CC BY
20DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2022-1(2)-29-42
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL POSITION OF "THE OLD CITY SPACE" AS A SEMIOTIC CODE OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Arina Sherstiuk
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russia arina.sherstyuk@mail.ru
The purpose of the scientific paper is to approbate the process of decoding the semiotic connotations system inside «the old city space» by building a practical model of intercultural communication. The article reveals specifics of the semiotic semantics in «the old city space», and its functional role in a socio-cultural and informational-educational aspect of an individual's life. The potential existence of the semiotic code as a medium of synthesized historical socio-cultural elements in the intercultural communication process is considered. The conclusion confirms the concept of modern semiotic interpretation of the historical city space as a structural continuum, comprehensive cultural code, which is in constant sociolect-communicational movement and contextual formation. The article is devoted to the problem of identifying an old city's socio-cultural environment as a semiotic code. The study examines practical intercultural communication in the projection of forming exchange of cultural connections, translation, and encoding of semiotic connotations. The research relevance lies in the proposed theoretical conceptualization of «the old city space» as a cultural-semiotic hypertext, which is decoded in the global dialogue of cultural paradigms.
Keywords: semiotic code; cultural semantics of «the old city space»; intercultural integration; semiotic dialogue of cultural paradigms.
СОЦИОКУЛЬТУРНОЕ ПРОСТРАНСТВО «СТАРОГО ГОРОДА» КАК СЕМИОТИЧЕСКИЙ КОД МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ
А. А. Шерстюк
Балтийский Федеральный Университет им. И. Канта, Калининград, Россия
arina.sherstyuk@mail.ru
Цель исследования - апробация процесса декодирования системы семиотических коннотаций в пространстве «старого города» путём построения практической модели межкультурной коммуникации. В статье выявлена специфика семиотической семантики
Для цитирования:
Sherstiuk A. The Sociocultural Position of "The Old City Space" as a Semiotic Code of Intercultural Communication // Urbis et Orbis. Микроистория и семиотика города. 2022. № 1 (2). С. 29-42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2022-1(2)-29-42
For citation:
Sherstiuk A. The Sociocultural Position of "The Old City Space" as a Semiotic Code of Intercultural Communication. Urbis et Orbis. Microhistory and Semiotics of the City. 2022. 1 (2). P. 29-42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2022-1(2)-29-42
старой части города, обозначена её функциональная роль в социально-культурном и просветительском аспекте жизни индивида. Исследование рассматривает потенциальную экзистенцию семиотического кода как носителя исторически синтезированных социально-культурных элементов в процессе межкультурной коммуникации. В заключении подтверждается концепция современного семиотического прочтения пространства исторической части города как структурного, интегративного континуума, всеобъемлющего культурного кода, находящегося в постоянном социально-коммуникационном движении и контекстном становлении. Статья посвящена проблеме идентификации социокультурной среды старого города как семиотического кода. В исследовании рассматривается практическая межкультурная коммуникация в проекции формирования обменных культурных взаимодействий, декодирования семиотических коннотаций. Актуальность исследования заключается в предложенной теоретической концептуализации пространства «старого города» как культурно-семиотического гипертекста, который декодируется в глобальном диалоге культурных парадигм.
Ключевые слова: семиотический код, культурологическая семантика «старого города», межкультурная интеграция, семиотическая диалогичность культурных парадигм.
In modern globalization conditions, the practice of intercultural contacts is one of the most significant vectors that determine the general development process and the formation of a modern cultural platform. Communication interaction has a direct impact on participants' initial information field, the authentic semiotic environment formed before entering into interaction. The dialoguing process of socio-cultural connotations and their decoding through intercultural interaction is particularly concentrated in the multicomplex continuum of urban space.
One of the factors in the urban polysemantic formation is the integration of the authentic city space into the global context of intercultural interaction. In cultural terms, the urban environment plays the role of a medium that accumulates cultural codes transmitted in the intercultural communication process. In particular, «the old city space» is a point of concentration and synthesis of intersecting historical-cultural and semiotic coordinates, the interaction problem of which is devoted to this article's theoretical study.
