INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURAL RESEARCH

Tatiana BYSTROVA

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N.Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Doctor of Science in Philosophy, Professor of Cultural Studies and Design Department

Why Design Needs Cultural Studies?

Cultural studies could become a methodological basis of the design theory and practice in the contemporary world. The article demonstrates the ambiguity and polisemy of the basic design definition, what leads to the vagueness of categorical apparatus in the design theory, to the complexity in the thinking about design specifics and its products, both commercial and non-commercial design. Humanities, primarily, cultural studies, which give a complete basic comprehension of the design processes and products, can help overcome the discrepancies – or, conversely, accept design in the diversity of its manifestations. Use of the cultural concepts of semiosphere, chronotope, everyday life, dialogue in the author's projects of different years confirms the possibility of a fruitful interaction of design theory and practice and culture research.

Key words: design, definition of design, theory of design, Russian design, design as profession, design education, cultural studies, culture studies, methods of cultural studies, designing, structural anthropology, axiology, hermeneutics.

References

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Natalia KOVESHNIKOVA

Orel State University named after I.S. Turgenev, Orel, Russia 
Associate Professor of Design Chair, Ph.D in Culturology

Paradigms of Design Culture

In recent years, the concept of “design culture” is often used in the analysis of various aspects of the theory and practice of design. This article attempts to examine the phenomenon of design culture through the prism of the organizational, methodological, social, cultural, aesthetic, and ethical aspects of professional design. In this paper, design culture is presented as an integral structure, each component of which can be considered as a separate element of a wider system – design activity in general. Design culture is the aesthetic and artistic category, characterized by a combination of various aspects of design activity in the diversity of their relationship. It reflects both the value-semantic setting, and the specific ways and means to achieve practical results. Project design culture, in the form of value orientations, aesthetic ideals, cultural patterns and professional standards is the paradigm of art-project activities at different stages of evolution. It is the key component, and at the same time, the basic determinant of design ideology, design methodology and professional art practice, dominant in a particular stage of development of design. In the evolution of design culture in the XX century – beginning of the XXI century we have allocated four stages: 1) design culture of modernism (1910 – 1930); 2) design culture of classical functionalism (1950 – 1960); 3) design culture of postmodernism (1970 – 1980); 4) design culture «post-industrial» design (line XX – XXI centuries).

Key words: design culture, definition, modernism, functionalism, postmodernism, “post-industrial” design.

References

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Francisca FOORTAI

Leningrad State University named after A.S.Pushkin, Russia
Doctor of Arts, Professor, Member of the Union Artists of Russia

City and Design

In the article, the author introduces the concept of protoculture describing machine production. The problem of standardization and the aestheticization that brought to life new social figure of the designer and new design and aesthetic activity the new world is also stressed. The «extension» of the functions of design, particularly in relation to the aestheticization of the urban landscape is shown. The author traces the origins of the phenomenon of gentrification among the English landed aristocratic environment associated with the changing mental states of this layer, reflected, in particular, a new understanding of landscape space.
The emergence of the term «gentrification” and development of its semantic component in the first design associations (Arts and Crafts, Werkbund, Bauhaus) is analyzed, as well as a philosophical reflection on problems of social aesthetics in 30-50-ies of XX century.
In the article the stages of gentrification of the urban space taking place in modern practice are also discussed.

Key words: design, city, gentry, gentrification, aestheticization, the level of protoculture, the objective world of culture, landscape design, project activities, William Morris, Walter Gropius, Walter Benjamin, Islington, social strategy design.

References

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Dmitry REUT

Moscow Pedagogical State University (MSPU), Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman, National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI), Russia
Professor, Dr. in Economics, Associate Professor, Ph.D in Engineering Sciences

Artemy MOLCHANOV

National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI), Russia
Master Student

Design as an Intersection of Ontologies

This article is devoted to an interpretation of design as a position in structures of some interconnected categories. We discuss three structures: 1) Krebs creativity cycle, 2) a categorial sheaf in which objects differ on the basis of a way of their creation, 3) historical prospect of past-present-future. Plurality of the structures which are crossed in «point» of design forces us to speak about the intersection. In this case the place or a position designated by the term «design» form the virtual base on which a number of the essential functions of reproduction, broadcasting of culture and cultural development is executed. It is represented that owing the communicative essence of design can play a positive role in ecology and hygieneof culture, restoring the communications between cultural «enclaves» which are washed away by postmodernism storm. Сreation of design technologies and redesign of structures and landscapes – from sociocultural networks to rhizome – can become an important task in modern sociocultural space.

