Ideas and Ideals

Ordering the world of things and phenomena is one of the tasks of symbolic activity as an important anthropological characteristic of man. An individual builds and uses a system of reference points in the socio-cultural space of traditional and modernist societies with the help of objectifi cation and de-objectifi cation of symbols. A monument as one of the forms of symbolic culture historically plays the role of such a reference point: it perpetuates generally signifi cant meanings that have the highest value, provides an axiological connection between generations, sets existential coordinates on the path of life. However, at the modern (post-historical) stage, traditional and modernist meanings and values  are losing their signifi cance as universal pointers. Nevertheless, the need for orientation not only does not disappear, but turns out to be extremely relevant in the conditions of uncertainty of a complex world. Today, a number of artists create their works in new territories of a complex world, inhabited through art. The author examines this trend using examples from works by Anish Kapoor (ArcelorMittal Orbit, Cloud Gate and the sculpture at 56 Leonard Street in New York City) and Antony Gormley’s project (One & Other). These artistic experiments offer an unconventional experience for the viewer, revealing the possibility of harnessing the creative potential of uncertainty. The works discussed in the article act as accumulators of ambiguity. Installed in public spaces, they not only accumulate uncertainty but also transmit it back into the human world, repeatedly concentrated through artistic means. The author demonstrates that among the goals of contemporary monumental art, one of the main objectives is reconciling people with an unstable reality through pre-adaptation. In modern psychology, pre-adaptation is viewed as a preventative measure that allows people to adjust to constant, unpredictable change. Pre-adaptation, carried out with the help of monumental art, is based on the principles of developing a creative attitude to the world.

This article proposes an ontological revision of the foundations of art historical analysis, which has traditionally relied on the hermeneutics of style expressed through a system of binary oppositions (from Wölffl in to Baxandall). In contrast to this relational model, which defi nes an artistic phenomenon through its difference from another style, the theory of apophatic stylistics is put forward. Borrowing its fundamental gesture from negative theology, the theory postulates that an artistic principle or pattern asserts itself not dialectically, but through a radical negation of all that it is not–of the entire mute materiality of the world of “things themselves.” The article provides numerous examples from various arts, from classical to the most recent, substantiating the necessity of apophatic stylistics as a sub-discipline of art history and, simultaneously, an essential practical component of the philosophy of art, crucial for the accuracy of intermedial generalizations.

The article argues that this approach has direct ontological implications, resonating with Graham Harman’s project of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO). Within OOO, a work of art is understood not as a representation or a product of artistic will, but as an autonomous object possessing a “withdrawn reality.” The task of the artist, therefore, shifts from mimesis to the act of revealing this objecthood, which transforms the formula summarizing the spirit of Duchamp’s enterprise: “the whole world readymades itself.” Through a reinterpretation of Rosalind Krauss’s concept of the index and the category of “zadannost” (“givenness,” in the Neo-Kantian and Bakhtinian tradition), the article demonstrates how apophatic stylistics shifts the focus from anthropocentric categories of intention and cultural context (“point of assemblage”) to an encounter with the otherness of the artistic object itself in its self-suffi cient being (“point of vivifi cation”).

The article substantiates the apparatus of apophatic stylistics, provides a detailed innovative terminology for this discipline, and justifi es its analytical procedures. This enhances the practical signifi cance of the article, making it not only a contribution to the philosophy of art but also an instructive foundation for analyzing any work of art using the author’s proposed method.

The article analyses both the book of American philosopher ChristophCox “Sonic Flux: Sound, Art and Metaphysics” and a wide range of criti­cal publications dedicated to this book. The project “Sonic Flux” belongs tosonic materialism (a branch of “New Materialism’) also known as “Deleuziansound studies”. For Cox this means a development of “immanent metaphys­ics” launched by G. Deleuze. But while continuing the project of Deleuze,Cox inherits his predicaments. Their range is as broad as the specter of Cox’ssources covering philosophy, arts, theory of perception. Debates around theproject “Sonic Flux” highlighted such problems as the way Cox understandsmaterialism and how he understands access to reality. Cox’s correlation of fi­nite and infinite; particularity and universality, and anti-historicism are highlyproblematic for critics. Since Cox claims to develop a theory of sound art weassess his ideas from this perspective. This allows us to focus on modernism,anonymity and anti-humanism, central to Cox’s project but not to its criti­cism. A less important aspect – resentiment in Cox’s style – turned out to behelpful in drawing conclusions that the whole project “Sonic Flux” is builtupon a range of assumptions. Cox himself names some of them while weindicated some others.

The main conclusion of the article is the idea that the project “Sonic Flux” cannot provide an adequate theory of sound art nor contribute to sound stud­ies because it is too embedded in the worst kind of modernism and structural­ism. Such important notions of sonic materialism as autonomy and anonymity of sounds perfectly fit the tradition of Modernism while being completely alien to the sound studies.