The article examines «the old city space» semiotic field and its influence on the formation of specific socio-cultural environments. The author considers «the old city space» as a historically and culturally mastered space, continuously producing cultural information. According to the author's concept, general urban space appears as an integral ideological integrative platform of subject-object relations between a city - as a carrier of socio-cultural code, and an individual - a consumer of encoded cultural units. This semiotic research is based on the concept of a sign and a symbol system. Therefore, the research goal is to reveal the nature of semiotic codification of «the old city space» in the modern intercultural communication process. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to perform the following tasks: to explore the essence of «the old city space's» architecture as a cultural text; to consider signs and symbols as information carriers in «the old city space's» architecture; to analyze the theoretical basis of the discourse on the urban space semiotic reading in general; to analyze «the old city space» semiotics decoding process in the course of intercultural communication.
The study of the urban culture text becomes a topical issue in the contemporary urban research field and semiotic urban discourse. The article innovation is in the proposed concept of «the old city space» as a coded semiotic and cultural indicator that affects the individual socio-cultural paradigm formation in the process of intercultural communication. According to the author, urban space is a special subject-object environment, where the individual, the citizen, is in the role of an active cognitive subject: on the one hand, passively learning, and on the other hand, actively giving him/herself to express through specific techniques, in particular semantic-semiotic practices. One of these practices is the creating conditions for intercultural communication. The article considers the urban space's semiotic meanings in the form of a cultural code, which an individual can read during intercultural communication with the city and its citizens.
Hypothetically, during the intercultural communication process in «the old city space», semiotic and cultural units are decoded. Approbation of the proposed hypothesis achieves through an interdisciplinary study. This potentially existing idea is also confirmed by applying cultural methods of comparative historical, axiological, and semiotic analysis of «the old city space» phenomenon as a sign system included in semiotic coordinates and as a subject of socio-cultural relations with an individual. In this case, the article proposes the urban space concept-image as a multilevel semiotic system, which carries out the individual process of coding and decoding the synthesis of semiotic coordinates: symbols, signs, and cultural paradigms, in a socio-cultural context. In conclusion, the study theoretically states the initially assumed concept of «the old city space» as a semiotic subject inside intercultural communication and offers the practical application and integration forms of the obtained results.
The research theorizes and substantiates the idea of «the old city space» concerning a cultural-historical and semiotic institution in the urban socio-cultural coordinates system. Referring to the research terminology, the historical center or «the old city space» is the original semiotic code with a significant number of preserved buildings from a bygone era, a mental collective image of events that took place; it is a dynamic sequence of cultural units that evolve in time. In modern culture studies discourse, «the old city space» is marked, mythologized, and became a historical ideal, the embodiment of the former cultural paradigm, to which a new generation refers [Yanushkevich 2011, 44].
The concept of «the old city space» as a semiotic coordinates system proposed in this study is due to a complex of factors, which are reflected in the theoretical field of history, cultural studies, semiotics, and urbanism. Considering the urban environment in the semiotic aspect as a comprehensive sign system, it is necessary to note its constant socio-communicative movement and contextual formation. That is, urban space, in particular, «the old city space», can encode, synthesize and accumulate socio-cultural elements, endowing them with semiotic semantics [Berestovskaya, Petrenko 2017, 25]. Through the semiotic mechanism activation, urban space establishes a special system of socio-cultural coordinates, which claims the status of the historical city part as a medium of cultural substance [Osipova 2011, 5].
First of all, it should be noted that «the old city space» in its modern sense was the central territorial coordinate. Concerning other urban areas, the old city part is called the «historical determinant», around which the urban infrastructure grew and the cultural-
semiotic system gradually took place later. Historically, the urban center performed combined functions in the citizen's life: utilitarian and spiritual-symbolic. The central part of urban space represented an integrative field for communication of the subject-individual and objects-signs: both practical use and axiological meaning including its «functional masterpiece» planning [Svanidze 1999, 156]. In relation to other urban areas, the historical part is called «the heart of the city».
Following the analytically obtained patterns of structuring the European urban space, the city walls construction had been built in the territorial part located near water bodies (like in Budapest, Florence, Dresden (Fig. 1), Riga, Warsaw, etc.) or on a relative elevation (Rome, San Gimignano, Lisbon, Lublin, Athens, Mont Saint-Michel, etc.).
