society mainly connected with the peculiarities of its translation, which has deep cultural roots.

Keywords: visual image, the reverse perspective, Orthodoxy, sacred space, verbal text

Sazonova Nataliya Ivanovna THE “DONKEY WALK” IN RUSSIA IN XVI–XVII CENTURIES: THIS CONTENT AND SEMANTIC TRANSFORMATION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 2 (4). P. 115-125

The article is devoted to the history and semiotic transformations of “Donkey walk” practiced in Russia in XVI–XVII centuries on Palm Sunday which was a ritual reenactment of Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. The autor analyzes role of spatial icon in dissemination of religious values and specifics of dissemination of spatial icon in Russia. Discussed the origin of “Donkey Walk” and semantic transformation that occurred through interperation of the ritual in Russia. It is concluded that the content of “Donkey Walk” in Russia was significantly enriched: there was deep understanding of events of Sacred history and their active experience, when elements of the worldly life in all their manifestations get a sense of the sacred. However, from the 2nd half of the XVII century there was a gradual desacralization of the ritual associated with the General trends of secularization.

Keywords: “Donkey walk”, Palm Sunday, the spatial icon, sacred space, Pokrovsky Cathedral, the symbolism of liturgical vestments, willow symbolism, secularization

Sokhan Irina V. VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF GASTRONOMIC CULTURE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 1 (1). P. 88-96

The article analyzes visual representations of gastronomic culture which extend opportunities practices in modern mass society. New forms of social solidarity emerge on the base of common gastronomic experience that is shown by visual channels of media and the Internet. Culinary book as a traditional form of gastronomic expert knowledge acquires various visual interpretations. As images of the body, images of the food are verified for conformity to standards of glamor. Consumption of such food is offered as a situational assimilation of marks of the most cherished identity, which is represented by a media figure, a celebrity.

Keywords: gastronomic culture, visual representations, corporeality, glamor

Gerasimova Olga Vladimirovna IDEAL OF DOCTOR: TRANSFORMATION OF THE IMAGE IN VIEW OF STUDENTS OF MEDICINE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 120-126

In the paper author considers the modification of values of medicinal university students and the associated change in view of the ideal of doctor. Summary of the paper are based on comparative analysis of social research data. Research was conducted in 2005 and 2013 in Siberian Medical University within the course of bioethics.

Keywords: ideal of doctor, social research, comparative analysis, models of doctoring, transformation of values

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich VISUALITY AND COMMUNICATION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 2 (2). P. 11-25

The article investigates the communicative function of visual image. The author makes the distinction between the concepts of “image”, “exterior” and “picture”, analyzes the main characteristics of the image as a cultural mediator. Man is a communicative being. The natural environment of human existence is a space of culture. A human presence in the culture is ensured by communicative way, using different “languages of culture”. A system of visual objects is one of these “languages”; these objects have a semiotic and pragmatic meaning for humans. The human perception of exterior means the identification of an object, the human perception of image means the getting of a message. “Exterior” is a concept associated with the spatial orientation of the person, which has the ability of visual perception; the “image” is a concept describing the communicative situation, which ensures the presence of the subject in culture. The author considers a picture as a way of capturing and presenting of the image, whereas the perception of the image has communicative nature. Visual communicative situation takes place when the image is for the person, first, a fragment which requires contextual (semantic) defragmentation; secondly, as a personally relating to him reality, causing the individual response and transforming the person in the active (pragmatic) condition.

Keywords: visual studies, visual anthropology, communication, culture, image, picture, fragment, subject

Sazonova Nataliya Ivanovna THE SPACE OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP AND SACRAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE CITY: THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN TRADITION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 2 (16). P. 86-109