The world’s oldest 3x3 magic square, discovered/invented in Ancient China and now known as Luoshu 洛書/ ‘Document [from the River] Luo’, was endowed by Chinese tradition with unprecedented dignity and placed at the very heart of Chinese thought. The bewitching geometric-numerical imagery of Luoshu, open to a great many different visions, when reading-interpretation becomes the final moment of the very act of perception, turns this Chinese mandala into a real eye trap. With its disturbing persistence, it resembles the magically attractive ‘Zahir’ from Borges’ short story of the same name.

   Among the most diverse ritual and ideological instrumentalizations of the Luoshu magic square (from the sacred emblem of cosmic harmony to the requisite of a geomancer), the mobilization of this esoteric figure for the arithmetization of the cornerstone of all Chinese philosophy, the fundamentally non-verbalizable Tao, is dominant. The coding of the dao by the number 15 is reinforced by its spatialization, so that the entire “Document [from the river] Lo” appears as a map of the various trajectories of the Tao within this nine-field square. Moreover, the coincidence (in number 15) of differently composed sums appears as an inscrutable variety of paths leading to the same goal - the final implementation of Tao.

     By virtue of the validity of the equality 15 =mod10 5 the magic sum of the Luoshu square (Const₁₅) immutably, although covertly (in the form of a number 5), centers the entire Luoshu configuration. This secrecy of the magical constant (the latter is absent in the entire observable space of the “Document [from the river] Lo”) refers to the hidden “back-side” of Luoshu numbers, represented by the number 10 (in its role as a modulus of comparison in the arithmetic of residues modulo 10).

      Judging by the directly visible, so to speak, ‘front’ part of the magic square of order 3, it is allowed to count only up to nine in it. But the already absent-present magic sum (number 15), breaking the seemingly inescapable circle of arithmetic of residues, brings to light the comparison module (number 10) as Luosh’s hidden ‘truth’, which alone gives meaning to the entire nine-cell construction. Awareness of this truth is the first step in the transition to the ‘register of truth’ of this extraordinary gestalt. The subsequent connection to it of problems focused by the Pythagorean theorem radically expands Luoshu’s ‘register of truth’.

      The geometrized arithmetic of the Luoshu magic square, which is a unique spatial-numerical fixation of the seemingly fundamentally non-objectivable Tao (i.e., combining the apparently incompatible) marks the possibility of a paradoxical union of Heraclitus with Pythagoras, successfully realized by the Chinese tradition.

The paper is devoted to Value Sensitive Design (VSD). This approach, widely presented in foreign scientific and specialized literature, has not been reflected in the Russian-language discourse. The authors of the study consider the theoretical foundations and methodological tools of VSD, clarify the conceptual apparatus, and also carry out a critical analysis of some of its main provisions (in particular, the question is raised about the absence of a philosophical theory of values, the eclecticism of the modern approach, insufficiently developed methods of cooperation with engineers, designers and potential stakeholders). VSD is viewed in the context of technology assessment and socially responsible innovation. We are talking about a diverse set of practices for the rational shaping of technologies, taking into account the values of society, suggesting a more active and conscious involvement of ordinary citizens (not experts) in the discussion of issues related to the development and design of technologies. An understanding of values with an emphasis on ethics and morality raises the question of achieving a balance between competing values and choosing the desired values, taking into account the diversity of interests of direct and indirect stakeholders. In this regard, two main goals of the VSD stand out. On the one hand, it involves identifying and critically analyzing desirable or limiting values that have been (intentionally or unintentionally) inscribed into existing technologies. On the other hand, VSD offers practical recommendations on how to deliberately and purposefully inscribe socially approved values into the design of new equipment, software, databases, and algorithms. Finally, the article defines the directions of possible applied research: (a) the development of the theory and methodology of change management through structuring the change management process according to the hierarchical principle of interaction, as well as identifying persons and groups that are affected by organizational changes and how; (b) fundamental aspects of human-machine interaction, in particular, human-robot interaction (HRI), which is of great practical importance for the design and production of socially responsible service robotics.

In the system of classical arts, music has always been perceived as a human actional breakthrough to understanding the Universe. The musical language, considered as a cultural universal, is the basis of intuitive cognition, a felt view of the axiological unity of Truth, Goodness and Beauty. The article offers an analysis of the formation of the main philosophical theories of the ontological nature of musical creativity in their historical continuity.

In the history of ideas, the phenomenon of musical creativity has been perceived as a special kind of revelation. This reveals the obvious importance of the aesthetic approach in understanding the transcendental world; the objectified connection of man with ontological processes. Modern theories of universal evolutionism represent the development of the Universe as a single system based on the unity of its laws. It is in our time that comprehension of the essence of musical creativity opens a fundamentally new page in the philosophical understanding of the centuries-old history of music. The key point is the idea of the Μελῳδός aspiration to the Λόγος, the tendency to move from particular theoretical constructions and critical assessments to considering the phenomenological foundations of music, fundamentally presented, in particular, in the works of A. Losev and T. Adorno.

In the XX century, there was an obvious surge in the formulation of generalizing musicological concepts, and it was in the XX century that the philosophy of music received qualitatively new worldview foundations for its comprehensive interpretation. In this respect, the study of the epistemological nature of musical creativity has reached, it would seem, its peak.