Fig. 1. Old City (historical center), Dresden, Germany. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.Org/wiki/File:Dresden_Kreuzkirche_1900.jpg
This area had become the central territorial coordination around which afterward there was a gradual city growth. A particularly vivid illustration of such an urbanistic arrangement and the presence of a projected communicative connection with the individual lies in the principle of European cities planning and semiotic content that arose during the Middle Ages (for example, the Venetian lagoon, the fortress city of Carcassonne, the old cities of Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn (Fig. 2), the historic center of Bruges, Dordrecht, Dresden, Lublin, Strasbourg, Florence, etc.). In the existence of such urban systems during the objects-signs communication, transmit coded socio-cultural units to their recipient - an individual: a city resident or a visitor - direct carrier of another cultural and semiotic urban system.
Fig. 2. Old Town in Tallinn, Estonia Source: https://satotours.eu/pt-br/tour/descubra-o-baltico-2022/
One of the characteristic principles of the historical city district planning, in particular by following the medieval European model, was the concentration of buildings and infrastructure elements exclusively for the pragmatic purpose. The basic town-planning elements were included a burg - fortified center (the root of the «burg» or «burgh» is still preserved in the names of cities such as Hamburg, Edinburgh, Luxembourg, and Strasbourg), other fortifications, city administration buildings, a cathedral, a market square with shopping pavilions, drinking wells or fountains (Fig. 3, Fig. 4) [Svanidze 1999, 150]. It should be noted that with the history course, the destination of urban buildings and structures had undergone an ideological transformation - there had been a transition from the utilitarian nature to the modern axiological form of their existence as objects of cultural heritage [Cepaitiené 2010, 238].
Fig. 3. Plan of the old medieval city. Source: http://www.myshared.ru/slide/542854
Fig. 4. Plan of «the old city» of Poznan, Poland, 13th century Source: https://www.liveinternet.ru/users/sprato/post368392875/
Nowadays, semiotically, «the old city space» is that part of urban space that has become a «collective work of art», the result of symbiosis and intersection of several generations, layering and signifying historical-cultural coordinates [Yanushkevich 2011, 45]. In addition, following the analytically derived patterns of the semiotic urban landscape, the central city part - now referred to as «the old city space» - was a translatable population lifeway projection in different historical periods. From the communicative model of urban environment point of view, the image of «the old city space» is identified with a historical «portal», a medium directly addressed to its authentic semiotic paradigm.
For example, the modern European city historical center is represented by the symbiosis of signs and symbols, monuments of nature and architecture, and urban buildings - indicators of the past, many of which (for example, the Venice Lagoon, the old town of Regensburg, the historic center of Salzburg (Fig. 5), old quarters of Luxemburg, the medieval city of Torun and others) are recognized as World Cultural Heritage sites under the aegis of UNESCO [Website of UNESCO]. It is the inherent category of natural and cultural complex memorialization that supports the centuries-old dialogue of times and cultures. Exactly this inherent memorial category of natural and cultural complexes supports the centuries-old dialogue of times and cultures [Azatyan, Engoyan 2014, 9]. Due to the immediate architectural «quotation», even because of modernized objects and related to the reconstruction works (for example, the act of reliable restoration of the destroyed heritage in the historical center of Warsaw (Fig. 6)), and the direct material existing of some authentic historical units, «the old city space» broadcasts the conserved codes from the cultural and historical past [Benjamin, 1996].
Fig. 5. The historic center of Salzburg, Austria. Source: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/20/81/7f2081208274ba722d7c6591408b1e5e.jpg
The study of the city semiotic sphere and its texts are engaged in science since the 19th century. The Western scientists R. Barthes, K. Lynch, C. Levi-Strauss, C. Jencks, who studied the city semiotics and architectural symbolism, formulated such concepts as «semiotics of space» [Barthes 1989], «city image» [Lynch 1960], «text, code, sign, syntax, semantics of the architectural space» [Jencks 1977], proposed the idea of architecture
communication possibilities. Urban space was perceived by scientists as a text, as a space of communication, and as a sign environment for the human habitat.
The cultural philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel's essay on Venice was devoted to the study of «old cities space» from the semiotic position. In this essay Simmel approaches the city as an autonomous artifact; from his point of view, the city gives the impression of «independence from reality», as if it arises of its own volition [Simmel 2014]. Developing his thoughts on Venice, Simmel compares the city to Florence. In Florence «the outer appearance of the palaces coincides with their inner meaning <...>, each stone appears as an expression of the power and self-consciousness of the individual responsible for him/herself» - thus, for the author, the city's semiotic materiality creates a communication vector that contributes to the creation of the city image as a historical and cultural paradigm indicator [Simmel 2014].