The article examines the role of religious worship in the formation of sacral topography of the Catholic city. The leading role of religious worship in the traditional religious consciousness is typical for both Eastern and Western Christianity in the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages the topography of city was influenced by the space of religious worship.The article discusses the features of conception of the sacred in the Western Christian tradition, the specifics of the temple space, as well as the impact of these features on the urban tradition on the example of Medieval Europe. The analysis of the semiotic meaning of the cross shows that Western Christianity is characterized by an understanding of the sacred from the position of an external observer, while Eastern Christianity is characterized by existential experience of the sacred. Therefore, in Western Christianity not only Sacred is essential, but also its interpretation by man. This is due, for example, the use of sculpture in worship. The author reveals the features of the Western Christian urban planning tradition associated with the specifics of understanding the sacred and the peculiarities of the interaction between the sacred and the human in the urban space. Among these features is a specific and contradictory understanding of the city by medieval authors. The city is understood as an image of Heavenly Jerusalem, and as a place of sin and the fruit of human pride.Author analizes the features of the formation of center of medieval city on the example of Wrocław (Poland). A feature of many medieval cities is the gradual formation of two centers – the spiritual and secular, associated with the human component of urban life (town hall). The author studies the fate of the Catholic urban planning tradition and the specificity of its perception in modern Europe on the example of Wrocław. It is concluded that the specificity of the understanding of the sacred in Western Christianity generates spiritual problems in society associated with secularization, but at the same time provides stability and continuity of urban tradition.

Keywords: Catholicism, religious cult, sacred space, town-planning tradition, city, Romanesque style, Gothic, Medieval city, Poland, Wroclaw

Knyazeva Helena Nikolaevna COGNITION AS A SENSE-MAKING ACTIVITY: AT THE CROSSROAD OF BIOSEMIOTICS AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 2 (2). P. 26-44

A fundamental problem of search of sense in the Universe is under consideration in the article. The application of such notions as sense, sign, signal to the biological (non-linguistic) processes what is a main problem of biosemiotics is discussed as well. The epistemological analysis of the concept of Umwelt coined by Jakob von Uexküll is made and its significance for the modern advances in epistemology, in cognitive science and in the theory of complex adaptive systems is demonstrated. A man in his cognitive, sense-making activity is considered in aspect of the universal evolutionary process together with the realm of living nature. It is shown that on the basis of achievements of biosemiotics, a possibility of search of new ways of integration of natural scientific and humanitarian knowledge is glimmered.

Keywords: biosemiotics, perception, cognition, cognitive semiotics, cognitive agent, interdisciplinary synthesis, signal, symbol, sense, complex adaptive systems, evolutionary thinking, Umwelt

Simyan Tigran Serzhikovitch NEW YEAR AND ITS ATTRIBUTES IN SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET TEXTBOOKS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF ARMENIA AND RUSSIA) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 1 (15). P. 10-33

The article describes both the transformation and the invariance of the “New Year” holiday and of its attributes. The empirical material of the study was the textbooks published in Soviet and post-Soviet Armenia and Russia. The choice of the empirical material was determined by the consideration that textbooks, especially the ones published in totalitarian and authoritarian states, are the indicators of political change since the education system is the most dependent upon the political field. The analysis of the empirical material testified to the fact that in the selected texts Santa Claus manifests itself in multiple roles: the evil, Frost punisher, the gift-giver, the wise old man who knows the cyclic order of seasons, the bearer of folk wisdom, the demiurge, and the one fulfilling the function of decoration of winter nature. The Snow Maiden in the educational materials of the Soviet and post-Soviet era is represented in the framework of folklore and is the “background” character of Santa Claus. In the educational materials of the Soviet era, the New Year tree decorations are featured as animals without any ideological value. Gastronomic decorations-gifts in the Soviet era were utilitarian in their nature and were the signs of “abundance” of the epoch; they were given to children as gifts for holidays. New Year tree decorations of the post-Soviet era are mainly visualized in the style of minimalism and in geometric shapes. The most distinctive feature of the post-Soviet textbooks is the presence of vividly expressed Christian motifs in the Armenian textbooks and their absence in the Russian textbooks.

Keywords: New Year, Santa Claus, Snow Maiden, New Year tree decoration, New Year tree, Christmas tree as a kind of holiday, holiday and leaders of the proletariat, Soviet textbooks, post-Soviet textbooks, microhistory

Zagraevsky Sergey Volfgangovich THE ORIGIN OF OLD RUSSIAN HIPPED ROOF ARCHITECTURE: THE RETURN TO THE PROBLEM // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 2 (16). P. 32-61

