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THE VISUAL, SOCIAL, AND IMAGINATIVE: VISUAL PERCEPTION AS A FACTOR OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 1 (7). P. 9-25

The main theme of the article is the notion of paradigmatic character of visual image for the topical and methodological self-consciousness of the visual culture studies. Among main questions under consideration are the following: what is a structural unity between material and meaningful aspects of visual representations? How is this unity connected to the ways the socially relevant visual representations circulate in contemporary culture? One of the key conclusions of the article: the notion of the specific iconic materiality – the structural interconnection of modes of seeing, understanding and presence, put into effect in some perceptive acts – is able to function as an explanatory model for a set of important processes in contemporary visual culture such as the current priority of visual forms of communication, historical durability of cultural imagery (despite instability and diversity of their visual embodiment), enhancement of the role of visual literacy and, as a consequence, necessity of the revision of current educational standard.

Keywords: image, visual culture, iconic materiality, iconic rite