A City Surprised An Analysis of Visual Content and Public Debate,

“Skopje 2014”

Nita Çavolli MA Communication and New Media

Skopje, May 2014

“Skopje 2014” as a societal paradigm

“Skopje 2014” as an image• Images are media for the

production of power and knowledge in communication and the shaping of identities in individuals and groups.

• Visual studies offer methodologies for the inquiry of images as modes of communication and evoking cultural associations.

Visual Semiotics and Multimodality

• The image is a system- a social formation of cultural convention and systems of belief and signification. (Roland Barthes)

• Multimodality- all expressed meanings are social, considering the importance of individual differences and the fact that societies are not equal, but are combinations of groups with diverse, unstable and clashing interests.

(Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen)

Semiotics of a changing city• Buildings are mechanisms

of representation- organizational systems, political constructs. (Wigley)

• The classical canon is used in times of economic and social turmoil, mobilizing all cultural capacities for social change. (Tzonis, Lefaivre)

Semiotics of a changing city• Images, architecture do not posses essential meanings,

however through the relationships they create, they seem a natural part of culture.

• The points of contact are the social motives that lie at the core of theories such as social semiotics and multimodality.

Politics of Representation

• Media assist the construction of meanings in the world: the ways we look at things.

• Politics of representation change the existing settings for power and identity.

Skopje Spectacular• Media, institutions and

governing powers of contemporary societies construct commodities and spectacles .

• Materialization of ideology: it fully expresses the essence of all ideological systems: impoverishment, enslavement and negation of real life.

When the real world turns into simple images, the simple images become real and effective motives for hypnotized behavior. (Guy Debord)

Skopje Simulacrum

The simulacrum never hides the truth, the truth hides that there is none. The simulacrum is real.

(Jean Baudrillard)

“Skopje 2014” as Heritage Display

Constructs of unreal artificial spaces, visual environments utilizing historical narratives in a framework of trivial spectacles.

(Kevin Walsh)

“Skopje 2014” Public DebateThe Internet opens up perspectives for alternative economies and cultures, as well as mechanisms for political action. (Douglas Kellner)

• Prva Arhi Brigada• Freedom Square• Raspeani Skopjani

“Skopje 2014” Remix

• Visual remixes: creating genuine images with new values and connotations by appropriating existing ones.

• Remixes are examples for the power this type of expression has. SHOW, BUT NOT TELL. (Lawrence Lessig)

“Skopje Thou Shall be Joy” through relational aesthetics

The contemporary artist is a semionaut who finds trajectories between signs to create meanings that rely on cultural references which the image carries with it.

(Nicholas Baurrioud)

“Skopje Thou Shall be Joy”

“Skopje Thou Shall be Joy”

A sentence for thought:

Images are not innocent. (Roland

Barthes)

Thank you!