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MEDIATIZATION OF URBAN SPACES AS FACTOR OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCTIC CITIES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 2 (20). P. 160-168

This research deals with sociological and urban aspects of the phenomena called mediatization of urban spaces. There is a review of works and projects devoted to city transformations caused by great dissemination of new media in urban spaces. The author suggests us critical view on “smart cities” and address alternative approach in city planning – “involvement to city”. The author makes analysis of modern social transformations in the urban environment caused by influence of new media and offers the classification of different forms of urban medialization. Among them there are new technologies in a smart city (mobile payments, smart cards, etc.), acted spaces (urban activism, social networks, mobile applications), navigation signs (tourist online maps), informational Interactive desks (QR code, smart boards, new journalism), transferring the logic of new media to urban development (construction of the urban environment according to the laws of new media) and online tracking (video cameras, sensors). Sometimes we even can’t notice how much modern technologies and new media influence on our everyday life. But new media changes not only physical spaces of cities; also, it shapes new digital social spaces and citizens practices. This study sheds light on characteristics of mobile digital practices in the Russian context, especially in arctic cities. Author argues use of the term “interactive city” and “media city” as a more voluminous concept for arctic cities. According to authors hypothesis problems and challenges of arctic cities (geographical remoteness, weather conditions, and infrastructural imperfections) can be solved by opportunities of modern technologies, mostly by the opportunities of so-called acted space when new technologies allow inhabitants to talk with the city and to create an acted urban space. The aim of this paper is identification of social practices of “smart crowds” in arctic cities and prediction of its role in further city planning and making recommendations for city’s administration. In this work you can find some statistic data and case studies of virtual citizen’s activism in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, the biggest cities of Arctic region. This research is start and rationale for further examination interactive arctic cities.

Keywords: urban space, media city, virtual urban communities, mobile crowds, arctic city