In comparison, after Simmel, attention to the city semiotics is shown by the cultural theorist Yuri Lotman, who wrote about the semiotic perception of the St. Petersburg historical center. In Lotman's perception, St. Petersburg appears «ghostly», «artificial», and «theatrical» [Lotman 1984, 37]. According to Lotman, the theatricality of St. Petersburg owes much to the fact that the city architecture is characterized by «a unique consistency of huge ensembles», not disintegrating as in cities with a long history. This unique restraint of style «creates a sense of scenery», perceiving the world scenery as a text, referring to its collective historical experience and adding new connotations in collective memory. [Lotman 2002, 151]. In Lotman's conceptualization of St. Petersburg's space, the appearance of urban buildings resembling scenery produces a semiotic division into foreground and background.
Continuing the analysis of the theoretical source devoted to decoding the semiotic environment of «the old city space», it should be turned to the research experience of philosopher and cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, one of the main authors who wrote about the city in the 20th century. Benjamin also emphasized those city life features that make it look like a theater or a performance. For Benjamin, however, these were not the characteristics of the «eccentric city», but the main city features in general, the city as the essence of the Modernity [Benjamin 1996]. Benjamin wrote several essays on various cities, including Marseilles, Naples, and Moscow, but in addition to these «Denkbilder», as he called small characterizations of cities, he wrote several extensive texts on Paris and Berlin.
Benjamin's topographical method described in «The Berlin Chronicle», which consists in mapping the places of his childhood and youth, has its origins in the idea of the city as a series of topoi, signs, and coded semiotic coordinates in which communication and interaction between individuals take place: meetings, events, and gatherings, where friendships and alliances are formed. These places, or «Schauplätze» (the word Benjamin uses) - architectural ensembles of «the old city space» - squares, parks, streets - become scenes, arenas where events unfold, forming an intermittent citizen's and the individual's life narrative [Benjamin 1997, 19].
Studying the space of a semiotic communication code (the individual's decoding of «the old city space» semiotics), the author's position correlates with the transformation theory of the cultural platform through intercultural interaction, which is reflected in the
works of philosopher and cultural critic Mikhail Bakhtin. According to the theorist, a dialogue is a universal way of studying a human person, society, and culture. For Bakhtin, «culture exists where there are two (at least) cultures, and that the self-consciousness of a culture is a form of its being on the border of another culture» [Bakhtin 1979, 25]. Dialogue of cultures, in Bakhtin's concept, is a link between a person and his cultural past. Each new cultural text is dialogical since it is based on the previous world picture and draws a person to its cultural origins. Thus, showing how historical events expanded the boundaries of cultural space and complicated the relationship between the real newly acquired socio-cultural elements.
Bakhtin also believed that exactly «foreign» culture - due to its «alienness» - can provoke the disclosure of new aspects and meanings of «their» culture [Bibler 1991, 112]. Thereby, according to Bakhtin, the dialogue is the main form of cultural interactions aimed at the self-identification of an individual in a socio-cultural context and awareness of their cultural nature. Thus, the practice of cross-cultural contacts creates conditions for expanding the range of semantic meanings regarding semiotic and cultural codes through foreign cultural influence. Also, intercultural communication promotes mutual «cultural saturation», transfer of accumulated cultural forms and semiotic units from one culture to another, and integration of a new semiotic synthesis, being as a product of dialogue between two socio-cultural systems [Bibler 1991, 115].
One of the first researchers who drew attention to the communicative and sign architectural nature was the philosopher and linguist Umberto Eco. In his book «The Absent Structure», U. Eco regards works of architecture as a system of signs. In his opinion, the architecture of «the old city space» reproduces ready coded patterns, closed and frozen in time information forms [Eco 1998, 135]. According to him, architecture - is rhetoric; from the communicative point of view, architecture - is one of the forms of mass communication. However, the philosopher notes that architecture is still more than just a means of mass communication. In thinking about codification, Eco not only considers architectural codes but also foresees the possibility for architecture to use other, non-architectural codes: the system of social relations, the system of cohabitation, the system of spatial relations, and the system of kinship relations and others.