In 2007, the author of this article published the studies on the origin of Old Russian hipped-roof architecture. Since then the author has received many letters on this theme from colleagues, this issue was widely discussed at scientific conferences and in Internet. In 2012 the author’s book “Typological forming and basic classification of Old Russian Church architecture” was published, and some additional considerations about the origin of hipped-roof architecture were issued there. In general, the author’s position on this theme did not change, but some problems required clarification and expansion of argumentation. On the basis of analysis of new architectural and archaeological data and chronicle information, the issues of the origin of Old Russian hippedroof architecture are systematically considered. The low probability of direct origin of Russian hipped-roof architecture from Western European Gothic is shown, since tower-like, hipped-ceiling and relatively small area of the main volume of temples are not typical for Gothic architecture. The inconsistency of theories of the origin of Old Russian hipped-roof architecture from the Romanesque and Eastern architecture are also shown. In previous studies on stone hipped-roof architecture, the author of this article cited a number of provisions showing its origin from Old Russian wooden architecture. In this work they are expanded and structured. The wide spread of the hipped-roof churches in Old Russian wooden architecture before the first stone hipped-roof temple is shown. The hypothesis about the origin of not only stone, but also wooden hipped-roof architecture of Old Russia is put forward: the wooden hipped-roof was a “simplified form” of the dome, which was canonically conditioned and obligatory in the stone Orthodox Church architecture during the whole history of the Old Russian architecture, since the 10th century. Having shown the widespread, canonical and constructive conditionality of hippedroofs in wooden architecture earlier than the beginning of the 16th century, the author proves that the first hipped-roof stone church came from wooden hipped-roof architecture, not from any Gothic, Romanesque, Eastern and any other foreign sources, and reconstructs the specific circumstances of its appearance in the early 16th century. In previous studies on the origin of Russian stone hipped-roof architecture, the author’s position was that it came only from wooden architecture. But in this article the author shows influence of Old Russian pillarless stone dome churches, which, though few in number, were built during the entire previous history of Russian architecture. The main conclusion of this article is the following: Old Russian stone hipped-roof architecture became the organic continuation of the previous national architectural tradition. That tradition included hipped-roof wooden architecture, stone domed churches and the wide range of connections with world architecture. The article also proposes general principles for the determination of the origin of architectural forms. It is shown that such issues should be solved only in comprehensive manner, as these forms could be generated by talent of architects, artistic taste of customers, the progress of construction equipment, changes in aesthetic preferences of society, ideology, influence of other countries, cultures and styles, and many other factors, up to purely utilitarian ones. A certain role here could be played by financial, human and constructive limitations which led to non-standard solutions.

Keywords: Old Russian architecture, hipped-roof architecture, wooden architecture, Gothic, Renaissance, architectural forms, construction

Novikov Ivan Alexanderovich RENAISSANCE INFLUENCE ON RUSSIAN CULTURE: DEGRADATION OF ICON INTUITION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 3 (5). P. 71-77

The article examines the impact of changes in the culture of Western Europe during the Renaissance on the Russian culture. The content of this influence is called the changes in the Russian religious consciousness, which had the result of reduction in the authority of the Church hierarchy. The reason for this decrease of the authority referred to changes in the concept of divine energies. In this regard we consider the content of discussions about Tabor light and characterize two main positions in this debate. Changes in perceptions of the divine energies have led to changes in the perceptions of the icon. On a material of icon apology of John Damascene discusses the differences between an icon and an idol. The end of the article is a presentation of opinion of Dionysius the Areopagite on the church hierarchy as an icon of the Heavenly hierarchy.

Keywords: culture, Renaissance, Orthodoxy, paganism, icon, idol.

Gorbuleva Maria Sergeyevna SYSTEMATIZATION OF THE IMAGES OF ANIMAL WELFARE ACTIVISTS’ GOALS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 4 (18). P. 103-124

