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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

TOMSK AS A VISIBLE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2014. Issue 1 (1). P. 97-99

The author of the essay speaks about photography as a way of perception and comprehension of the urban cultural landscape on the example of Tomsk. The author writes about the city as a special communicative space, which has a visual form, contains cultural meanings and gives anthropological effects.

Keywords: photography, city, Tomsk, visual environment

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

SUBJECT AREA AND EPISTEMIC STRUCTURE OF VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 11-20

Visual Anthropology is a modern dynamic multidisciplinary “industry” of the humanities, based on research experience in the field of ethnography, sociology, history, cultural phenomenology, phenomenology of religion, social psychology, aesthetics and semiotics. The subject of visual anthropology’s research is a set of visual presentations of social and cultural communities and traditions. It is argued that the subject of visual anthropology are all forms of expression of social and cultural meanings, which are available for visual fixation and transmission. Visual images take up a significant segment of the culture as a social-communicative system. Currently, the image has become a leading medium of expression and transmission of important information. “Visual turn” in the culture which associated with the focus from the semantic aspect of the image to its syntax is recorded and described. Human ontology and culture fundamentally transformed in connection with this turn. The question about the “correctness” of the image disappears because of the elimination of its referential parameter. The image is now measured not by fidelity of reality, but on the effectiveness of its impact on the recipient: the priority shifts from its identity to its functionality. Since the entire anthropological reality is concentrated in this sort of images, the attitude to reality becomes technical, manipulative. Visual anthropology is actively formed as an integral research discipline, the focus of which are on visual acts – human action or set of actions (both synchronous and consecutive), relating to the visual image, i.e. is an active, aimed at the production, translation and use of a visual image. The rapid development of visual culture sector determines the relevance of research in visual anthropology and makes its one of the most dynamic areas of contemporary humanities. The author formulates a version of the epistemic structure description of visual anthropology as an integrated multidisciplinary research project.

Keywords: anthropology, culture, visual image, the visual turn

HISTORY OF FINE ARTS AS ANTHROPOLOGY AND SEMIOTICS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 2 (4). P. 12-28

The author offers for readers a review of the recently published book by Oleg Voskoboynikov “Millennial Kingdom” (Moscow, 2014). The methodology, based on which the author of the monograph investigates of European culture of the Middle ages, is considered. The specificity of the organization of the text is defined: the combination of encyclopedic knowledge and the author’s narrative. It is shown how the author of reviewed book interprets the meaning and function of the middle Ages artworks, regularly emphasizing the relationship of visual images with the fundamental characteristics of human existence and human consciousness. Actuality of Voskoboynikov’s book is argued in terms of the development of art history and in the field of modern methodology of the human sciences.

Keywords: anthropology, semiotics, history of culture, fine arts, Middle Ages, monograph, book review

VISUAL CONNOTATIONS IN SEMANTICS OF PERSONALITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 3 (5). P. 28-53

The article accentuated the problem of clarifying the meaning of the basic anthropological terms. Science сonvention in anthropological terminology is one of the conditions for the development of knowledge about a man, because it ensures the maintenance of a communicative nature of anthropology. An analytical approach is required to solve this problem. This approach takes into account the historical and cultural transformation of the meaning of the term, the impact of the context of its use on its value. The article analyzes one of the key anthropological terms: “personality”. The author finds that the term was originally associated with visual semantic connotations that persist or evolve along with the development of anthropological reflection. Thus, in the ancient culture the word πρόσωπον depending on the time, the circumstances and the context means the following: 1) an appearance; 2) a face; 3) a mask; 4) a character; 5) a role; 6) an actor. The Latin persona has these meanings. In the Christian culture, this word loses its “theatrical” meaning. Token of the term πρόσωπον are now concentrated around the two semantic points: a) an appearance; b) a particular subject (“who”). The shift in emphasis from the “person-mask” for “person-hypostasis” reflects a radical transformation of thinking about a man associated with the transfer from ancient cosmological paradigm for Christian personalist platform on the basis of which a person as visible acquires a special existential depth and unique value.