Continuing a comprehensive theoretical study dedicated to the semiotic old city space features, the author analyzes this phenomenon from the social psychology and urbanism point of view. At this research stage, the author refers to the book «Image of the city» by an American specialist who related to the urban planning field, Kevin Lynch. Expressing the idea of having a mental city image, Lynch considers the urban area as a structural element of a «mental map» - a generalized image of urban boundaries, hubs, mnemonic landmarks, and paths made up by the residents themselves. The «mental map» is characterized by some qualitative forms inside the architectural knowledge investigated from a sociology position, including «the time series» [Lynch 1960, 63].
According to K. Lynch, the semiotic and communicative nature of urban space reflects not only the plan of visual topographic «marking» but also the content focused on the principle of urban zoning, related to the individual's personal mental experience. In this case, the «time series» projects the subject-time connections formed between «a mental image» of the urban object and the perception of the individual [Lynch 1960, 21]. Based
on this approach, there is a possibility to make a socio-cultural assessment of the architectural patterns influence (in particular, cultural and historical attractions located in «the old city space») and formed urban contextual spatial and temporal relationships, which are focused on the individual's identification in the cultural environment. In this way, the historic district, according to Lynch's idea, becomes a projected collective perception of the city's history and culture.
Based on the thematic literary sources analysis, it was revealed that the socio-cultural context of urban space in general as an object of study is reflected mainly in the works on semiotics and urban studies. At the same time, the phenomenon of «the old city space» is not studied by other authors as a complex formation at the intersection of several scientific knowledge disciplines and is not identified as a mediated participant of intercultural communication with the individual. In this case, this article's scientific innovation lies in the accumulation and synthesis of narrow disciplinary provisions on «the old city space» phenomenon as a complex socio-cultural mechanism and integration of the author's concept of «the old city space» as a semiotic code in the process of intercultural communication.
Processing of theoretical material is carried out through cultural methods of scientific research. In particular, a genetic approach is used to conduct a comparative historical analysis investigating «the old city space» phenomenon from its emergence and further semiotic space functional development. Also, the research is dominated by the axiological analysis method, in which «the old city space» is considered as a cultural form, semiotic code, and value orientation.
The article uses the main general scientific methods: analytical, which revealed the specifics and historical line of semiotic systems interaction and cultural units in the urban space; structural and functional, which allowed considering the old city space as a special integrative semiotic code. To realize the article's goal, the practical conditions of potential intercultural communication are hypothetically modeled and considered, and the expected results of intercultural interaction in the semiotic «old city space» are interpreted.
As it is mentioned, the main scientific approach of this article is semiotic. With its help, the author considers cross-cultural interactions as acts of specific semiotic communication, particular messages, which acquire their semantic meaning by the decoding of a certain information element - a code. The selection of cultural elements in communication and their further processing, synthesis, and integration into sign systems is indicated by the process of semiotic information encoding. Thus, culture generates human consciousness and its worldview paradigm through a constant process of sign formation - the creation of symbol systems and modeling of spatial and temporal individual representations [Osipova 2011, 4].
Considering the urban environment in the semiotic aspect as a comprehensive sign system, it is necessary to note its constant social and communicative movement and contextual formation. That is, urban space, in particular, «the old city space», can encode, synthesize and accumulate socio-cultural elements, giving them semiotic semantics. By activating the semiotic mechanism, urban space establishes a special system of socio-cultural coordinates, which claims the status of the historical city part as a medium of
cultural substance. In terms of the urban environment communicative model, «the old city space» image is identified with a historical «portal» - a medium directly addressed to its authentic semiotic paradigm.
Thus, «the old city space» semiotic and cultural nature is institutional, aimed at establishing cultural and semantic interactions within an integral socio-cultural urban space. In «the old city space» context, the evolutionary interpretation of axiological formulas and socio-cultural codes with their mutual semantic penetration and transformation is traced. There is also activated cultural and temporal dialogue; the formation mechanisms of the urban culture and «urban lifestyle» are revealed; the appeal to the origins and heritage takes place in «the old city space» continuum [Gans 1962]. The article considers the translation and codification process of semiotic field elements within the framework of intercultural communication. Following the intercultural communication theory, the socio-cultural context, in this case, the urban environment, takes the position of a conductor between an individual and the cultural-semiotic code, the medium of which it becomes during an interaction.