Each cultural period has its own style which represents the main idea and purposes expressed by visual and discourse forms. Thus, it is possible to see how the created symbolism imprints the understanding of a period, “positive” and “negative”, the benefits and right trajectories for life. The paper addresses to bioethics as a cross-disciplinary system which was made to protect and respect life, its identity and autonomy. Thus, changes in symbolism can also reflect the purposes of bioethics for a projection of possible options of the future. We can see how verbal symbolism of bioethics works for the growth of requirements which answer the ideas of social altruism. In the recent decades, not only quantitative, but also high-quality growth of charity foundations, organizations, volunteer associations and societies of help in various spheres (health care, ecology, law, sport, culture, etc.) is observed in Russia and around the world. In this paper, a question is raised about the sphere of protection and help for animals. Versions and areas of work of animal protection movements are considered. The analysis of visual expression, motives, coloristic and symbolical visual expression of the organizations is carried out. Conclusions are drawn on the character and the concept of this activity. The main directions of modern concepts of animal protection are animal welfare, that is control of psychological and physical well-being of animals, and animal rights, whose supporters promote the inadmissibility of separate kinds of traditional use of animals by the person in the economic activity. As a result, several directions of animal protection directly or indirectly connected with the main problems are formed: exploitation of animals, use of animals, control over animals, welfare of animals, rights of animals. In practice, work with problems concerning animals is developing so that there are organizations, volunteer movements, charity foundations, initiative groups working in the following directions: organization of promotion, events, actions for informing and changing the society’s ideas concerning animals, for developing a humane attitude (animal welfare) to them; theoretical, legal work on protection and release of animals (animal rights); work on rescue of animals: endangered species, pets or animals injured in accidents, in the wild nature (animal rescue); organization of animal shelters, support funds, natural parks, work on rehabilitation of animals, return to the habitat (adoption, shelters, rehab). There is also a specialization in animal species: pets or partners (cats, dogs, etc.), farm animals (cows, sheep, etc.), trade types (fur industry of etc.), animals in experiments (mice, rabbits, monkeys, etc.), wild animals (animals from woods, sea fauna, etc.), rare and endangered species (pandas, tigers, etc.). Thus, “animal activists” are the general concept which unites various categories of people who can initially have various understandings of the good, but are united by the purpose of protecting animals from excessive suffering. The concept “animal welfare” is quite a broad concept based on an ethical position of animal activists who are convinced that each animal has advantages, and each animal must be respected and protected. Investigating symbolism and visual designations of animal protection and areas of organizations’ activities, it is possible to allocate some groups, features and subjects. The organizations’ work with different species of animals (pets, animals as partners, farm animals, wild animals, marine animals, etc.) can also be reflected visually. The color scale is quite diverse: it is either all colors of the rainbow, or one or two primary colors (black and white, blue, green, red and their shades, orange and yellow). As a general conclusion, it is possible to speak about the visuality of volunteering. It expresses the spirit, the main directions and concepts of work of volunteer organizations of animal protection: care, assistance, responsibility, humanity, protection, mercy, respect for all living beings. Animal activists work to minimize the infliction of harm to the surrounding nature and animals which people uses or which depend on them, and, whenever possible, they pursue benefit and advantage for the nature.

Keywords: animal welfare, volunteers, images, symbols, visuality, bioethics

Tihomirova Elena Evgenevna VISUAL CODES OF RUSSIAN ALPHABETS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 112-119

In paper the author addresses to the analysis of cultural codes and their representation in Slavic alphabets and texts of educational alphabets. The author shows that over time cultural codes, that are crucial for the survival of man as a cultural, moral and spiritual person, cease to be broadcast in the texts of the alphabet, deformed or replaced by other codes. Extensive material of the Russian manuals for training in the diploma allows the author to draw the theoretical conclusions useful both for the theory of culture, and for linguistics.

Keywords: alphabet, cultural codes, culture, cultural universal, language universal, binary oppositions, cultural norm

Sazonova Nataliya Ivanovna THE SPACE OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP AND SACRED TOPIC OF THE CITY: THE EASTERN CHRISTIAN TRADITION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 1 (15). P. 93-119

The article examines the role of religious worship in the formation of sacral topography of Orthodox city, using example of the Eastern Christian tradition. It discusses the features of the space of the Orthodox Church and the sacralization of space outside of the temple, as well as the impact of these features on the town-planning tradition on the example of the Byzantine Empire and Russia. It also identifies specifics of Eastern Christian town-planning traditions associated with understanding the city as a place of the divine presence, with a single sacred centre, sanctifying and forming the surrounding space. This article analyzes the features of formation of the sacral centre of the city in the Byzantine Empire and Russia, as well as forms and methods of the consecration of the urban space. Additionally, the article investigates the fate of Orthodox urban planning traditions and the specificity of its perception in Russia of the 18th – 20th centuries, and in the Siberian region on the example of Tomsk.