Keywords: anthropology, term, meaning, personality, visual aspects

BEING HUMAN AND BEING VISIBLE. NEAREST TASKS OF STUDYING OF VISUAL PARAMETERS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 4 (6). P. 118-130

In this article, I formulate the tasks of multidisciplinary research of “optical” aspects of culture. I argue the thesis that the solution of problem the systematic explication of the ontological meaning and existential status of the visual and semiotic aspects of culture as a communicative environment is needed in our time. This decision can become a conceptual basis for an approach of humanities to relevant theoretical descriptions of human. Such description is available in a new philosophical anthropology, which is based on the communicative definition of human being. Definition of the place, role and forms of visual semiotic activities in the cultural communicative structure of human existence – this is the first task of contemporary anthropological research. The importance of this task is determined by the prospect of productive convergence of semiotics and ontology in the field of anthropological knowledge. This convergence should become a methodological platform for theoretical foundation of human existence as a cultural communicative praxis.

Keywords: anthropology, ontology, human existence, the visual aspects of culture, communication, practice

DRESSED PERSON (ON THE PROBLEM OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL SEMIOTICS OF POWER) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 1 (7). P. 34-46

The problem of the semiotic correlation of body and clothes from the point of view of the implementation of power in interpersonal communication is investigated in this paper. The main functions of clothes – adaptation, identification, sovereignization and manipulation – are reviewed in the text. It is shown that the clothes acquire inverse character by manipulating; at the same time it become in means of influence and aggression’s tool, in the method of the conquest of another’s will. The body which is opened by means of clothes becomes a tradable commodity, and the way to move goods market, activating the mechanisms of seduction. In this context, a problem of women’s emancipation is formulated in a new way. Besides, themes of “scattered” power and semiotic mechanisms of its implementation in the culture are investigated. Semiotics of power implies, however, not only the direct but also the inverse power vector: clothes can express the internalization of norms and exteriorization of personal existential positions. Therefore, clothes are at the intersection of semantics and pragmatics. The vector of power, which is not only expressed, but also carried out through clothing in her relationship with the dressed / undressed body, depends on the fundamental pragmatic presupposition: either it is a vector of violence and the subordination of the will of others, or it is a vector of retention of their own and other people’s privacy norm, of self-organization and self-management norm.

Keywords: visual anthropology, visual semiotics, dress, power, manipulation, norm, visual expression, privacy border

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

SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES (2). SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL: SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 3 (9). P. 25-81

In this article, I continue the study of sacred topics of Russian cities. Comparison of syntactic functions and dedication’s semantics of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Constantinople is made in the article. The semantic link between the Old Testament character of God’s Wisdom and the composition of city in Eastern Christianity is picked. I revealed the fundamental idea which lies in the base of the town planning: the supernatural protection exerted to the city in response to his dedication to God. This dedication is visually expressed in the sacred complex consisting of the cathedral as an urban dominant and the gates in the city wall. I made a distinction between two meanings of the concept of Wisdom in Scripture and Tradition: 1) as a direct naming the person and 2) as the description of the name content. On this basis, I made a comparative analysis of the “sophia’s” icons, and I realized their general classification. The semantic analogy between the sacral dominants of Jerusalem, Constantinople and Kiev is demonstrated. It is proved that the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople has the same dedication as the Holy Sepulcher (Anastasis) of Jerusalem. On this basis, I conclude synonymy of these cathedrals, along with the identity of their syntactic positions in the urban text.

Keywords: visual semiotics, Eastern Christianity, city, sacred architecture, visual organization of space, St. Sophia Cathedral, syntax, semantics, iconography, cultural semiotic transfer

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

TOMSK: VISUAL CONSTRUCTING OF LOCAL URBAN SPACES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 1 (11). P. 41-47

The ways of constructing of local urban spaces by the means of visual presentation are analyzed in this article. I use the concept of space as a cultural-anthropological construct having a communicative (sign) nature. I show that the local spaces of a city as a complex semiotic system are organized in the process of zoning (division into specific zones) of the common urban space with simultaneous visual marking of the specific specialization of the formed zones. I establish here three types of visual-semiotic acts forming local urban spaces: a) creating of space, b) transforming of space; c) transfer of space. The creation, the transformation and the transfer of urban loci are practical means of influencing overall look of the city, accessible to the inhabitants of the city. These means are illustrated by examples of the formation of local spaces of Tomsk.

