visuality 2015: intercultural creative discourses

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International Conference

Visuality 2015: Intercultural Creative Discourses

Conference Paper Abstracts

23-24 April 2015, Vilnius

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VILNIUS GEDIMINAS TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

KAZIMIERAS SIMONAVIIUS UNIVERSITY

International Conference

Visuality 2015: Intercultural Creative Discourses

Conference Paper Abstracts

23-24 April 2015, Vilnius

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Conference Scientific Committee

Head: Prof Dr Tomas Kaerauskas

Executive Secretary: Jovil Bareviit

Members: Acad Prof Dr Algis Micknas, Prof Dr Habil Valdas Pruskus, Prof Dr Vytis Valatka, Prof Dr Arnas Augustinaitis, Assoc Prof Dr Agnieka Juzefovi, Assoc Prof Dr Basia Nikiforova, Assoc Prof Dr Jolanta Saldukaityt

Conference Organizing Committee

Head: Assoc Prof Dr Agnieka Juzefovi

Executive Secretary: Vaida Nedzinskait-Mitk

Members: Prof Dr Tomas Kaerauskas, Assoc Prof Dr Laimut Monginait, Assoc Prof Dr Jolanta Saldukaityt, Assoc Prof Dr Vaida Asakaviit, Dr Moacir P. de S Pereira, Dr Edvardas Rimkus, Rasa Levickait, Elena Sakalauskait, Rta Vyniauskien, Silvija iait-Rudokien

Publishing Information

Editors of conference paper abstracts: Jovil Bareviit, Agnieka Juzefovi

Managing Editor: Jovil Bareviit

Language Editor: Moacir P. de S Pereira

Layout Editors: Moacir P. de S Pereira, Agnieka Juzefovi

Sponsor for conference paper abstracts publishing: Kazimieras Simonaviius University

Printing Services: BMK Leidykla

Edition of copies: 100

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CONTENTS

PREFACE 7

Arnas AUGUSTINAITIS, Jolanta ZABARSKAIT. The Role of Language Visualization in the Context of Economic Linguistic 8

Julianna BORBLY. Bound by Language: Adaptation and / or Fidelity in Translating Animation Films 9

Russell J. COOK. Sound Lets You See 10

Silvija IAIT-RUDOKIEN. From Local to Global in Lithuanian Theatre: Death of Cynicism and Triumph of Sincerity 11

Canan EULENBERGER-ZDAMAR. Viva Teutonia! Bratwurst, Beer & Gemtlichkeit The Role of Images in Tourism: Promoting Intercultural Communication or Reinforcing Stereotypes in the Name of Business? 12

Nadja FURLAN TANTE. Intercultural Visuality of Womens Spirituality 13

Wojciech GIZICKI. European Security and Intercultural Dialogues: Is It Possible? 14

Gizela HORVTH, Rozlia Klra BAK. Online Artistic Activism as Effective Intercultural Communication 15

Ilya INISHEV. Materiality and Visuality: Modes of Iconic Presence in Visual Environments of Contemporary Culture 16

Egl JAKNIEN. Creative Industries Strategies in Soviet Lithuania: Packages of Mass Consumption Goods 17

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Janez JUHANT. Cultural Dialogue as a Possibility for Human Development 18

Agnieka JUZEFOVI. Intercultural Influences in the Formation of Tango Music and Dance 19

Tomas KAERAUSKAS. Two Incommensurable Discourses: Creative Industries and Culture Industry 20

Branko KLUN. J.-L. Marions Creative Hermeneutics of the Visible: Between the Idol and Icon 21

Omar LAROUK. Contribution of the Image Information in Economic Innovation, via a Web Multicultural Media Environment 22

Felipe LOZANO. The Perception Process within Non-Places: A Transcultural Phenomenon across the Globe 23

Kstutis LUPEIKIS. Intercultural Aspects of the Minimalist Form 24

Frank Thomas MEYER. In Brand We Trust: Transcultural Global Branding 25

Algis MICKNAS. The Field of Transparent Visuality 26

Tomas MITKUS. Lithuanian Film Industry in 21st Century: Development Report in National and Regional Context 27

Laimut MONGINAIT. Peculiarities of the Sensations of the Light and the Colours 28

John W. MURPHY. Can Communities Be Seen? 29

Arto MUTANEN. Relativity of Visual Communication 30

Basia NIKIFOROVA. The Reconceptualization of Materiality in the Brothers Quays Lost Civilization World 31

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Robertas PUKENIS. Relation of Roman Law with Other Cultures in Classical Period 32

Edita RIAUBIEN. The Uniqueness of Images as the Assumption of Architects Creativity 33

Kastytis RUDOKAS. Visuality and Signification: Narrativistic Approach towards Urban Heritage Preservation 34

Elena SAKALAUSKAIT. Augmented Reality Art in Various Cultural Contexts 35

Jolanta SALDUKAITYT. Encountering the Stranger 36

Moacir P. de S PEREIRA. Poking out Gods Eye and Touching the Spatial Turn 37

Efim SHAPIRO, Natalia BABETS. Yekaterinburg: Semantic Maps. The City through the Eyes of Foreigners 38

Yaroslava SHEKERA. Image in Poetic Works of Huang Tingjian: Hermeneutics of Hieroglyphic Text 39

Liudmila STAROSTOVA, Larisa PISKUNOVA. Formation of Cross-Cultural Communication Skills by Means of Cinema 40

Vojko STRAHOVNIK. Moral Perception, Moral Intuition, Disagreement and Dialogue 41

Rok SVETLI. The Violence as the Symptom of Weak Thinking 42

Rta ERMUKNYT. Cultivating Visual Literacy in Teaching of History: The Example of Lithuanian History Didactics 43

Vytis VALATKA. Temperance as Remedy: Dialogue between Ancient Greek Cynicism and Contemporary Civilization 44

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Pao-Hsiang WANG. Regime of Visuality in L. Kirkwoods Chimerica 45