Key words: Hans Krebs, creativity cycle, communication, semiotics machine, Thomas Maldonado, place, position, base, category, function, technology, diversity, strong metaphor, Nery Oksman, postmodernism.

References

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Ekaterina ANANIEVA

St. Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Department of philosophical Anthropology
PhD in Philosophy, Senior Lecturer

Aesthetics of the World of Things. Three Ways of the Design Thematisation

Three possible approaches towards justification of the place of design in the aesthetic theory are reconstructed in the article – within the Kant's esthetics, within the theoretical axioms of Marx' esthetics (M.S Kagan, “The art morphology”, I.I. Ioffe, “The Synthetic theory of art”, as well as within the polemically oriented towards the above mentioned conceptions “ collective sensibility” by I.M. Chubarov (“Collective sensibility. Theories and practices of left vanguard”, “Liberated object vs. objectivated conscience ”), in which the author, based on the theory and practice of literature and art vanguard formulates a new hypothesis describing objects existing in art space.

Key words: Aesthetic Theory, Art Morphology, History of Esthetics, Aesthetic Theory of Post-Modern.

References

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Tatiana BYSTROVA

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N.Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Doctor of Science in Philosophy, Professor of Cultural Studies and Design Department

Salingaros and Anti-architecture

The article summarizes the ideas of mathematician and theorist of architecture Nikos A. Salingaros about the modern architectural process, first of all, his relation to deconstruction and new architectural paradigm, how it was pointed by Charles Jenks. Salingaros is the editor, friend and promoter of the position of English architect Christopher Alexander, who proposed a design based on «language patterns». The article shows the relevance of the ideas of human architecture.

Key words: Nikos A. Salingaros, anti-architecture and deconstruction, human architecture, «living» architecture, the «architecture of death».

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Nikos A. SALINGAROS

University of Texas at San Antonio, USA
Professor of Mathematics

Charles Jencks and The New Paradigm in Architecture. Chapter 4 from Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction: the Triumph of Nihilism

Nikos A. Salingaros, PhD was born in Perth, Australia. Internationally recognized Urbanist and Architectural Theorist. Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, with guest professorships in Architecture at the Delft University of Technology, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Querétaro, Mexico, and Università di Roma III. Has directed and advised eighteen Masters and PhD theses in architecture and urbanism. Numerous scientific publications, including the books Algorithmic Sustainable Design, Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction, A Theory of Architecture, Design for a Living Planet, Principles of Urban Structure, P2P Urbanism, and Unified Architectural Theory, which are translated into many languages.

Key words: Charles Jencks, Architecture, Anti-Architecture, Deconstruction.

References

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Ekaterina VASILYEVA

Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
Associate Professor, Ph. D. in Arts

The Ideal and Utilitarian in the System of International Style: the Thing and the Object in the Concept of Design in the Twentieth Century

The problem of interaction of the internal sense and the external form can be considered as one of the central concepts of the XX century art. Its elements were partly formulated and included in international style.The meaning of the classic design is connected to the representation of absolute in spite of the attempts to limit the strategy of international style by social, practical and political elements. International Style can be represented as more ideological than practical movement. System of classic design, which has traditionally been associated with the concept of functional, can be determined not only as utilitarian, technogenic or engineered. It is based on the internal content of object and this strategy finds its parallels in Plato's theory of ideas. Forming a new visual concept, architecture and design of the first half of the twentieth century basically realized the analytical representations of the internal absolute. This strategy identified many parameters of modern design, including the desire for a functional and practical sense. This article examines the phenomenon of internal concept in the system of international style.

Key words: International Style, Walter Gropius, Bauhaus, Le Corbusier, Max Bill, Ulm School of Design, idea, eidos, Plato.