Keywords: city, space, zoning, visual constructing, visual semiotics of city, participation in culture

SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES (3). SEMANTICS OF THE INTERIOR OF THE SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 2 (12). P. 30-78

In this article, I continue the study of sacred topics of Russian cities. The difference between the concepts of the “new Jerusalem” and the “new Rome” with reference to the early Russian city (on the example of Kiev) is substantiates in the article. The analogy between David, Constantine and Vladimir, on the one hand, and Solomon, Justinian and Yaroslav, on the other hand, as organizers of the sacred city space, is considered and argued. The continuity of architectural dominants in the process of implementation of the Constantinople / Jerusalem’s spatial topics in Kiev (Church of the Tithes – St. Sophia Cathedral) shows in this paper. Semiotic analysis of the image of the Virgin in the apse of Kiev Sophia in the context of the cathedral interior was made by the author. The conducted research allows to make the following conclusions. First, in the syntactic aspect, the picture of the Virgin Oranta is compositionally incorporated into a single visual system with the image of Christ Pantocrator in the dome of the cathedral; this system produces communicative internal temple space. Secondly, the semantics of the image of the Virgin includes such Her meanings as the Queen (the level of denotation), the Church, the Temple, the Eucharist and the City, or the “Indestructible Wall” (the level of connotation). Thirdly, in the pragmatic aspect, the Virgin-Oranta acts as the initiator and mediator of the collective prayerful performative action oriented towards Jesus Christ as Divine Wisdom, that is, Sophia. It is this altar image that is the semantic center and visual core of the city space of Kiev as the “new Jerusalem” and, consequently, the semantic center of the space of the entire Russian state.

Keywords: visual semiotics, Eastern Christianity, city, sacred architecture, visual organization of space, cultural semiotic transfer, St. Sophia Cathedral, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, iconography, performative image

EDITORIAL // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 7-9

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SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES (4). INTERIOR OF THE SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL: SEMANTICS OF GATE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 45-70

In this article, I continue the study of sacred topics of Russian cities. Here I analyze the semantic connection between the inscription above the altar of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and the mosaic image of the Virgin Oranta in the apse. This inscription is a quotation from the book of the Psalter; it originally refers to Jerusalem as a sacred city. Reproduction of this excerpt in the Kiev cathedral denotes the sacred status of Kiev as the new Jerusalem and the “mother” of Russian cities. In addition, the phrase “God in the midst of her” indicates the Mother of God, which became the “house” of God (or the “temple” of Wisdom). Thus, the icon of Oranta, inscribed with a quote from the Psalm, appears as a visual symbol of the Christian city, in the sacral center of which is the cathedral dedicated to Sofia. The image of Oranta is flanked by the Annunciation scene, located on the altar pillars. This scene semantically corresponds to the metaphysical entrance of God into the space of the human world. And the configuration of the entire altar complex represents a metaphor of the gate, referring to both the religious status of the Virgin Mary and the hierotopic model of the visual organization of the space of the Eastern Christian city.

Keywords: visual semiotics, Eastern Christianity, city, sacred architecture, visual organization of space, St. Sophia Cathedral, gate, Annunciation, semantics, iconography

JERUSALEM TOPIC: WESTERN SIBERIA / LOWER SILESIA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 4 (14). P. 65-89

This article is devoted to a primary analysis of the material obtained as a result of the study of the cultural space in Western Siberia and Lower Silesia in 2017. The study was carried out within the framework of the international project “Visual organization of urban space: preservation, translation, historical and cultural perspective” (Tomsk, Wroclaw). The task of this project: search and description of visual invariants of various cultural areas (in particular, Russian and Polish cultures) in the context of defining the forms of construction cultural, national, civil, religious, professional and other identities through means of visual presentation and communication, along the lines of a multidisciplinary analysis of cross-cultural processes. The author confirms the thesis about the presence of Jerusalem allusions (metaphors, citations) in the space of modern urban texts, using the example of Tomsk and Wroclaw. The correlation of the allegorical and literal in the construction of architectural allusions in Western Siberia and Lower Silesia is shown. The difference between the spatial images of historic Jerusalem and the Heavenly City is considered. The role of the sacred city center in the organization of the city space has been revealed. The role of the monastery court as icons of Heavenly Jerusalem (the new Eden) is substantiated. The semantic and structural connection between the Calvary and the mysteries of the Passion of the Lord is described on the example of the monastery ensemble of the Baroque period.