Ewa WYLEK. The Intercultural Value of the Underground Art 46

Evija ZAA. Common Dreams of Global Cities in the Images 47

Bojan ALEC. (Inter-Cultural) Communication in the Age of Technical Images 48

PUBLICATIONS 49

NOTES 50

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PREFACE

The 21st century is an age of globalization as well as intercultural exchanges and discourses. Hence, scholarly work that considers visuality, the media, communication, and creativity within recent culture are particularly relevant and popular. The question then arises: when do these various aspects stimulate each other, and when do they suppress one another? Catering to the masses, the dominant form in a mediated society, blocks the individual, unique, and creative outbursts. Similarly, images, visual communication, and creativity are inseparable from any history of culture, stretching back for millennia. Visuality, creativity, and their mutual relations disclose the shapes into which civilizations may evolve. Various topics regarding visuality in intercultural communication show the particularly intense links between globalization and visualization in contemporary culture. Thus, the purpose of this conference is to gather together scholars of humanistic, social and other sciences. We believe that the interaction between visuality and intercultural communication could be a fruitful ground for discussion among philosophers, scholars of communications and media, anthropologists, historians, literary theorists, art critics, psychologists, sociologists, and even creative professionals at advertising firms. For this conference, we have clustered our scholars into five different approaches to the intercultural and creative discourses surrounding visuality. The approaches yield five different sessions. The first considers the visuality within cinema, theatre, music, and audiovisual arts. The second session carries the conferences theme into media and creative industries. The third session, conducted in Russian, focuses on visuality and intercultural communication. The fourth session approaches visuality more philosophically, viewing it through the phenomenology of dialogue and moral philosophy. The final session considers visuality from the vantage point of urban studies and architecture. Uniting these disparate strands, as well as providing a foundation for them, are the two plenary sessions.

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Prof Dr Arnas AUGUSTINAITIS (1), Prof Dr Jolanta ZABARSKAIT (2) Kazimieras Simonaviius University, Lithuania (1); Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Lithuania (2a), Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, Lithuania (2b)

E-mails: [email protected] (1a), [email protected] (1b); [email protected] (2a), [email protected] (2b)

The Role of Language Visualization in the Context of Economic Linguistic

This report aims to reveal the topic of language visualisation in the methodological context of economic linguistics. The scientific concept of economic linguistics is new and original. In the essence of economic linguistics, lay structures and methods of generating added value in the field of intangible economics (that of knowledge, creative work, innovation, information, and so on), which by nature integrates conventional and virtual linguistic resources and semantic ties in multilingual and multicultural settings. This means that linguistic tools and instruments can be used to draw multifaceted and multileveled roadmaps in 3D cultures space-time continuum. That, in fact, offers a possibility of integrated transformation of language mediation and functional expansion of its visualisation.

From the point of view of economic linguistic, language visualisation means holistic semantic ties in the 3D culture and the engineering of their combination, transformation, and creative interpretation which can be compared to the principles of genetic engineering by cutting and constructing new linguistic derivatives and semantic compounds. The formation of holistic culture also creates new forms of expression of linguistic visualisation, including those based on technology. Viewed from the broader angle of communication, language visualisation becomes an expression and tool of the principles of the designer logic of todays world, one that allows integrating the different tiers of reality in the universe of information and knowledge that could be constructed as a neo-phenomenological interpretation of existence. As an element of this process, language visualisation allows integrating scientific, aesthetical, and technological knowledge into creative and cognitive contexts.

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Dr Julianna BORBLY

Partium Christian University, Romania

E-mail: [email protected]

Bound by Language: Adaptation and / or Fidelity in Translating Animation Films

Both subtitling and dubbing of audio-visual products represent most obvious instances of intercultural communication (ICC). In most cases transposition of the source text into target language pairs with cultural adaptation as well. In the light of J. David Gonzlez-Iglesias and Fernando Todas argument that compared to subtitling, dubbing is considered more effective in the manifestation of cultural differences or conflict in TV series (2011), in the present paper we propose to explore to what extent the type of the target language influences cultural adaptation in animation films. Based on both subtitled and dubbed versions of the same English-language animations into Hungarian (agglutinative language) and Romanian (inflectional language) we argue that the degree of both language and cultural adaptation is greater in agglutinative languages than in inflectional ones.

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Prof Dr Russell J. COOK

Loyola University Maryland, USA


Sound Lets You See

The audiovisual screen beckons us like no other artifact of human history. In little more than a century, screen media (film, video, electronic games, computer displays, smart phones, portable media players, etc.) have woven themselves into the fabric of our lives. We live in an information society in terms of technology and commerce and a screen society from a perceptual point of view. Immersed in our cultures barrage of screen images, we face visuality itself our reliance on seeing over hearing. Jean Gebsers investigation of visual culture reveals this ocurlarcentrism as a primary aspect of the mental mutation of human consciousness, which privileges the individuals point of view over the orality of ones tribe within the mythic and magic mutations. Mental consciousness blossomed in the era of the mass media. Seeing became synonymous with knowing. The ancient oral traditions and aural attunements seemed to vanish into silence. However, as Gebser teaches us, those ancient modes of consciousness were not lost but merely covered over. The music of the spheres erupts to the surface in the modern screen media. In fact, the soundtracks of screen media dictate what pictures we see.

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MA Silvija IAIT-RUDOKIEN

Kazimieras Simonaviius University, Lithuania


From Local to Global in Lithuanian Theatre: Death of Cynicism and Triumph of Sincerity

Professional theatre in Lithuania has had an influence of several different cultures which has an impact in changing theatre idea and esthetics. First one is influencing of Russian classical school, which affects entrenchment of psychological realism with local transformation metaphorical theatre (metaphors through visuality). Second stage is associated with postmodernism and globalization influence of Western life tendencies. Because of that the border of visual theatre was crossed. The theatre moved forward from representation to presentation, and concept of performativity. Third stage reveals seeking of self-identification in a global world. The most important factor in this stage is a rethinking of history (from the beginning of professional Lithuanian theatre) and denial of cynicism, bringing rebirth of the sincerity (new sincerity). Paradoxically, but seeking for (Lithuanian) originality is just a symbol of being a part of a global world. And performativity in theatre takes hold close relation with kitsch. That is not a postmodern view of popular culture, but the expression of (new) sincerity trough ideas and visuality. The aim of the presentation is to reveal the changed concept of performativity, influence of stage art to society (and vice versa) and contemporary tendencies rising hypothesis of new esthetics formation.