The urban space, as an integral ideological integrative platform of subject-object relations, is also studied in the system of interactions between the city (the medium of the socio-cultural code) and the individual (a consumer of encoded cultural units). The semiotic elements in the old city space affect the corresponding forms in another national culture. At this level, a special vector of communication is formed, in which the cultural context, consisting of cultural-semiotic codes, plays the conductor role between this code system and a person. A single person, entering into a dialogue with another culture, transmits encoded socio-cultural information. In this situation, the structural unit belongs to a sign, which is subsequently transformed into a symbol, and the text - is an informational semiotic code that has a special semantic meaning laid down by an authentic socio-cultural environment [Avanesov 2016, 15].
For an adequate semiotic understanding of an «alien» coded culture, the individual has to adapt to it. Within the adaptation process, the apogee of interest in a different cultural system manifests itself and then the adoption of foreign cultural and semiotic codes occurs. At this stage, representatives enter an active phase of cross-cultural communication, the main result of which is the convergence of «alien» and «own» semiotic and culture systems [Dutsev 2012, 229]. Participants in the dialogue establish a mutual exchange of cultural codes and semiotic elements, enabling their interpenetration in their socio-cultural context. The ideal model to which the participant of communication should strive as a result is to adapt to the new socio-cultural environment as best and effectively as possible by decoding semiotic units.
It is worth adding that the institutional nature of «the old city space» phenomenon as a semiotic code consists of a comprehensive approach to interaction with a historically and culturally oriented space. The urban environment, being a semiotic substance, performs cultural and educational functions with the individual. Symbolizing a return to historical origins, the space of «the old city space» influences semiotic and cultural immersion - the process of deep integration within the socio-cultural continuum and the formation of an individual's cultural and national identification in society. Thus, the phenomenality of «the old city space» as a cultural and historical institution is expressed
in a mediumistic semiotic landscape, which contributes to the individual's awareness of its spiritual and cultural identity. Also, the ideological component of «the old city» semiotic space has a social and educational function, through which the historical city part becomes not only a landmark system of local decoding but also a priority route of cultural tourism, a vector of international relations practices implemented through the external tourism industry.
Summarizing the research, it should be noted that the modern practice of intercultural communication is a complex and multidimensional process that acts as an integral factor in the formation and enrichment of national cultures. The set of cross-cultural interactions in the relevant globalization context constitutes an integrative field of the intersection of various historical, social, and cultural processes. At the present stage, intercultural communication is an integral component of a synthesizing approach to the relationship combining cultural and communicative integration processes, reverse translation, encoding, and decoding of semantics of socio-cultural space units. Built on the semiotic formation and mutual influence of the communicative culture process, in theory, the article identifies «the old city space» with a coded semiotic coordinates system.
This paper examines the features and patterns, which influence the semiotic and socio-cultural components inside «the old city space» during the process of intercultural communication. Based on a semiotic and cultural approach, the integral urban continuum was studied as a hypertext including a set of encoded coordinates and semiotic-communicative sign systems. To «the old city space», the concept of organizing the modern city context concerning a historical and cultural institution was built. The semiotic platform of the historical center space has links to various socio-cultural substances, structures in the form of cultural heritage objects, and historical and architectural monuments that construct a polysemantic city image. The symbiotic communicative interaction nature of the historical symbolic-sign narrative and axiological orientations directly influences the process of modifying the semiotic code from its authentic state. The study confirms the urban space's multi-complex nature due to the interaction of historically acquired components and cultural and new information realities, which are continuously formed and integrated into the existing continuum.
The following stage of research devoted to the old city space, conceptualizing a semiotic code of intercultural communication, has established the direct influence of the international dialogue process on the cultural paradigm formation. The article reveals the specifics of the cultural dialogue in «the old city space» context and defines the intercultural communication role in the complex formation of the semiotic and socio-cultural urban space system. In this case, «the old city space» semiotic continuum builds up communicative patterns of spatial-temporal and intercultural character and contributes to the individual's awareness of his/her spiritual and cultural identity. Thus, the research has documented the influence of cultural dialogue on the formation of the socio-cultural and semiotic «the old city space» environment. This conclusion confirms the hypothesis that was suggested at the beginning of the study about the semiotic-cultural units decoding in the intercultural communication context. Indeed, the semiotic code of the socio-cultural «the old city» environment is subjected to transformation through both historical and modern intercultural interactions.