Keywords: city, urban space, sacred topic, Tomsk, Wroclaw, Jerusalem, architectural allusion, cloister, calvary, mystery of Passion

SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES (5). THE CATHEDRAL AND THE GATE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 1 (15). P. 70-92

In this article, I continue the study of sacred topics of Russian cities. Here I define the syntactic meaning of the architectural ensemble “cathedral – gate”. The article shows that the main semiotic function of the cathedral is the visual designation of the city sacred center, which expresses the idea of the beginning and center of the inhabited world. Being structured in a certain way in its internal volume, the cathedral also acts as the dominant architectural element that gives orderliness to the entire urban space. The dynamics of the cathedral interior, spread over the city as a whole, gives the urban topic the property of “transitivity”, movement, spatial unevenness. Such heterogeneity of the urban living environment is optically expressed as a hierarchical “condensation” of sacred space from the periphery to the center (concentricity). The direction of this increase in sacredness is set by two positional dominants – the main entrance to the city and the cathedral. In Kiev of Yaroslav the Wise, these positions are occupied by the Cathedral of St. Sophia and the Golden Gate. This urban planning “scheme”, which is reproduced in all Russian cities and monasteries, corresponds to the spatial structure of the Garden of Eden, the Israeli “marching camp”, historic Jerusalem and the Heavenly City. The Russian city, organized according to the described “type” (Aldo Rossi), is a multi-layered spatial icon, an architectural representation and a concrete embodiment of archetypal sacred space.

Keywords: visual semiotics, Eastern Christianity, city, sacred architecture, visual organization of space, center, concentricity, cathedral, gate

EDUCATIONAL AND RECREATIONAL SPACE: AN EXAMPLE OF THE “GREEN LAMP” IN TOMSK // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 1 (15). P. 157-170

The semiotic analysis of local urban space on the example of the library “The Green Lamp” in Tomsk is made in this article. Motivation, goals, as well as the history of the visual construction process and transformation of a specific communicative locus on a big city scale are considered here. Such characteristics of the social space of the library-cafe, as dynamism, structural variability, creative style, orientation to personal comfort, cultural environment as a place for organizing events are shown in this article. This example allows to see how the personal initiative of the citizens can become the driving force of the real transformation of the urban space. This initiative gives life dynamics to the space of the city, forms comfort zones, constructs stylistically unique communicative loci in which a big city approaches the human format.

Keywords: urban space, visual construction, microurbanism, communication, library-cafe, Tomsk

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

SACRED TOPICS OF RUSSIAN CITIES (6). SEMANTICS OF OVERGATE CHURCH // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 120-149

In this article, I continue the study of sacred topics of Russian cities. Here I consider the issue of the functions of the church over gate in the structure of the city as a sacred text. I argue that the architectural composition “city gate + temple” originated in Old Russia and does not have Byzantine historical prototypes. The construction of the Golden Gate in Kiev was part of a unified program for creating urban sacred space (hierotopy). The explanation of this program in accordance with the ‘idea transfer’ model removes the question of the Byzantine prototype of the Kiev Golden Gate. The semantics of the Russian overgate church has a multilayered character. First, such a temple expresses the idea of supreme patronage, or divine protection. Secondly, the overgate church demonstrates the idea of the triumph of Christianity over paganism, of order over chaos. Thirdly, the overgate church is an optical means for expressing the conformity of a city (or monastery) with historical Jerusalem or Constantinople. Fourthly, the gate with the temple (especially with the temple dedicated to the Virgin Mary) is a visual presentation of the dogma that God became man, that is, about the entry of God into the empirical world. Finally, fifthly, the sacred gates with the temple on them function as a structural analogue of the gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Accordingly, that city (or monastery) into which these gates lead is perceived as the “spatial icon” of the Heavenly City, which will descend from above at the end of times. The overgate church has a special meaning due to its numerous semantic links with the Most Holy Theotokos, as well as due to its syntactic relations with the main city cathedral. Such semantic connections are established, among other things, on the basis of the Christian reception of certain “urban” texts of the Old Testament. The overgate church is a necessary spatial and visual element of the sacral symbolism of the Eastern Christian cities.