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MA Canan EULENBERGER-ZDAMAR

University of Hamburg, Germany


Viva Teutonia! Bratwurst, Beer & Gemtlichkeit The Role of Images in Tourism: Promoting Intercultural Communication or Reinforcing

Stereotypes in the name of Business?

One of the terms defining the frames of this conference is globalization a term that leads inevitably to another one which is as worn as unavoidable: intercultural communication. Apart from those everyday intercultural encounters which we all experience against the background of our own familiar culture and environment, there is one area of our lives, outside this familiar setting, in which we are confronted with foreign and unfamiliar cultures to a far more intense degree: tourism. Travelling in the sense of an undertaking which was reserved to exclusive circles of society for long years has transformed into the mass tourism of nowadays, which is particularly one thing: economic product, economic power and factor of globalization. In this due course countries and cultures themselves become economic products and as such touristic destinations have to be marketed, advertised and sold in the very best way. Selling is the key word and what is sold does not always match reality but rather the pictures in our head of places and people which we carry with us and which we want to see fulfilled. What could be better in satisfying these pictures in our heads than other pictures that apparently match all our dreams and longings especially when it comes to holiday. The role of images in this context is enormous; no travel guide, holiday brochure or destination advert manages on without a visual production of the target destination. The question rises whether these images draw realistic pictures of destinations and as such open the viewers mind and gaze to new cultural settings or whether they rather enforce certain stereotypes which the viewer is believed wanting to see. Having a look at some exemplary visual presentations of Germany in selected touristic print media we will see whether these images reflect German reality or whether the viewer ends up in a touristic make-believe-world based on alluring clichs and stereotypes.

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Assoc Prof Dr Nadja FURLAN TANTE

University of Primorska, Slovenia


Intercultural Visuality of Womens Spirituality

The paper examines phenomenon of womens spirituality through the visual ethics of reception, that is, with seeing as an ethical act. It criticizes classical Western (Christian) traditions which reinforced relations of domination and created victim-blaming spiritualities and ethics.

The paper then moves on to consider the question, to what extent do our ethical responses to images of womens inferiority in religion (Christianity), take place pre-reflectively, by visual-perceptual processes in the body-mind, before images even come to consciousness. The impact of collective memory regarding negative gender stereotypes and its representations and images in Western Visual culture is also discussed. How do different images of negative representations of women in religion (Christianity) influence our ethical responses and moral behavior?

Return of religion of the Goddess (in Western cultures), as one of most unexpected developments of late 20th century and its impact on the perception and image of God in Western monotheistic religions (focuss on Christianity) in also considered.

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Prof Dr Habil Wojciech GIZICKI

The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland


European Security and Intercultural Dialogues: Is It Possible?

One of important parts of European security is intercultural communication and social dialogue. Contemporary international reality requires undertaking effective cooperation on global and regional levels. It is difficult to separate the goals and assignments associated with security implemented at the national and international levels.

Security is one of the basic values. However, modern security is composed of efficient utilization of the potential within diplomacy and strength, a balanced relationship between soft and hard power, different culture, society and nation.

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Assoc Prof Dr Gizela HORVTH (1),

Assoc Prof Dr Rozlia Klra BAK (2)

Partium Christian University, Romania (1); Sapientia University, Romania (2)

E-mails: [email protected] (1); [email protected] (2)

Online Artistic Activism as Effective Intercultural Communication

Technical reproduction in general and photography in particular, have changed the status and practices of art. Similarly, the expansion of Web 2.0 interactive spaces presents opportunities and challenges to artistic communities. The Internet has impacted the reception of works of art. Today, we encounter more visual materials than we would have in a lifetime in the era of traditional photography. This phenomenon is even more valid for art-related online content, given the multimedial and intercultural context of visual communication.

The present study focuses on artistic activism: socially sensitive artists publish their creation on the Internet, on its most interactive space social media. These artworks carry both artistic and social messages. These practices force us to reinterpret some elements of the classical art paradigm: its autonomy, authorship, uniqueness (as opposed to copy and series), and the social role of art.

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Dr Ilya INISHEV

Higher School of Economics, Russia

E-mails: [email protected] (a), [email protected] (b)

Materiality and Visuality: Modes of Iconic Presence in Visual Environments of Contemporary Culture

One of the few points on which most theoreticians in the field of pictorial representation agree is that there is some correlation between semantic (meaningful) and non-semantic (material or perceptive) elements of pictorial representation of any kind.

Nevertheless the obvious problem with this statement is that there is a wide range of such correlations between the pictorial content (meaning of a picture) and material qualities of pictorial surface (picture design) that extend from minimal semantic role of materiality in schemes and diagrams to the maximal one in photography, film and painting, i.e. from different kinds of pictorial representation to some kind of specific pictorial presence (the case, when pictorial objects are precisely what they mean). Moreover, each type of the pictorial objects finds its correspondence in a definite type of perception, which means that there are different ways and grades of emotional and cognitive involvement in the pictorial experience, that is to say, different modes of the perceiving subjects presence correlative to the particular meaning-design-correspondence of a pictorial object. These modes of the perceiving subjects emotional-cognitive involvement stretch from discrete cognitive-perceptive act to holistic sensual-bodily presence.

The paper is aimed at elaboration of a dynamic and continual model of pictorial objects, the elements of which can be found in different versions of picture theory originating from both analytical and phenomenological tradition. To consider the notion of picture dynamically and continually means to think of the pictorial not as a set of unambiguously identifiable substantial qualities, but as the matter of structural characteristics and degree. Perception of pictures draws more on our ability to perform the temporally and spatially specific experience, i.e. to come into a cognitive, bodily, cognitive and emotional contact with a complex material surface of a picture than on the (just cognitive) ability to correctly identify an object. Thus, different cases of the pictorial experience can be differentiated gradually and structurally rather than categorically.

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Assoc Prof Dr Egl JAKNIEN

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania


Creative Industries Strategies in Soviet Lithuania: Packages of Mass Consumption Goods

The paper explores the Soviet mechanism of including the creative potentials into formation of economical and ideological policy strategies. Research aims to examine, how mass media and culture theories by Walter Benjamins, Frankfurt school and British Culture studies reflects the situation of mass culture in soviet system. Case study developed in this paper is based on Lithuanian package design of 19601970s.