Keywords: Orthodoxy, sacred space, architectural tradition, city, sacred topography, Byzantium, Russia, Siberia, Tomsk

Raykova Olga Anatolyevna THE ENVIRONMENT OF WOMEN’S INITIATION AND EXPERIENCE OF THE SACRED (ON THE MATERIAL OF PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 4 (10). P. 66-81

At the article women’s initiation is regarded as a hierotopical project (in the concept of hierotopy by A. Lidov). I distinguish the following main characteristics of the environment of women’s initiation: the presence of special places for the rite of initiation, the physical component of the rite, component associated with sanctification and fire, as well as special rituals that allow to separate the female initiation from other initiations. Specific features of the sacred environment of women’s initiation allow to identify the hierotopical concept of this ceremony, i.e. the creation of an environment that would facilitate the transformation of girl into a woman. However, this transformation is impossible without personal neophyte’s experience of communication with the sacred during initiation. Such an opportunity is created for several ways: through communication with those who had participated in a similar rite and now organizes it for the neophytes, through communication with the spirits of initiations, and finally through a female deity (initiation by the identification of girl with the goddess or the repetition of the rite of initiation, which was earlier performed by a female deity).

Keywords: women’s initiation, sacred space, visualization, ritual symbolism, initiation rites, primitive society, hierotopy, hierotopic project

Orlova Nadezhda Kh.. THE COLLECTIVE “THE IDIOT”: ON THE SCREEN ADAPTATION OF F. M. DOSTOEVSKY’S NOVEL // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 2 (2). P. 65-74

The article is systematized experience of screen adaptations of the novel “The Idiot” by F. M. Dostoevsky in globe cinema. The chronological frameworks are the first screen adaptation at the dawn of Russian cinema (1910, dir. Chardynin) and the pioneering work of the Estonian director Rainer Sarnet (2011). An overview of novels’s cinema fate is preceded by thoughts about dramatic plasticity of the great writer works. This character defines a steady interest to his work among cinematographers. We can talk about some common tags, on the language of cinema they give the visibility, the timelessness of one of the finest characters of Dostoevsky. Experiments with decorations from different eras and cultural contexts in which heroes are placed by different directors, allow us to talk about a special collective contribution of the cinema art to the decoding of the writer’s philosophy.

Keywords: globe cinema, F. M. Dostoevsky, cinema language, literature, screen adaptation, cultural codes

Avanesov Sergey Sergeyevich SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 1 (7). P. 71-114

In this article, I analyze a traditional Russian city as a visual semiotic space. I demonstrate that the key ideological (sacred) archetypes are in the basis of the planning of urban inhabited space; these archetypes have their expression in a visual forms for structuring of life environment. I understand here a topics as a method and result of an artificial spatial organization of “place”. It is important that an urban environment has a communicative character: the topical organization of inhabited space reflects and produces human communication practices. I explore a city as a multi-layered and multi-valued semiotic space in which discrete objects and their complexes “are read” as ideological, mnemonic and suggestive signs or messages (texts). Traditional Christian city is also a sacred image or spatial icon; consequently his understanding involves the use of the semiotic procedures that are used for the interpretation of iconography. For this reason I make an ontological and semiotic analysis of Eastern Christian icons, and at the same time I assert an active iconic stance of person. My study of the city as an icon based on the concept of hierotopy (Alexey Lidov) and aionotopy (Valery Lepahin). The sacred topics of Russian city historically formed by implementing the four basic organizational models (or matrices): the cultural-historical, liturgical, eschatological and symbolic; a particular paradigmatic image is the deep content of each of these models. Cultural-historical matrix assumes the transfer (distribution) of sacred space. The concept of cultural and semiotic transfer as the mechanism of constructing semantic space complexes in the formation of culture as communication environment is explained in this article. I offer the version of the systematic describing of fundamental models of translocation systems and complexes of culturally significant meanings in the formation of living space in traditional city. I suppose three types of cultural and semiotic transfer: transfer of idea, transfer of image and copying. As an example of eidetic transfer (transfer of idea), I view the process of translation of Christian sacral topos from Jerusalem through Constantinople to Kiev.