References

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Marina VILCHINSKAYA-BUTENKO

Saint Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design, Russia
Head of the Department of the History and Theory of Design and Media Communications, PhD in Pedagogic Sciences, Associate Professor

Nikita UVAROV

Saint Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design, Russia
Post Graduate Student

From the Concept of Human Utility to the Philosophy of Independent Living: Social Inclusion by Design Tools

The paper considers the transition regularity of social consciousness from the position of human social-usefulness, which existed long period of human history, to the modern views on the nature of the independent living of people with disabilities. In the context of the social model of disability, people with disabilities are not the victim of circumstances, but a discriminated against by the majority of healthy social group. Disabled people are forced to adapt to life with physical, social, psychological, communication and other barriers created by society due to historical prejudices of human utility. The philosophy of the independent living of people with disabilities increases its power every day and requires social inclusion of disabled people through the creation of a barrier-free environment and, as a consequence, improve the social status of people with disabilities by giving them equal rights to other social groups. The emergence and spread of the concept of independent living of people with disabilities contributed to the penetration of its values in other various spheres of public life – from politics to the technical aesthetics. Thus a special design and its variant – inclusive design – was formed providing an optimal inclusion and interaction of people with outside world without labeling disaibled people by the basis of disability.

Key words: philosophy of independent living, inclusive design, people with disabilities, accessibility of social environment, the social model of disability, inclusion, social inclusion.

References

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Еleonora GLINTERNIK

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute «High School of Journalism & Mass Communications», the Department of Advertising, Head, Doctor of Arts, Full Professor

Advertising Design Graphics as a Social and Cultural Phenomenon in Russia 1880 – 1910-ies

Intensive development of design charts in the last third of the nineteenth century was an international phenomenon. But in Russia, compared with the countries of Western Europe and America, this process began about 15 – 20 years later. It was determined by a combination of a number of socio-cultural and economic factors, among which are the main ones: creation of a single nationwide market and the increase in commercial competition, the formation of urban culture, technological progress in the printing industry, an active exhibition activity.
The article deals with the conditions of the advertising design graphics in Russia at an early stage of development, it can be traced to form a new layer of visual culture and new media art of communication in various fields of art and culture, the gradual transformation of the printed information in a mass act of artistic communication.

Key words: graphic design, advertising history, history of graphic design, visual advertising communication, the Russian design graphics, Valerie P., P. Golikе, I. Knebel, I. Sytin, the history of printing.

References

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Marina RYABOVA

Kemerovo State University, Russia
Department of Translation and Linguistics, Professor, Doctor of Philology

Semiotics of Clothes in Language and Everyday Life Culture

Semiotics of clothes as a form of design in an everyday life culture conceptualizes in a lexicon in a form of sayings and proverbs, reflecting cultural ideologemes, associated with clothes as a sign. By comparing cultural concepts of Russian and English proverbs we can reveal value judgements fixed in linguistic naive consciousness, demonstrating more correlations rather than diversities in linguistic cultures. Clothes as a sign is characterized by its form, a number of functions and meanings typical of different contexts. Functions of clothes can be summed as follows: 1) identifying, 2) etiquette, 3) hermeneutic, 4) decorative, 5) defensive. The block of terms borrowed from English into Russian demonstrates a significant influence of English culture onto the culture of everyday life of Russian linguistic consciousness. The form of clothes is also temporarily determined.

Key words: semiotics, function, sign, etiquette, linguistic culture, linguistic consciousness.

References

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Anna SOLOVIOVA

Northern Arctic Federal University named after M.V.Lomonosov, Arkhangelsk, Russia
Professor, Department of World History, Doctor of Philosophy

“Arctic Design” in the Context of Social Innovations

Arctic design combines the spheres of art and research for the goals of developing the complex solutions for the problems of geographically distant and scarcely populated Arctic territories. Theoretically and thematically the Arctic design represents the domains of user and community centered design, design-thinking, design research projects for urgent and risky social problems, and also the applied visual arts, reflecting collective experience and environmentally – based. The essence of the Arctic design includes processes of understanding and reflection of the northern traditions, way of life, cultures and the international image of the Arctic. Arctic design is the activity, aimed at sustaining well-being and competiveness of the arctic and northern territories. Commercial sector of the Arctic design demonstrates success of the business-models in the spheres of wood construction, sustainable forestry, tourism and adventures, and the usage of the cultural heritage for creation of language, materials, colors and symbols of the product design. It also obtains the special importance in the snow buildings construction, fulfilled according to the safety and environmental harmony principles.