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Prof Dr Janez JUHANT

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia


Cultural Dialogue as a Possibility for Human Development

A person is a symbolic being. He / she cannot operate without the ability to express him / herself. Human language, a symbolic structure, is the means to accomplish it. Language enables a person to be open to the other and consequently to realize oneself through others. This mutual exchange allows for the implementation of cultural skills, which are requirements to communicate and to develop oneself. The human approach is a very complicated exchange of a symbolic structure. The most important part of this is not simply the exchange of words but the expression of emotional communication. Obstacles in this emotional exchange such as parental or other relational violence seriously damage peoples symbolic ability. On the other hand good communication is the foundation of a happy life for individuals and supportive for the art of life of individuals and society. Dialogical cultural exchange as a human creative process preserves humanity in its core and opens the paths of human creativity. These are the problems of todays reclamation and advertisement industries. Violent, authoritative or even totalitarian patterns hinder, if not totally prevent, normal human development. The essential remains unseen; images are necessary to see it: I am never that which others think I am and I am never there where eyes see me.

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Assoc Prof Dr Agnieka JUZEFOVI



Intercultural Influences in the Formation of Tango Music and Dance

Spread of ideas, styles, religions, technologies, languages, between different cultures is essential condition of their development and transformations. Intercultural relation may be seen in formation and development of various styles of music and dances. This presentation is focused toward topic of intercultural background of tango dance and music which has raised as a product of transcultural hybridization. How various cultures contributed to the process of formation of tango? Various scholars disagree on the topic of importance of particular influences. There are two cardinally different position about African influences according to R. H. Thomson many other authors it was essential for appearance and development of tango music and dance, which itself was an product of descendants of former black slaves. Meantime Mario Broeders and some other researchers doubt importance of black influence and argue the idea that during the process of formation of tango local black peoples already had lost their ethnical identity and considered themselves rather as any other porteos. There is no doubt that development and formation of tango music certainly was influenced by immigrants from various European countries, particularly from Italy, which were most numerous in Argentine of late 19th and early 20th sciecle. They had huge contribution on the process of formation of tango music and lyric which was enriched with sorrow, anguish and nostalgia, they also created lunfardo slang used in tango lyric. Cultural interaction became even more intensive when tango went beyond Argentina and became popular in Europe, particularly in Paris. In contemporary western word, according to Ramn Pelinski, traditional Argentinian el tango porteo is replaced by el tango nomade. Thus if during turn of 19th and 20th centuries tango raised as an product of various cultural influences, a century later tango become a particular way of life which suppose constant tango trips into various tango festivals and marathons around whole Europe. Background of tango is a dialogue without words. This suggest that famous philosopher of dialogue Martin Buber unlocked spiritual meaning of tango. Contemporary renaissance of tango is caused by its intercultural background, strong traditionalism and at the same flexible ability to develop and adapt to contemporary moods and needs.

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Prof Dr Tomas KAERAUSKAS



Two Incommensurable Discourses: Creative Industries and Culture Industry

The paper deals with an aspect of incommensurability between two akin discourses, i.e. creative industries (J. Howkins, R. Florida) and culture industry (M. Horkheimer and Th. W. Adorno, H. Marcuse). The author notices that the authors of the first one do not appeal to the authors of the latter one although the very term of creative industries has been stemmed from the term culture industry. Additionally, the discourse of creative industries is not as much sociological as euphoric while the discourse of culture industries is critical and philosophical. According to the author, the reason is not only the diet and closeness of the theorists guilds but also the competition of theoretical discourses.

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Assoc Prof Dr Branko KLUN

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia E-mail: [email protected] J.-L. Marions Creative Hermeneutics of the Visible: Between the Idol

and Icon

Jean-Luc Marion developed a phenomenology of the visible which alternates between the self-giving of visual phenomena and the receivers way of approaching and seeing them. He introduces a paradigmatic distinction between the idol, which is interpreted in a positive way within the saturated phenomenon of painting, and the icon, which is closely associated with the phenomenon of the (human) face. Whereas a painting, with its excessive visibility, triggers a creative hermeneutical process on the part of the recipient, a face sets a limit to any hermeneutical approach and, despite its visual appearance, opens up an ethical meaning beyond its visibility. This exceptional meaning can serve as an ethical criterion in the pluralism of visual interpretations which exists within intercultural dialogue. To exemplify its line of argumentation, the paper will refer to the recent tragic events at the Charlie Hebdo.

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Prof Dr Omar LAROUK

University of Lyon, France


Contribution of the Image Information of in Economic Innovation, via a Web Multicultural Media Environment

The available data are becoming ever more numerous, even superabundant, the search for useful information is necessary because we need to distinguish reliable information from the distorted information (biased) or false information (unreliable or propaganda), it must therefore hold that relationship to digital information for strategic decision making and corporate image.

The web has billions of photos, with the breakthrough digital device (camera, cell phones, camcorders, etc.). In addition, alternative publications on the web, via multicultural media (personal websites, blogs, etc.) and social networks like (Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) offer combinatorial possibilities to display images to enrich a cultural portal. As the Web becomes visual, the traditional hypertext analysis is used to load image files as image-queries. A presentation of a set of corresponding images according to their connection generates a mapping having similarity components (related images).

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MA Felipe LOZANO

MA Felipe Lozano

National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan


The Perception Process within Non-Places: A Transcultural Phenomenon across the Globe

A great part of contemporary life occurs inside non-places and being considered as sites of ephemeral access with a permanent timeless presence and a global ubiquity, it would be possible to notice how all these phenomena modify or even define the social construction of traveling. Lodging, recreation, transit, consumption, and so on, this tangle of routes and places provide comfort and services to the user, and regardless the geographical point of destination the collective experience within these non-places is juxtaposed with the particular and individual, the perception process is then staked by other contexts which are not usually found in a more familiar place; the non-place creates a decontextualized environment for those who experience it.

This research seeks to show paradoxical concepts and the spaces that characterize them; the semiotics and aesthetics of the image, the perceptual and cognitive sense of vision and the referent to urban planning and architecture. It is proposed to review these concepts as a direct reflection of social psychology and how globalized images affect the human mind through these great architectural achievements, our cities.