However, comprehension of the investigated theories allows us to draw conclusions only about the possible approximation of a true understanding of the essence of musical creativity as a special cognitive practice. This turns out to be possible on the methodological basis of cumulative generalization, taking into account the religious, aesthetic, cultural, psychological, educational and other approaches in comprehending the value of the “world of sound”.

Тhe meaning of visual representation includes perception of information through the visual image. This form of information delivery to the general public was known in pagan cultures and asserted itself in Christianity. Since the late 20th century the concept of visualization united in itself not only religious and artistic images, but also the vision of mass culture. The performed research places emphasis on the establishment and the development of visual representation in Russia’s art culture of the ХVIII-XIX centuries. During the reign of Peter the Great, in a succession of state reforms and due to the influence of samples of European art, a transformation of national art culture occured. In this context, maritime art is viewed as one of the visual representation forms. The seascape, as a separate genre of painting, originates in the Dutch landscape. The first marinas were brought by Peter the 1st to decorate palaces and country residences. The victory in the Battle of Chesme (1770) and the joining of Crimea to the Russian Empire prompted Catherine the 2nd to invite J. P. Hackert to perpetuate the glory of Russian weapons. The artist became the first marine painter on Russian soil and performed a series of twelve paintings.

The flourishing of the national seascape in Russia took place in the 19th century. The first who took the post of artist at the Ministry of the Sea was I.K. Aivazovsky. Since then the seascape acquired special significance and perpetuates the sea victories of Russia. A subtle metaphysical meaning is present in some romantic landscapes by I.K. Aivazovsky. Sea battle paintings acquired clear realistic features in the painting of A.P. Bogolyubov. The artists are concerned not only with the image of the sea, but also with the architecture of the ship, which forms a separate painting genre: the ship portrait genre. The image of the ship in the paintings of the XIX-XX centuries combines the lines of scripture and poetry, focusing the attention of the viewer on a deep semantic reading of the landscape.

The article is dedicated to ocean liners, the ambitious projects of the 1930s. The Interwar period was the golden age of transatlantic shipping, primarily due to technical improvements, for example, increased engine power and changes in ship hull shape. However from an artistic point of view, liners also proved to be an important field of application. Many European architects, sculptors, and decorators were involved in the design of the exterior of the liners and their interiors. Most of the masters who participated in the development of a special “liner style” were practitioners of art deco. The spectacular, varied art deco proved to be the most appropriate style, corresponding to the problems which had been set before the artists by the client companies. The subject of the research is to identify the relationship between the “liner style” of the 1930s and art deco, determining the place of the transatlantic liner projects in the culture of the XX century. The object of the research is the design conceptions in general, as well as works of art in the interiors of the liners. The author’s aim is to demonstrate the high importance of these projects for the understanding of the Art Deco era, to characterize the complex approach of masters to the design of liner exteriors and interiors, to consider and compare the most outstanding design solutions. The research methodology includes historical and descriptive, comparative methods, cultural, historical, and culturological approaches. The main attention in the article is given to the French “Normandy”, a recognized example of this style. To expand the context and the possibility of generalization, the focus is also made on two English liners: “Queen Mary” and “Queen Elizabeth”. Among the artists the author points special attention to a French master, Jean Dunant. Dunant’s panels made for the Normandy cigar lounge are considered examples of a decorative style, inspired by the exoticism of archaic or Oriental cultures.

The article presents an analysis of the modern theoretical disputes on the problem of socio-cultural adaptation of migrants in the host society. The main trends in the development of both foreign and domestic discourse are considered. In modern humanitaristics, two main trajectories of sociocultural adaptation of migrants have emerged: assimilation and transnationalism, which served as a criterion for structuring the most significant concepts.

 Sociocultural adaptation is a complex multidimensional process and has a singular character, which is reflected in the plurality of its possible scenarios. This is the reason for the research methodology presented by the synergistic and systemic approaches that allow studying various adaptation models of migrants in relation to a “fluid” social environment. The plasticity of modern society caused the nonlinearity of the adaptation process, which makes it difficult to identify patterns and fixed mechanisms of its course. In this regard, the synergetic approach made it possible to study the factors of choosing an adaptation model and the peculiarities of its implementation from the point of view of social consequences explicated at different levels of social organization.

A number of concepts are analyzed to identify exogenous and endogenous factors of the determinants of the adaptation model. These include motivation, type of migration, social expectations of the host community, and the involvement of a migrant in migrant social networks.

The comprehension of sociocultural adaptation is presented in the context of its influence on the process of transformation of the identity of migrants and the formation of new types of identity in the conditions of the recipient society.

The following possible trajectories of the formation of the identity of migrants are distinguished, depending on the choice of the adaptation model:

- firstly, the replacement of the object of identification while maintaining the existing type of identity as a result of the implementation of the assimilation strategy of adaptation. The result of this process is the identification of the migrant with the new culture and society, the feeling of being a part of them;

- secondly, in the case of plans for a short stay in a foreign cultural environment, there is a preservation of the existing identity;

- thirdly, there is a transformation of existing types of identity and the construction of new ones, replacing the previous ones, which reflects the transnational strategy of adaptation.