The research materials and results can be practically applied: 1) for developing targeted programs of cultural tourism; 2) to conduct workshops and trainings on the formation of intercultural communication competence; 3) for organizing ethnocultural centers and urbanists associations; 4) for research activities of higher education institutions. Besides, the research findings can be served as a basis for further study in developing the theory and practice of intercultural communication in socio-cultural activities. In addition, this article's content is a part of the project-research activity devoted to the development of a targeted intercultural communication practical model in «the old city space». Specifically, the article's results are included in the theoretical part of an exchange project, which is conceptually aimed at exploring the semiotic city space of Riga and Kaliningrad. In the forecast, the concept of the intercultural exchange project with a full program application claims to become a potential non-commercial market product of the international relations in the cultural field between Kaliningrad and Riga.
REFERENCES
Avanesov 2016 - Avanesov S. S. Visual Semiotics of Cities: Perspective of Urban Texts
Studies. nPAEHMA. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. 4 (10). P. 9-22. In Russian. Azatyan, Engoyan 2014 - Azatyan K. R., Engoyan A. R. Integration Problems of the Old and the New in Urban Space Development. Vestnik MGSU [Proceedings of Moscow State University of Civil Engineering]. 2014. 6. P. 7-16. URL: https://clck.ru/rb5wj. In Russian.
Bakhtin 1979 - Bakhtin M. M. Aesthetics of verbal creativity. Moscow, 1979. In Russian. Barthes 1989 - Barthes R. The Semiotics: Poetics, Selected Works. Transl. into Russian by
G. K. Kosikov. Moscow, 1989. In Russian. Benjamin 1996 - Benjamin W. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
Selected Essays. Ed. by Yu. A. Healthy. Moscow, 1996. In Russian. Benjamin 1997 - Benjamin W. One-Way Street. Transl. into Russian by Ilya Boldyrev.
Moscow, 1997. In Russian. Berestovskaya, Petrenko 2017 - Berestovskaya D. S., Petrenko A. P. Architectural Space of the City: Semiotic Approach. Urban Studies. Vol. 1. 2017. P. 24-34. DOI:10.7256/2310-8673.2017.1.22489. In Russian. Bibler 1991 - Bibler V. S. Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin or the Poetics of Culture. Moscow,
1991. URL: https://clck.ru/rb6RK. In Russian. Cepaitiené 2010 - Cepaitiené R. Cultural Heritage in the Global World. Vilnius, 2010.
URL: https://clck.ru/rbmfC. In Russian. Dutsev 2012 - Dutsev M. V. The City as a Space of Architecture-Art Synthesis. Academia.
Architecture and Building. 2012. 1. P. 28-37. URL: https://clck.ru/rb6rS In Russian. Eco 1998 - Eco U. The Absent Structure. Introduction to Semiological Research. Transl.
into Russian by A. Pogonjajlo, I. Reznik. St. Petersburg, 1998. In Russian. Gans 1962 - Gans H. J. The Urban Villagers. New York, 1962.
Jencks 1977 - Jencks C. A. The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. London, 1977. Lotman 1984 - Lotman Y. M. St. Petersburg Symbolics and Problems of City Semiotics. Sign Systems Studies. 18 (664). 1984. P. 30-45. URL: https://clck.ru/rbmrm. In Russian.
Lotman 2002 - Lotman Y. M. Articles on the Semiotics of Art. St. Petersburg, 2002. URL: http://teatr-lib.ru/Library/Lotman/statjy/. In Russian.
Lynch 1960 - Lynch K. The Image of the City. Cambridge, 1960.
Osipova 2011 - Osipova N. O. Application of Structural Semiotic Methodology in the Humanities. Journal of Cultural Research. 2011. 3 (5). URL: http://cr-journal.ru/en/journals_en/73.html&j_id=5. In Russian.
Simmel 2014 - Simmel G. Rome. Florence. Venice. Transl. into Russian by A. Filippov-Chekhov. Moscow. 2014.
Site of UNESCO - Site of UNESCO. World heritage list. URL: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/.
Svanidze 1999 - A City in the Medieval Civilization of Western Europe. The phenomenon of medieval urbanism. Ed. by A. A. Svanidze. Vol. 1. Moscow, 1999. P. 140-161. URL: https://studfile.net/preview/16378980/page:16/. In Russian.
Yanushkevich 2011 - Yanushkevich I. Semiotics of Social Memory in Urban Space: the Case of Volgograd (Stalingrad). International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE). 2014. 2 (1). P. 43-50.
Материал поступил в редакцию 12.04.2022 принят к публикации 11.05.2022
