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WHAT DOES THE CITY SAY? SEMIOTIC AND AXIOTIC READING OF URBAN SPACES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 3 (17). P. 11-26

Cultural / culturologic studies (referred in the text as “culturology”) that being developed in Poland and Eastern Europe since 1970s, has the ambition of showing the phenomena or processes hidden behind a directly visible reality – tying them to the symbolic and axiological spheres. However, nowadays increasingly often the discourse based on values, norms, rules and meanings is enriched with issues related to ownership structures, social distinctions and relations of power. The author of the article tries to show this dialectic of various ontological orders on the example of urban studies. In functioning of city infrastructure, the basic role undoubtedly is played by “utilitarian values”. But while looking at the city as a work (something that remains in constant creation), artistic, aesthetic and ethical values seem to be the most important. The first two types (which include, inter alia, modernity, originality, beauty, order, context, chaos, ugliness, devastation), are present both in the process of shaping the urban space itself and in the formation of the styles of life occurring in it – including both everyday practices and bottom-up, spontaneous creative acts. Some of values are individual (happiness, freedom, religiousness anonymity, responsibility, care for the public good), and some are collective (community, equality, democracy, security, multiculturalism, local identity, living standards, nature, ecology). The diverse character of the social fabric of a city means clashing together various interest groups organized not only around the pursuit of power and profit but also convictions, ideologies, beliefs, and tastes. How proves Fereński, urban areas should, therefore, be seen/read as spaces of axiological disputes, strongly related to politics and economic determinants.

Keywords: culturology, culture, visual culture, urban space, city, style of life, values, axiology, economy, politics

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

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

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

HOW TO GO BEYOND THE WALLS OF THE ACADEMY AND RETURN? // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 93-103

The city as one of the most important phenomena of the modern globalized world is the subject of investigations of various scientific disciplines. It is important phenomena for studies on the history of civilization, on urbanization processes, on the development of architecture, on the relationships between spatial planning and religious and political ideas, for studies on social and economic changes, for studies on urban ways of life, studies on the history of art, as well as critique of contemporary art. There are also elementary analyzes of a city in the field of literary studies, sound studies, performance studies, psychology (the perception of space and its properties), pedagogy, political science (interested in direct democracy or even urban movements). The issues of optimization of models of the city’s functioning are important for departments oriented on transport and infrastructure (water, gas etc.), as well as underground construction (car parks, garages, tunnels, metro). Informatics dealing with the process of creation of new communication technologies is involved in the design of “smart city”. The faculties of biology or environmental protection conduct research and didactic activities in the field of “applied ecology” – relations that occurring between the human environment and nature. Today technological innovation and creative power of culture are the key to the development of the city. However, what does it mean for the representatives of humanities? What can they bring to it? The city space then appears as a heterogeneous place, full of constant tensions, collisions, circulation of meanings, values, representations, as well as the field of great social experiments. I perceive the human practices and creations as something that is a subject to constant transformation and that constantly requires new readings. In my search, I often go beyond the walls of the academy and try to sense the character of the city and experience its space with all my senses. I keenly observe the ways of life of the inhabitants, their daily practices. I listen to what they say and read what they manifest on the walls of buildings. This peculiar wandering around the city is aimed at capturing what is visible, but also at reaching what remains inaccessible to us at first glance. It is a collection of notes, it is an attempt at visual and audio recording of the surrounding world, which I then try to structure and interpret. However, as experts, we academics need to “go out” to the city also in a different way – we must take the floor in public debates and have an influence on the decisions of various municipal institutions, have an impact on local politics. There is a discussion about the role of the university in shaping urban space and life in the city.

Keywords: visual studies of urban culture, academy, university, scientific disciplines, culture, city, urban space, daily practices, flaneur, ocularcentrism, conceptual rationalism, politics.

A FEW REMARKS ON VALUES AND SIGNS ON CITY WALLS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 1 (31). P. 41-53

The article contains a theoretical and methodological proposal on how to research and understand the visual aspects of urban space. First of all, the authors present the concept of linking signs and values. This idea was created and developed in the 1970s and 1980s on the ground of Polish cultural studies. Researchers propose to use it to describe the graphic phenomena on city walls. What is commonly considered to be manifestations of vandalism or irrelevant images, inscriptions, and scribbles are, in fact, strategies for the transmission of values that are important for social communities (norms, beliefs, ideas, worldviews etc.). The further part of the text presents a few examples from field studies conducted in several housing estates in Wrocław (Poland). The research was qualitative, and the material was recorded with photo and video cameras. The material was collected in the years 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which influenced its content.

Keywords: values, signs, symbols, culture, city, block housing estate