Keywords: visual semiotics, space of culture, sacred space, city, architecture, Eastern Christianity, icon, spatial icon, models of sacred topics, Russia, cultural semiotic transfer

Sazonova Nataliya Ivanovna VISUAL IMAGES IN THE ORTHODOX LITURGY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 105-111

The paper discusses the visual component of Orthodox worship, its role and place in worship, principles of transmission of religious content, causes and features of symbolism in worship, relationship to the symbol in different cultural and historical conditions. It is concluded that the visual images play leading role in transmission sacred content of religion, which is connected with the peculiarities of religious experience, which is the basis of religion. The author analyzes the forms and ways of expressing religious content through images and symbols, which are considered in aspects of the symbolism of the Liturgy as a whole and its individual elements. Historically variants relation to the symbol in the Liturgy in Byzantium and Russia are also research.

Keywords: visual image, Orthodoxy, ritual, symbolism, reverse perspective

Donskikh Oleg Albertovich METAPHOR AS A WAY TO CHANGE COORDINATES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 29-35

The paper considers the question of how metaphor works in the transition from one conceptual scheme to another one. For this there are two levels – narrative and constructive – and it is shown that the image of the underlying metaphorical mapping allows to specify the new coordinates of mental schemes. It is through visualization metaphor provides the possibility of the active choice of the part of the meaning or the new meaning that is to be introduced into the new system of associations. For example, fragments of Heraclitus demonstrate the break with the traditional mythical metaphor of birth, and Heraclitus uses three different metaphors related to different everyday practices. Then on the instances of the doctrines of Parmenides and Plato it is shown how using the metaphor of a chariot and a cave the breakthrough to the new ideal (transheavenly) reality is arranged, and then ordering a new system of concepts, including variable and constant, the demiurge, truth, enlightenment, etc.

Keywords: narrative metaphor, constructive metaphor, Ancient Greek philosophy, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plato.

Simsky Andrew Dmitriyevich THE IMAGE-PARADIGM OF JERUSALEM IN CHRISTIAN HIEROTOPY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 3 (17). P. 101-113

Image-paradigms are non-pictorial mental images of the sacred. They are engendered in the viewer’s imagination by means of organized ensembles of iconic, symbolic and typological elements of sacred spaces and emerge from a manifold of interrelating associations. In this paper I elucidate this complex notion by studying the example of one image-paradigm of fundamental importance, namely, the Holy City of Jerusalem, which appears to the religious imagination as the synthesis of an idealized historical city-relic and its celestial counterpart – the Heavenly Jerusalem. This Jerusalem is both the ‘navel’ of the world and a place of God’s immediate, living presence. The Church as a whole, as well as individual churches, are identified with Jerusalem, which reflects their primary function of serving as meeting places with God. While participating in the liturgy and integrating into the liturgical space, the faithful feel themselves to be in the midst of the Heavenly Jerusalem, a feeling which clearly cannot be reduced to or evoked by a simple two-dimensional picture. Generally, pictures are unable fully to represent a sense of being somewhere. They help to create ambiences, but they cannot represent them. It takes more than a pictorial representation to transport oneself, in the mind’s eye, to another place. This is what is involved in the concept of the image-paradigm. The image-paradigm works by means of a ‘spatial icon’, that is, a thoughtfully arranged spatial system of pointers, including architecture, an iconographic program, as well as the entire liturgical performance, including the very presence of the congregation absorbed in pious contemplation. An image-paradigm belongs to the religious tradition as a whole and takes shape in individual minds through a wide variety of religious experiences, including training, reading, prayer, liturgical life, mysticism, etc. An image-paradigm can be evoked in sacred spaces only because it is known beforehand to all the actors involved, both to those arranging them as well as viewers. In this paper, I begin with a brief review of iconographic strategies employed in conjuring the image-paradigm of the Holy City in Christian churches. In particular, the Celestial City can be represented in icons by means of earthly architecture including either recognizable motives of Constantinian Jerusalem or idealized and even fantastic patterns. Next, I move on to New Jerusalems, that is, Medieval re-constructions of the Christian Jerusalem, which were used as sites of virtual pilgrimage. Finally, I discuss possible links between Russian onion domes and the cupola of most prominent Jerusalem churches: the Holy Sepulcher and the Dome of the Rock. Particularly, I show how the famous cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed in Moscow was designed to represent Jerusalem as a city of multiple and diverse churches. In closing I turn to the Western tradition and provide a summary characterization of Gothic architectural icons of the Holy City and compare them to the Byzantine strategies.