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Prof Dr Kstutis LUPEIKIS



Intercultural Aspects of The Minimalist Form

The architectural heritage of old cultures displays more or less open efforts to achieve perfection and harmony that conceptually may be related with various meanings of minimalism. Minimalist objectives are clearly reflected in the architectural and urban heritage of the majority of old civilizations and later epochs. The ideas of the minimum have been persistent since the dawn of civilization, irrespective of place and time. They can be related to striving for eternal values and ideals that are also reflected in the search through the epochs for clear, simple, and perfect forms, as well as ideal structures of urban geometry. The abundance of architectural objects displaying minimalist expression, their importance within a particular historical context, and the regular activation of minimalist expression in different locations testify that the distribution of minimalist values does not depend on space or time. Minimalist expression acquires various forms and is an ever changing phenomenon in the continuous process of reassessing values accompanying the development of human civilization. This is the central contention of this report. The report is also expected to discuss about variations in the concept of minimalism, place in space and time, primary manifestations and chronology, diversity of expression, geographical distribution and position in the architecture of Lithuania.

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Assoc Prof Dr Frank Thomas MEYER

Mediadesign Hochschule, Germany


In Brand We Trust: Transcultural Global Branding

By the year 2000 we were supposed to look alike and act alike: wearing Levi Strauss & Co. jeans, Lacoste (alligator) shirts, Adidas running shoes, and swatch watches while watching CNN on Samsung televisions, drinking Heineken, eating at McDonalds and singing in karaoke bars (Schneider / Barsoux 2003: 3). It has shown that it is a myth that living in a convergence culture implies that global brands dominate the world. But first it is not a one way process as brands and products themselves influence trends and cultural shifts. Second it seems to depend on the tradition of the product. Nowadays consumers easily get in touch with newer products such as Mobile devices like Samsung, Sony, and Apple Inc. or with global food brands like Frito-Lay and Red Bull. Marc de Swaan Arons and Frank van den Driest argue that the newer the product category, the greater the capacity to harmonize the mix upon launch (Swaan, Driest 2010: 5). Particularly when products have no antecedents their global success seems predestinated. In my presentation I explore the impact of brands of culture and vice versa.

In order to gain insight into the nature of brand identity and its development in the era of globalization I look through the prism of existing concepts like globalization, identity, marketing that brands are derived from existing cultural capital. The most complex impact has culture. The perception of culture means acknowledging stereotypes. One starting point could be the change in Eastern countries which not necessarily led to a embrace Western-style management and brands. Instead, the Western-style can trigger a forceful reassertion of local values and beliefs. The potential for a backlash against brands is strong, particularly when these are experienced as imposed. Brand is the sum of all experience one has with the product: product, service, tradition and culture that is behind it, insofar I am focusing on the relation between brands and culture.

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Acad Prof Dr Algis MICKNAS

Ohio University, USA


The Field of Transparent Visuality

The presentation is designed to explicate the visual and light metaphors, prevalent in analyses of visuality, including the cultural, political and advertising codes and to decipher their limitations. The latter will disclose what is transparent through them and lead to the unnoticed condition of all visuality as, in principle, formed by transparency. Examples will be taken from film, art works, political and commercial advertisements and the rhetoric of communication theories.

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MA Tomas MITKUS



Lithuanian Film Industry in 21st Century: Development Report in National and Regional Context

In this article author continues to analyses cultural and economic aspects of Lithuanian film industry in the 21st century. The article discusses the film industrys cultural, symbolic and economic capital in national context and analyzes Lithuanian film industry competitive status in the region. To achieve the study objectives and determine the viewers attitude towards the national film industry, a quantitative questionnaire survey was carried out. Questionnaire results are compared with similar questionnaire done by author in 2011. To determine industrys strengths and weakness in international film service market author compares with regional results.

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Assoc Prof Dr Laimut MONGINAIT



Peculiarities of the Sensations of the Light and the Colours

The conception and structure of the sensation. Juozas Mureika about the sensation. The nature of the phenomena of colour. The light and the colours everywhere as the environment of life of the human being. The mechanism of the seeingness of colours and its multidimentional functionality in the physiology, subconsciousness, consciousness of the human being and in cultural symbols. The light and the colours under the conditions of the sensation of the intentional beings of the beauty. The continuum of the traditional range of colours. To watch to see to empathize to understand to recognize to acknowledge the value to experience a new insight.

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Prof Dr John W. MURPHY

University of Miami, USA


Can Communities Be Seen?

Communities are understood typically in empirical terms. So-called empirical indicators are used to identify the dimensions and significance of these groups. As a consequence, they can be seen. But this outlook is called into question by recently developed community-based strategies. In short, the dualism that supports the representational thesis is undermined by community participation, and thus communities cannot be seen. New imagery must then be adopted to investigate and characterize communities. In a manner of speaking, communities can only be touched. This presentation will address how community mapping, a common practice in social planning, must be rethought in view of this tactile orientation.

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Adjunct Prof Arto MUTANEN

National Defence University, Finland


Relativity of Visual Communication

Communication is sharing and conveying information. In visual communication especially visual messages have to be formulated and interpreted. The notion of visual information presupposes well defined notions of syntax and semantics for visual language. The (linguistic) notions of syntax, semantics, and information are well defined in the philosophy of language. Visual is closely connected to vision and, more generally, to perception. We will use the logic of perception in analyzing what kinds of information we can acquire via visual communication. We will use Charles Sanders Peirces theory of signs to analyze different kinds of expressing methods needed in visual communication. Logic of perception together with the methods for expressing different kinds of information formulates the philosophical foundation of visual communication. However, at the same, these methods are human constructions which allow us to evaluate the cultural relativity of visual communication.