Keywords: visual semiotics, Eastern Christianity, city, sacred architecture, cultural and semiotic transfer, visual organization of space, city gate, overgate church

VISUAL SIGNS OF ARMENIA IN SIBERIA: CITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 2 (20). P. 81-92

In this article the principles of approach to the history of a city as its biography and autobiography are justified. Autobiography is an active creative reflexive process in which the author coincides with the hero. The city can be described both as a place of creation of the autobiography, and as its most important context. Moreover, the city itself in its historical dimension can be read as a visual autobiography, sponsored by all its inhabitants – past, present and future. Every citizen, actively forming the cultural environment of the city, is the author of his own and urban biography. In an era of strong intercultural exchange and influence the city grows in time and space as a dynamic multicultural spatial structure. Using the example of Tomsk, I show how Armenian culture takes part in shaping the appearance and image of the Siberian city. The bearers of the Armenian cultural tradition mark their presence in Siberia with the help of visual signs, which are grouped into two semantic headings: faith and cuisine. Each of these headings is represented by its own set of signs, symbolizing the connection of a certain local space, group or activity with Armenia. In addition, a new theme for urban visualization appears: commemorative signs in honor of the existing friendship and cooperation between the peoples of Russia and Armenia.

Keywords: urban space, visual environment, signs of identity, Tomsk, Siberia, Armenia

UNIVERSITY AND FORMATION OF URBAN REALITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 3 (21). P. 268-276

This report clarifies the position of the university in the modern city. The relationship between the city and the university as cultural and anthropological constructs expressing the existential order of human existence is considered. The author defines the role of the university in the creation, structuring and transformation of the cultural space of the city. The article formulates the university mission, which is the formation of anthropological reality. The position of openness of the university to the city and the city to the university is argued. The prospect of overcoming the university’s strict local binding to a specific place in the perspective of understanding and visual structuring of urban space is investigated. The author outlines the perspective of mutual transparency and the merger of the city and the university in the context of solving the general problem of humanization of habitable space.

Keywords: city, university, inhabited space, visual environment, spatial localization, humanization of urban studies

THE SEMANTICS OF LITHUANIAN URBAN AND RURAL LANDSCAPES IN SOVIET CHILDREN’S CINEMA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 221-231

The article analyzes the specific reasons for the occurrence of episodes demonstrating urban and rural landscapes of Lithuania and creating a distinctive atmosphere within the frame in Soviet children films. Since Vilnius baroque was influenced by Italian architecture, filmmaking in Lithuania created the illusion of Italy for Soviet cinema. Another reason lies in the ground of otherness of the culture, inside which an image of an enemy was easier to create. But along with this extreme point there is another opposite aspect in the context of Soviet children cinematograph – visual demonstration of the absolute identity of Lithuanian urban space to Russian, or, more precisely, Soviet one. The use of Lithuanian cities landscapes was mosaic by its nature. Different meaning, than the one they performed in reality, was attributed to certain places that the audience saw in frames. The urban space of Lithuania in children’s Soviet cinema is devoid of its true meaning. The article reveals those patterns by which filmmakers deliberately refuse to show historical and everyday objects of this Baltic republic in a recognizable way.

Keywords: landscape contrast, Lithuania, urban environment, Soviet children’s cinema, visual code.

VISUAL AXIOLOGY OF THE POST-KIEV URBAN MODEL // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 1 (31). P. 24-40

The article is dedicated to the study of the axiological transformation of the leading urban planning model of the Russian Middle Ages in the second half of the 12th century. The article shows that the construction program of Andrei Bogolyubsky, which was supposed to solve the problem of architectural design of the idea of Vladimir’s priority over Kiev, led to an ori-entation towards Western architectural samples, which, nevertheless, underwent an obvious adaptation to the established Russian-Byzantine artistic tradition. Expressing quite clear ideo-logical priorities of the duke and dukedom, the urban environment of Vladimir acquired a visually fixed axiological peculiarity. This axiology, new for Russia, indicates the start of the original Russian urban planning model transformation: the transformation of sacredness is gradually losing its exclusive cultural and semiotic meaning, and acquiring a vivid political emphasis. That is why the prototype-city, having lost its sacred character, loses its former value and therefore becomes a subject to cruel destruction. The purposeful and meaningful attempt of Duke Andrei to deprive Kiev of the character and function of “Jerusalem” and to build a new city as an alternative to the old sacred center demonstrates the beginning of de-struction of the Jerusalem urban matrix and lays the initial foundation for the future theory of the “third Rome”.

