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THE IMAGINARY IN URBAN STUDIES // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2023. Issue 4 (38). P. 59-78

The article deals with the conceptualization of the notion “imaginary” in urban studies. The author analyzes the theoretical prerequisites for the formation of the concept “urban imaginary” and various options for its definition. She argues that the urban imaginary is significant for identifying the uniqueness of a particular inhabited place, understanding the cultural meanings associated with it, and the corresponding patterns of social behavior. The author shows that the urban imaginary is a set of representations of the city, that is, a complex of mental, figurative and symbolic representations of the urban environment. Such representations of the city can be individual and collective, textual and visual, subjective and fixed in cultural practices, attractive and repulsive. The urban imaginary in many ways anticipates and determines the actual perception of the city, influences the tactics of further human interaction with the urban space. In addition, the urban imaginary can act as a stimulus for the development of urban areas or, conversely, as a cause of their degradation and decline. It can serve as a way to attract tourists and new citizens, as well as the reason for the tourist unattractiveness of a place and an impulse for resident migration. The author discovers the origins of the theme of the urban imaginary in the concepts “social imaginary” and “geographical imaginary”. In these concepts, the focus of attention is shifted from the givenness of the object of study as some natural fact to its construction through mental, symbolic and figurative comprehension, which ultimately serves as a key tool for the production of society, the production of space, and the production of the city. The author also explores the significance of the urban imaginary in Christian culture and demonstrates that it plays a special role as a tool for conceptualizing, creating and transforming Christian urban spaces, and becomes one of the ways of demonstrating religious faith. In conclusion, the author argues that the urban imaginary has a significant impact on real urban pragmatics and allows citizens to realize their right to the city.

Keywords: urban studies, urban imaginary, symbolic landscape, cultural meanings, social and spatial structures, city in Christianity, city as existential space, right to city

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

Comprehending the City: From Perception to Imagination // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2024. Issue 2 (40). P. 103-119

The article analyses various aspects of comprehending the city as a cultural phenomenon, which has both a material, visible side and an imaginary, conceivable side. The author identifies the correlation of perception, representation and imagination in the process of understanding the city and argues that imagination plays a constitutive role in this process. It is emphasised that in urban studies the prevailing approach to the city is focused primarily on the consideration of its visual parameters. However, auditory, olfactory, tactile and other characteristics are significant in the process of perceiving urban spaces, since they also influence the formation of the city’s image and make this image more saturated and multidimensional. Based on the work “Imagination and perception” by P. F. Strawson, the author proves that imagination is a necessary component of the city perception. In addition, knowledge about the city and comprehending the city are considered in the article as different cognitive levels. Representation is associated with the concept of the city, and imagination is associated with comprehending the idea of the city, grasping its meaning. The increasing role of imagination in the process of cognition of sociocultural reality is determined by the change in the interpretation of this process itself in postnonclassical science and philosophy of culture. In the postnonclassical approach, the process of cognition is understood not simply as a mirror reflection of reality, but as the construction of an image of reality in consciousness, conditioned by specific linguistic, symbolic and cultural practices. The understanding of imagination in its transcendental dimension (the productive imagination in Kant’s terminology) is complemented in the article by an analysis of its sociocultural dimension. From the author’s point of view, this dimension is primarily important for understanding the city as a symbolic space of meanings that determine the uniqueness of a particular topos and its value for a person.

Keywords: urban studies, urban epistemology, multisensory perception, urban imaginary, cognitive representation, productive imagination