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Assoc Prof Dr Basia NIKIFOROVA

Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, Lithuania


The Reconceptualization of Materiality in the Brother Quay Lost Civilization World

The paper deals with the concept of the reconceptualization of materiality and matter manipulation in the Brothers Quay animation works. The matter manipulation is not limited to the actual matter. The Brothers Quay perceive the acting matters as symbols and signs of human activities and relationships. For them, there is no fundamental difference between matters and living beings inhabiting their films. In the context of globalization the Brothers Quay look on the matter manipulation as the process of machine production, reproduction, destruction, repair and deconstruction. The creation process acts as a magic spell, in which objects are transformed into something else. The Street of Crocodiles is an example of deep understanding of lifelessness as a mask, a kind of conspiracy, behind which unknown life forms hide. The Brothers Quay creative works tell us about autonomous existence of objects beyond their direct utilitarian purpose. Despite the paradox of visual embodiment, it fits into a philosophical metatheory of the new materialism, which transversely crosses streams of matter and mind, body and soul, nature and culture. The legacy of Brothers Quay open to us the world of ordinary, banal things, signs of time on their body shell, in contradiction with the dominance of endless consumption of new, intrusive advertising and cult of youth, in which there is no room for sign of the times.

The phenomenon of the impact of Bruno Schulz on the work of the Brothers Quay will analyzed from their engagement in the arts and culture of Central Europe.

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Assoc Prof Dr Robertas PUKENIS

Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania


Rellation of Romenian Law with Other Cultures in Classical Period

It is clear that Roman Empire, growing worldwide, had a contact with the cultures of other nations. From the foundation of the city of Rome in 753 B.C. to the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D., this Empire encompassed a period of 1300 years. So during this period the Roman Empire had embraced other cultures, even if it is said that the conquered Greeks had hellenized Rome. In this way the Roman Emperors used to appropriate everything what was progressive and noble of the other nations and what was suitable for the Roman law. The Feziali law was already used by the Albanian, Laurenti, Falishi, Ardeati nations. This is the most beautiful example of the notions of visuality and Empire (audi Iupiter, audite fines, audiat fas: ego sum publicus nuntius populi romani, etc.). The Feziali law existed for eight centuries, and then established the customs for contemporary international law and diplomacy. Romanians with the nations beyond the borders of the Empire were exposing by contracts: hospitium, amicitia and foedera (this means the contract form). The Romans, when occupying a new land, had not changed the customs and faith of the natives (they built a Panheon in respect for the gods of all the nations) but were supressing all the manifestations of separatism. The Romans created the legal framework for the newcomers of the foreign nations from the Empire outskirts in order to develop trade and to protect justice, i.e. ius gentium. Roman law was based on natural law and gave to humanity the unsurpassed phenomenon, i.e. Roman law, which today is dead but its concepts, logic and terms are used in the legal culture of humanity in the 21st century (for example, pacta sunt servanda, ius belum et ius pacis, etc.). Some conceps have obvious visuality because the Roman Empire cannot be described using the notions of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In Roman sense the homeland ends in the place, in which one can stop and embrace the horizon in his (her) eyes and its center is Jupiter.

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Assoc Prof Dr Edita RIAUBIEN



The Uniqueness of Images as the Assumption of Architects Creativity

Visuality is essential and inevitable for the architects creative work. Sketches and drawings fill the daily routine of architectural design. In some periods architecture was even reduced to the picture, denying its spatial nature and pragmatic purpose (Andr Charles Boulle, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Lebbeus Woods). Since New Ages the artistic creation increasingly claimed a higher inspiration, sought to personalize it, and the principles of modernity promoted visionary provisions and architectural manifestations and constantly activated architects imagination. The global world that produces and uses the infinite number of images raises the awkward task for the architect to create constantly new and original object. The imperative of innovation brings the dilemma for architect where and how to gain more new images. The study provides some insights and links to the stimulation of unique images, the visual fixation of the reflections of subconscious and imagination as the great source of architects creativity.

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MA Kastytis RUDOKAS



Visuality and Signification: Narrativistic Appraoch towards Urban Heritage Preservation

The field of cultural heritage has been lacking of comprehensive concern regarding to its fundamental meaning. Since the heritage protection has gained a status of authority in Western civilization, it focused on the exposition of authenticity material artifacts that provide historic visuality.

Narrativist approach to urban heritage field seeks to perceive the city as a spatiotemporal matrix where past-present-future constantly intersects at many notional nods. Therefore visual understand of historic buildings imposes a very narrow understand of heritage itself. Research of this presentation aims to shed light on visuality aspect of urban heritage simultaneously revealing non-linear, network based ideas of urban heritage perception.

The provision of the issue claims that urban heritage must vary according Bill Hilliers the global-local rule thus visuality has been constantly changing in terms of formal transformortion as well as the same visuality can vary due the general change of the need of society. The latter aspect of the shift is to be perceived as an interconnection of different periods of chronicle time dwelled in the local fabric of places cultural background, while the former derives from interoperability of various of outer influences.

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MA Elena SAKALAUSKAIT



Augmented Reality Art in Various Cultural Contexts

Augmented reality is one of newest contemporary media, usage of it is rapidly expanding in various spheres of life. Among them, art field is one of the most welcoming and filled with opportunities. Therefore augmented reality art differs, depending on the cultural context it has been created within. This presentation is aiming to analyze few examples of similar augmented reality artworks in various cultural contexts and to find out what particular cultural context adds to the meaning of the created artwork.

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Assoc Prof Dr Jolanta SALDUKAITYT



Encountering the Stranger

In my presentation I am going to discuss phenomenological significance of the meaning-complex stranger / alien / alterity. As depiction of strangers and aliens has a long tradition in the visual arts, literature, etc., I am going to look at how the phenomenological problem of stranger / alien might be represented.

Although even encountering the stranger might be discussed as a purely aesthesis experience, no doubt the problem of the stranger and alien reflects ethical and political issues in contemporary society. Relating this to the ethical notion of alterity in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, I am going to discuss how encounter with something different and strange foreign people, foreign cultures, foreign languages, etc. is a challenge for our own identity.

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Dr Moacir P. de S PEREIRA



Poking out Gods Eye and Touching the Spatial Turn

The postmodern freezing of history to make room for the spatial has reenergized a focus on the visual in the analysis of aesthetic in this case specifically literary objects. Texts like thoughts are mapped, and then the critic views the map, like God in Heaven, and decides the next step. But our sight has led us into an epistemological blind alley, and it is time to add other modes of feeling to our analytical tool belt. Building on an affective form of analysis that considers the contingent relationships between objects instead of the overall structure that they allegedly reveal when considered at a distance, I aim to reclaim the importance of the metonymic interaction that provides the realist novel its energy. Looking for systems is insufficient; we have to start to sense how objects join and pull away from one another. Doing so shakes us out of our centripetal critical spiral, leaving us the freedom to build new political forms.