Key words: Arctic design, applied visual art, social innovations, northern communities, environmental and place-specific art, servicescapes, snow art, co-creativity, indigenous people.

References

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Irina ANTIPOVA

Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Department of Educational Psychology, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor

Psychosemantic Reconstruction of Consciousness in the Design Activity: Possibilities and Limitations

Changes in all spheres of society are associated with the design, which relies on the abilities of human consciousness and also transforms this consciousness. Psychology equips design activity with means and information about the structure of the consciousness. Psychosemantics can be represented as a system of methods applied in design and as autonomous system of designing the consciousnessstudies. The research of the possibilities and limitations of psychosemantic studies of consciousness is the stage of preparation of the consciousness study projects. Psychosemantics is effectively used for the reconstruction of systems of values that build the picture of reality and define the content of responses to various stimuli, and this represents a significant potential to be used in a variety of design projects. Significant restrictions of psychosemantic studies are related to the methodology of psychology of consciousness, methodological difficulties, introduction issues that are subject to evaluation according to the criteria of ethics, humanism, consequences for human being and society. These possibilities and limitations can be seen more clearly in comparison of psychosemantics methods withhermeneutics methods and a description of the psychological world of man by writers, with traditional means of understanding the meanings of man that were used in the past. Effective projects of psychosemantic study of consciousness are possible only in connection with the development of methods that control the negative consequences of the use of information about the internal structure of consciousness.

Key words: consciousness study, design activity, design, designing, project psychosemantics, meaning, factorization, reconstruction of values.

References

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Varvara CHUMAKOVA

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
Teacher, PhD in Cultural Studies

Information Overload in Culture: History of the Issue and Review of the Modern Research Fields

The article deals with the problem of information overload in culture, its effects on the different aspects of culture and cultural dynamics. There is no single definition of this concept, but one can construct it from the contemporary research. The article puts forward the idea that information overload exists in the culture of all times, and human adaptation to it is associated with the emergence and spread of various forms of cultural existence. However, information overload is actively problematized in science only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The article analyzes the study background of the information overload among philosophers and sociologists of technology, researchers of culture of the first half of the 20th century. This study background is associated with the problems of technological reproduction of cultural objects, the development of mass culture, mass media, etc. The article presents an overview of the main directions of the study of information overload from inception to the modern stage. Firstly, it is a cybernetic approach to the study of communication, which is presented today in the range of quantitative research of the various social networks, as well as an analysis of «big data». Secondly, it is the psychological and neurophysiological studies of information overload, which have undergone significant changes over the half-century, opening new data on the work of the human brain. This is also the direction of “health literacy”, studied the impact of information overload on the health of patients. Thirdly, it is the social and art studies of information overload, which gradually develop in the 21st century, taking over from the applied research in the field of management and marketing, developed in the late 20th century. At the end the ideas about what research in the field of information overload may be interesting in the future are presented.

Key words: Information overload, mass culture, digital culture, adaptation to information overload, mathematical model of communication, human brain capacity, practices of social media usage, transformation of the education institution.

References

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Mikhail STEPANOV

St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design, Russia
Associate Professor, PhD in Philosophy

Design and Revolution: Vilém Flusser on the art of everyday life

The text analyzes the publication of the essays «On a state of things. Small philosophy of design” by Vilém Flusser in Russian. The concept of “a state of things” affirming the importance of not the things themselves but the relations between them, establishes the transformation of relations between things and non-things, human beings and his environment. This transformation is directly related to art and design in everyday human experience. The article clarifies the status of design and its revolutionary role in the process of transformation «from the subject to project”.

Key words: Vilém Flusser, design, everyday life, arts, design, «state of things”.

References

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