Keywords: medieval urbanism, axiology of city, Russian urban planning models, sacred semiotics of urban space, North-Eastern Russia, city of Vladimir, Andrei Bogolyubsky, Romanesque architecture, “third Rome”

MISUAL PATTERNS OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND LOCAL IDENTITY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2023. Issue 4 (38). P. 14-36

This article correlates the trend towards the “digitalization” of a person and the trend towards the atomization of urban space. It shows that the fragmentation of modern man and his practices is similar to the fragmentation of the urban environment. The concept of the visual frame (texture) of the urban space is presented, and the heterogeneity of this frame is substantiated. Various approaches to determining the content, role and number of elements of the urban environment, or patterns of urban space are explored; the semantic and visual nature of these elements is argued. The difference between the urban pattern and the architectural, urban planning, and design patterns is demonstrated. The connection between the urban texture and the individual appearance of the city is shown. The qualities and functions of the visual patterns of the urban environment are investigated. The thesis is substantiated that the unity of the urban environment is maintained due to the mutual openness of the key patterns, and the degradation of the urban space is caused both by the violation of the integrity of the patterns and their mutual isolation. Patterns as key nodes of the visual-spatial environment are presented as interrelated localized socio-cultural processes aimed at forming elements of the unique image of the city, that is, they function as coordinated ways of building a local identity.

Keywords: city, habitable environment, texture, fragmentation, visual pattern, urban space, urban practices, city structure, local identity

VISUAL STRUCTURE OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND THE CULTURAL CODE CONCEPT // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2023. Issue 4 (38). P. 221-238

The article discusses the conditions for applying the concept “cultural code” in the field of urban studies. The visual structure of urban space is formed not only with the help of aesthetic and stylistic techniques, but also through the representation of the deep meanings of culture – values, images, normative attitudes, and moral standards. A code that allows the translation of information from the addresser to the addressee is used to convey any message in the field of communication. The specificity of the cultural code lies in the fact that it is an intermediary between the sign and the meaning rather than between the sign and the object. In fine arts, architecture, and urbanism, the same coding principle operates, according to which, at the level of presentation of a fact, a direct message is encrypted and transmitted (denotation), and, at the level of representation of meaning, subtext and context (connotation) are used. Culture is a semiotic environment, that is, a dynamic space for an exchange of signs and sign complexes. A sign in its connotative aspect always expresses some meaning. The cultural code is the order of expression of meanings, the norm of their communicative representation. According to the semiotic approach to analyzing urban space, the city is read as a visual text that directly communicates the functional configuration of the living environment and at the same time (at the level of connotation) refers to the values and traditions of a particular culture through various means of their visual representation.

Keywords: urban studies, semiotics, cultural code, city, visual environment, presentation, representation, cultural identity

“Vestibule” as a pattern of the visual environment: Urban practices’ scenarios // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2024. Issue 3 (41). P. 9-36

The article considers one of the basic load-bearing elements of the urban texture – the space in front of the entrance to the most significant urban buildings. The analysis of the types and functions of such patterns, their connections with other basic elements of the urban topic, their influence on the configuration of urban practices is the most important resource for the growth of knowledge in the field of visual semiotics of the city. The current stage of development of urban studies requires an increasingly focused shift of attention from the urban planning and aesthetic aspects of a particular pattern (already sufficiently studied) to its pragmatics. This refocusing of epistemic optics allows us to see and analyze the elements of the urban environment not as physical constants, but as dynamic local scenarios, which is most consistent with the understanding of the city as a complex cultural and communicative phenomenon. To identify and develop these issues, the article simultaneously applies two methodological approaches to the study of the urban environment: visual-semiotic and anthropological. The work shows that any building (ensemble) that is significant in sociocultural terms, be it a theater, university, administration, station or cathedral, occupies a certain place on the urban stage and plays its specific role in the aesthetic and pragmatic configuration of the urban environment, acting not only as an object aesthetic contemplation, but also as a mediated actor (motivator) of emotional and behavioral scenarios offered to citizens and guests of the city. In the construction of these patterns, the rules of relationship between architectural facades and the surrounding open space play an important role. Properly located and structured “vestibules” present a city building in its significance, orient people’s attention and action, and contribute to the integration of a person into the city’s psychological environment. Ignoring the pragmatic-anthropological aspects of the formation of entrance spaces leads to the destruction of the visual frame of the city and becomes the basis for the existential discomfort of its inhabitants and visitors.

Keywords: urban visual environment, pattern, entrance area, theater, university, pragmatics, scenario, urban space