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SEMANTIZATION OF TOMSK LOCAL SPACES: VIEW THROUGH INSTAGRAM // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 2 (20). P. 193-201

The subject of the presented work is the intersection of urban studies, visual research and research of network culture. Researchers are interested in ways of semantizing some local spaces of Tomsk in Instagram photos. The review and explanation of visual representations of public places in Tomsk in the social network is present in this paper. Location – Camp Garden, Igumen Park, Siberian Botanical Garden of Tomsk State University (TSU). The focus of the study is aim at the organization of public space and methods of marking the territory in the Instagram. The social network is chosen because of the predominance of visual content. Photos placed in the social network are important in the presented study. Instagram pictures differ from photos in home and electronic albums of users. Users of the social network need to get approval from the Internet audience. The audience demonstrates approval in the form of “likes” and comments. The methodological basis of the study is the semiotic concepts of F. Kittler and R. Barth. The empirical basis of the study is an analysis of 150 publications of Instagram users. Publications were select by geotagging (geographical references) locations for the period from 2015 to 2018. Representation of urban space in networked environments was consider through categories of optical perception “real – imaginary – symbolic”. Ways of urban space development by the inhabitant, fixed in a social network, create an image of a place at an audience. The results of the study are present in the analytical reviews of public places. Photographs of Tomsk’s Camp Garden centered on the sculptural memorial of Motherland, giving weapons to the Son, and on the natural landscape, the image of the Camp Garden as a place of memory and freedom is present. In the Igumen Park users focus on the audience’s attention in online publications on the interaction of visitors with small architectural forms (a statue of a bear, a statue of a bird) and residents of the territory (pigeons, squirrels). The image of the Igumen Park is presented in the social network as “private space” with the possibility of performative space formation. In the Siberian Botanical Garden of TSU users focus the attention of the audience in online publications on the diversity of the vegetation of the garden and the natural color scheme of the image. The image of the Garden is present in the social network as a space of appeasement and naturalness. At the same time, the presentation of the Siberian Botanical Garden in a social network demonstrates the specifics of the location on one side, on the other hand, allows network users to “be in a trend” creating a “fashionable profile design”. The visual design of public space is present on photos in the social network. Network models of local representation form a single image of space. Significant, especially for extra-urban actors (residents of other cities, economic and political actors), part of the semiotics of urban space will be its representation in digital Internet networks, in particular – in Instagram.

Keywords: urban space, public space, network media, Instagram, visual representation