Keywords: hierotopy, image-paradigm, Jerusalem, Christianity, iconography, Solomon’s Temple, Byzantium, Holy City, sacred space

Robezhnik Liubov V.. GATEWAY CHURCHES OF VELIKY NOVGOROD MONASTERIES IN 12–15th CENTURIES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 1 (11). P. 27-40

The article focuses on the history of the building of gateway churches in Veliky Novgorod monasteries in the 12–15th centuries. The current paper analyses the typological specifics of gateway churches. The article describes semiotic diversification of this typical church. Besides the defensive function the semiotic role of a gateway church as the boundary between spaces is emphasized in the article. It is considered that a gateway church is built into a certain visual semiotics of the monastery. The paper gives an overview of Veliky Novgorod and it’s suburb monasteries as semiotical multilayer structure which safeguarded the ancient town.

Keywords: gateway church, architecture of ancient Russia, monastery, architecture of Novgorod, semiotics of architecture

Shdankina Galina I.., Shipulina Natalia B.. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SEARCH AND REALIZATION OF A RUSSIAN MIRACLE IN THE FILM BY DANIIL ZINCHENKO «THE ELIXIR» // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 2 (16). P. 151-174

The article reveals the peculiarities of modern Russian cinema, allowing it to be a specific form of philosophical and visual-anthropological national self-knowledge. The main intellectual, emotional and spiritual features of the Russian mentality are studied by means of the artistic and visual material of D. Zinchenko’s film «Elixir». As the key elements of the Russian national thinking and behavior, the authors emphasize the desire of material miracle, belief in finding the wanted by embodying spiritual values and ideas into material objects. The article notes romanticism, focus on high moral ideals, neglect of material goods, mystical hope of fate, appeal to God, peculiar to the Russian soul and character. The problem of genre of Daniil Zinchenko’s film is analized, the analysis shows its narrative structures and demonstrates elements of intertextuality – quotation, allusion, reminiscence.The authors examine in detail the specifics of the visual language and symbols of «Elixir», its mythological motifs, archetypal images, discourse of «texts in the text».

Keywords: visual anthropology, semiotics of cinema, Russian studies, national self-knowledge, the mentality, Daniil Zinchenko, «Elixir», realogy, wonder, search

Melik-Gaykazyan Irina Vigenovna THE IGNORAMUS PARADOX: THE TIME OF VISUAL SYMBOLISM DOMINATION // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 4 (14). P. 49-64

All epochs creates their own symbols which become sociocultural events. These events occur after the visual symbolism, understood and recognized by people of a particular epoch, was expressed in a discursive form. Each sociocultural time characterizes the predominance of either visual symbolism or verbal symbolism but the forthcoming change of the epochs diagnoses the accent transfer from one symbolism to another. The correspondences between actions of three modern technologies – bioethics, urban planning, and cognitive management – are presented in this paper. These correspondences are established here on the basis of the “ignoramus paradox”. The essence of the paradox is the fate of ignoramus is guaranteed to everyone in the society of knowledge. The paradox manifests the situation in which each professional becomes an expert in a single area of knowledge while staying helpless as an ignoramus in all the rest areas but living in modern society requires a special awareness to navigate in a complex reality. These three modern technologies protect an ignoramus: knowledge management protects the intellectual freedom of specialist; urban planning – the rights of urban communities; bioethics – individuality. On basis of information models, the task of knowledge management in urban planning is specified and a role of verbal symbolism of bioethics in finding the “semiotic attractor” of urban planning was established.

Keywords: the “ignoramus paradox”, bioethics’ symbolism, visual symbolism, urban planning, equifinality, heterotopy

Smirnov Sergey Alevtinovich URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY: BETWEEN URBANISM AND EVERYDAY LIFE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 13-31

The work introduces a framework idea of the subject of urban anthropology on the basis of an analysis of the difference between classical urbanism and the so-called new urbanism of everyday life. Classical urbanism is associated with an attempt to describe and explain the city as a special reality, with an attempt to build a theory of the city and to present it in a certain stable construct. According to this construct, the city has a center, borders, periphery, sustainable models and ways of living. This idea comes from the model of an ancient city, which has its own sacral (temple) center, to which all roads led. The neourbanism of everyday life tries to retain in its presentation the fluidity of an everyday city in which objects and buildings are not important, but people living in it. The urbanism of everyday life tries to feel the city from within and not as an object, but as a space of residence and eventfulness. For such an understanding, another way of mastering urban space is suggested-the so-called flaneurism as a method. The article describes the specifics of flanking and the limitations of this method. In this paper we propose a flaneur tool, a cartoid other than a mental map. To compose the cartoid are the key points, the requirements for its compilation - a support, a landmark, a place, a boundary, a horizon.