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Dr Efim SHAPIRO (1),

Dr Natalia BABETS (2) Ural Federal University, Russia (1); Ural Federal University, Russia (2)


Yekaterinburg: Semantic Maps. The City through the Eyes of Foreigners

Yekaterinburg is gradually becoming more attractive for foreigners like the center of economic activity and business tourism, international trade, the host of different sport and art events. According to that line of development, it is obviously that our city needs to be fully represented at international media resources, which make the image of Yekaterinburg. It is made with the help of Internet, charts, journals, newspapers, TV, guide and historical books, maps and peoples opinions. We have conducted a survey among people abroad and make a conclusion that the majority of interviewers consider Yekaterinburg is the capital of constructivism art, industrial city with many factories, but the main characteristic feature is the murder of the last Russian emperor Nicholas II of Russia here. However, there are a lot of others.

The target of our research is to reveal reasons of incongruity between the image of Yekaterinburg in media and the current situation. What sources, schemes and ways of forming semantic maps of Yekaterinburg in minds of residents and city visitors.

The subject of research is features of symbolic perception of Yekaterinburg of foreign people. The object is foreigners: teachers, lecturers, students, tourists.

The issue being studied in our work is the semantics maps, overlaps in foreigners minds before and after visiting Yekaterinburg (lexical and cultural gaps, variety of matches). In the research we use the following research methods: interview, questionnaire, analysis of different sources, focus groups.

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Assoc Prof Dr Yaroslava SHEKERA

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine


Image in Poetic Works of Huang Tingjian: Hermeneutics of Hieroglyphic Text

For Western researcher the poetic world of Chinese artist is submerged in the complex of world-view and moral principles which it is possible to investigate only through the hieroglyphic text as a manifestation of this world-view. Text is the special linguistic, system-structural formation, behind the ideograms of which there are definite elements of wen-culture (). Revealing the codes of thought and world-perception of the Chinese, fixed in hieroglyphics, as well as enlightening the principles of figurative reproducing in the language of artistic picture of the world leads to understanding of the hidden sense in Chinese poetry, which, however, it is impossible to interpret in the only way because of different connotations of images and various associations, caused by the basic etymological ideas of characters. In the article it is shown in what way the idea of hieroglyph (but not its meaning) influences the figurative picture of the whole poem; in fact, there is no doubt that creation of visual image (Ezra Pound) played a leading role in formation of the Chinese culture, being closely connected with life of this nation.

Also the poem of Huang Tingjian (10451105) in ci genre on the melody of Su Zhong Qing has been analyzed; by means of etymological (language and culturological) analysis of key ideograms , and the attempt to recreate the figurative subtext of poem has been made.

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Assoc Prof Dr Liudmila STAROSTOVA (1),

Assoc Prof Dr Larisa PISKUNOVA (2) Ural Federal University, Russia (1); Ural Federal University, Russia (2)


Formation of Cross-Cultural Communication Skills by Means of Cinema

In the context of globalization the economy requires from workers not only ability to make decisions and act in the proposed circumstances, to be mobile in the perception of information, but also to match the different points of view and avoid harsh value judgments (cross-cultural competence), that means linking of the different pictures of the world. If the mosaic information environment destroys the habitual forms of mental operations, replacing them with new ones, the education is nothing to do but to understand and use the fragmented cultural field as a new communication form. Therefore, the use of screen culture products in this field is the most appropriate pedagogic device.

The purpose of the article is study of the influence of visual culture on the ways of working with information in the learning process, the identification of key skills of working with visual (screen) information and the importance of these skills in cross-cultural communication.

Our research is based on the Marshall McLuhans approach to the analysis of communication, screen communication theory (Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze), John Deweys pedagogical theory, theory of intercultural communication Edward T. Holl, Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars.

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Assoc Prof Dr Vojko STRAHOVNIK



Moral Perception, Moral Intuition, Disagreement and Dialogue

The paper deals with the notion of moral perception. Moral perception can be initially characterized as a distinctive moral response to concrete situations (as it is in a famous Gilbert Harmans case of me coming around the corner and witnessing hoodlums setting on fire a live cat, instantly seeing this as morally wrong) and non-inferential basis or justification for forming a moral judgment. Such a notion of moral perception is linked to similar notions, especially those of moral intuition, imagination, and emotion. In particular the paper focuses on moral perception and intuition as ways of attaining moral knowledge. Several dimension involved in this debate are discussed, including methodological, epistemic and structural aspects. At the end a problem of moral disagreement is discussed as an objection that is often made against our reliance on moral perception and intuition. This debate can also provide us valuable insights for intercultural conflicts and cross-cultural dialogues, which emerge from such apparent disagreement.

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Assoc Prof Dr Rok SVETLI

University of Primorska, Slovenia


The Violence as the Symptom of Weak Thinking

Central scope of this contribution is a philosophical analysis of contemporary criticism on democratic culture and human rights, especially its radical and revolutionary form. Just to mention some authors referred to: Slavoj iek, Alain Badiou, Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, Naomi Klein. Common strategy to object to the ideas of this kind is focused on its affinity to violence. The strategy of this paper is, however, different, since it aims to enter the problem-field on an entirely different level. The intention is to isolate the spiritual horizon which calls for these concepts and enables their comprehension. But to carry out this goal the philosophical analysis must leave the level of moral judgments and enter the ontological level of research. It will be shown that the militant fascination with revolution today is the symptom of the weakness of thinking, of the incapability to endure the mediations between the one and the many, between principles and reality, society and the individual, finite and infinite etc., that are relevant in democratic cultural environments.