Keywords: urbanism, everyday life, urban everyday life, urban anthropology, flaneur, mental map, cartoid, navigation

Altuhova Svetlana Alekseevna MULTICULTURALISM OF MODERN BRITISH SOCIETY: VISUALIZATION IN THE GUARDIAN // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 66-77

Media image of British multiculturalism, created and broadcast through the media, has been characterized by the methods of visual sociology in this paper. The analysis identified the following its structural elements: the confrontation between supporters and opponents held in the UK policy of multiculturalism, as well as between indigenous Britons and immigrants; appeal to national symbols in order to demonstrate their identity to any of the conflict parties, either for the purpose of reconciliation and national British identity; the relationship of the British policy of multiculturalism with the history of the UK, as well as with the modern experience of the European and Anglo-Saxon countries in coping with the cultural heterogeneity of their societies; change in the anthropological characteristics of the collective image of the British; introduction of cultural and stylistic and ethnic diversity in the domestic literature, music and the urban landscape of modern Britain, while maintaining clear boundaries between ethnic and cultural groups.

Keywords: British multiculturalism, The Guardian, media image, visualization, interpretation

Gizdatov Gazinur Gabdullavich, Burenina-Petrova Olga Dmitriyevna, Sopieva Bayan Abdujaparovna CULTURE AS A TEXT AND A PROJECT IN THE POST-SOVIET DISCOURSE (BY THE EXAMPLE OF KAZAKHSTAN) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2023. Issue 1 (35). P. 30-47

The article presents an analysis of the semiotic aspects of significant texts and visual samples in the discursive art practice of post-Soviet Kazakhstan from the 1990s to nowadays. Literary centricity as a universal property of the entire post-Soviet visual culture is revealed on the previously unstudied material, which has intermedial and intertextual specifics. Art discourse is analyzed on the thematic and rhetorical levels, using verifiable scientific methods for these levels (content analysis, critical discourse analysis, the deconstruction method). As a result, the art objects of post-Soviet Kazakhstan, with the texts included in them, are analyzed in the article in the local historical and political context. Three projects were identified: Eurasian, Pan-Turkic, and liberal. As given intertexts, they determined the social and cultural boundaries and assessments of Kazakhstani artists. The projects, as written and proved in the article, had their historical foundations and still determine the real policy. The art ideas which appeared within the framework of these projects find a modern medial reflection. The work, for the first time in the scientific literature, proves that medial experiments in the practice of Kazakhstani contemporary art (texts and performances by Sergei Maslov, Ziyakhan Shaigeldinov (Shai-Ziya), Yerbol Meldibekov, Elena and Viktor Vorobyov, as well as modern actionists) documented the process of what is happening, reflected the traumatic nature of reality itself. For the first and only time in the public space of the country, as the article shows, by means of art practice, these experiments have criticized the quasi-real world of Kazakhstan's social and cultural space. In the Kazakh contemporary art itself, there have always been a lot of texts and subtexts, which are often directly included in art objects or have created them. The article traces that these were such text samples that generated their own meaning along with a visual idea at a given point in time, which can be called the creation of discourse. The work also reveals that representatives of contemporary Kazakh art used the aesthetics of the absurd as a mechanism for transforming post-Soviet everyday life into a different and new reality, similar to how it happened in absurdist fiction of the twentieth century. At the same time, visual samples in Kazakhstani practice of the late 20th and early 21st centuries became real cultural aggregators, they replaced the written text and influenced its functioning in culture. The article reveals the still practically unexplored usage of the aesthetics of television intermediality in Kazakhstani contemporary art. Art projects and manifestos of Kazakh artists of the 1990s and the 2000s are presented as unique socio-political discursive texts that predicted the specific socio-political realities of the post-Soviet country.

Keywords: art project, discursive practice, literary centricity, intermedial, intertextual, cultural text, performance, post-Soviet, aesthetics of absurd