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Assoc Prof Dr Rta ERMUKNYT

Vilnius University, Lithuania


Cultivating Visual Literacy in Teaching of History: The Example of Lithuanian History Didactics

Following independence and a new openness to foreign expertise, there has been a noticeable increase in attention paid to visual principles and methods for teaching history in Lithuania, although these were known, considered and employed to the extent possible during the Soviet period, in the interwar Lithuanian Republic and in earlier periods of Lithuanian history. Making use of current didactic history texts, educational regulations and questions of the national history proficiency examination, this research attempted to answer the following questions about the use of images: where is the educational potential of imagery perceived? What functions are assigned to imagery in history education? What suggestions are made for interpreting images? These problems dictated the structure of the presentation: it begins with a fragmentary discussion and survey of the understanding of visual aides in history didactics in interwar Lithuania and the Soviet period, then later concentrates on the current situation. The main focus is on the declared adoption of an educational model based on history sources, rethinking the functions of illustrations in textbooks and an analysis of the states history proficiency examination, which hopefully provide greater insight into the real rather than the declarative nature of the use of imagery in the history education process. Analysis of the latter leads to the conclusion that the adoption of an education model for the teaching of history based on visual sources is not an accomplished fact, but a continuing process.

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Prof Dr Vytis VALATKA



Temperance as Remedy: Dialogue between Ancient Greek Cynicism and Contemporary Civilization

Ancient Greek Cynics earned fame mostly because of the first in the history of Western thought ethical uprising against civilization and its morality. According to Cynics, that morality annihilates the natural temperance and substitutes it with extremely pernicious principal surplus of pleasures. The latter finally leads to the state of internal chaos, permanent fear and anxiety. The only possible remedy for that fatal illness is nothing but return to the natural radical temperance the ultimate restriction of human needs.

The cult of pleasures is also an evident global disease of contemporary consumer civilization. Nevertheless, radical remedy proposed by Ancient Cynics would not suit nowadays. Yet, the mild temperance, which could be defined as the sense of proportion in everything, could contribute to mitigate the eternal malady of civilization. Thus the image of temperance as remedy may start the dialogue between two allegedly incompatible opponents Ancient Greek Cynicism and contemporary consumer civilization.

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Assoc Prof Dr Pao-Hsiang WANG

National Taiwan University, Taiwan


Regime of Visuality in L. Kirkwoods Chimerica

Western perception of Asia has been predominantly informed by a visual regime constructed by Orientalist, often gendered fantasies. As theorists from Edward Said to Rey Chow have pointed out, imagery of Asia as a realm of passive pleasure is constructed and conceived as much as perceived. In the overwhelmingly feminized images of the exotic Orient, Asian men are often eclipsed or eliminated. The relatively recent attention turned on Asian man in the era of photojournalism, however, beginning with the onset of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, particularly when the picture of a Vietnamese monk set on fire shocked the world, deserves closer critical attention. I propose to use Lucy Kirkwoods critically acclaimed play premiered in London in 2013, Chimerica, as an example to explore how the striking image of a man standing alone facing an array of tanks barging into the Tiananmen Square in 1989 could become an icon of heroic revolt against totalitarianism, and how the iconic image plays into the visual conventions of Western imagination not only of heroism in general but also of Asian man as an anonymous doomed anti-hero in particular.

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MA Ewa WYLEK

University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland


The Intercultural Value of the Underground Art

Undoubtedly, the era we live in is dominated by images. Whether it is a photo on a social network, a picture sent to a friend a second after it had been taken, or a ubiquitous selfie one cannot deny the importance of visual communication. However, what sometimes may escape ones attention is the fact that imagery that surrounds us would have not satisfied a traditional art critic. Therefore, in my paper I wish to analyze the departure from once was described by an English cultural critic Matthew Arnold as sweetness and light to an entire new realm of visual message. My way of seeing visual communication is that it bridges cultures precisely because it belongs to what is no longer harmonious, proportional, light and sweet. An example of such a bridge between cultures and states of mind is to be found in works in Kehinde Wiley whose Nigerian origins, American upbringing, and wide knowledge of European history create a powerful cross-cultural bond. Living in multicultural media environment he produces works that question the notions of Arnoldian understanding of art. Wileys art proves that the history of European imagery has been mostly a history of a white male. This however has changed as this artist tries to resolve the tension and neglect that has been taking place throughout art history. Even though he uses recognizable symbols of Old Masters, I argue that he moves in new discourse, that of post-colonial and intercultural field.

As far as my methodological tools are concerned, I will be referring to Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin as their standings will support my inquiry into the visuality and communication.

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MA Evija ZAA

University of Latvia, Latvia

Email: [email protected]

Common Dreams of Global Cities in the Images

Images have always been an important part of city planning current images of place, images with planned improvements, maps and sketches. Some time ago all that was a private property of stakeholders like planer and client.

But nowadays this confidentiality rather much has vanished no copyrights or competition is noteworthy. Plans do not have their privacy anymore. They became available for anyone who is interested in. And it happens even before the project has started. In my presentation I will try to find out why city planners share the images of their ideas, of their dreams in public (mostly in blogs and social networks) why it is important for them and what kind of feedback they are waiting for. Is it a wish to find out the opinion of others? Do they want to demonstrate their skills and knowledge to others? Or do they want to share with their dreams of better places so the others could also have the same dream, same ideas about what good place should look like?

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Assoc Prof Dr Bojan ALEC



(Inter-Cultural) Communication in the Age of Technical Images

The work of Vilm Flusser forms the starting point and the main frame of reference of this paper. He developed a fruitful narrative about human development based on a general analysis of cultural and media techniques with the following paradigm shifts: a two-dimensional, magic based pictorial culture, a linear text based alphabetic culture, and the culture of technical images of the post-historical period (photography, film, video, computer graphics, holography and virtual reality). He outlined a utopian society which allows to net-dialogue and in which individuals can establish a non-coercive relationship of mutual respect. The author critically reflects on Flussers theory, on the potentials and limitations of technical images, and points to relevant implications of the theory. He investigates it in relation to (understanding and improving of) the inter-cultural understanding, communication and dialogue.

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PUBLICATIONS

Presented and prepared papers will be published in Vilnius Gediminas Technical University research journals Creativity Studies and Coactivity: Philosophy, Communication.

Editorial correspondence should be addressed to Jovil Bareviit Managing Editor of Creativity Studies and Coactivity: Philosophy, Communication Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Saultekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania E-mail: [email protected]

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NOTES

visuality 2015: intercultural creative discourses

Documents

dr moacir

prof dr arnas augustinaitis

assoc prof dr vaida

prof dr vytis valatka

assoc prof dr laimut

assoc prof dr basia

acad prof dr algis micknas

prof dr habil valdas