No 1 (2025)
ARTICLES
Navigation signs as a textbook element: Pedagogical experiments of visual semiotics
Abstract
The introduction to the article presents the context in which data from a series of pedagogical experiments was generalized. This context consisted of the characteristics of “forced symbolism” and the rupture of “subject-to-subject” communication. Both characteristics were the result of applying the concept of “semiotic diagnostics” (Irina V. Melik-Gaikazyan). The next section of the article, “Visual Arguments for Setting the Research Problem,” discusses the concept of “visual literacy” (John L. Debes) and analyzes the visual representations of primary school students (grades 1–4) and 5th-graders based on their drawings. Collages made from these drawings are presented (“Filimonovskaya Toy,” “Dove of Peace,” “Motherhood,” “Gzhel”). It is concluded that, firstly, by grade 5, children studying in regular schools lose interest in drawing. Secondly, in the 5th grade, children independently master digital methods of combining and/or reduplicating visual samples, which specifically demonstrates the effect of “forced symbolism.” The “Materials and Methods” section provides characteristics of the series of pedagogical experiments. The experiment participants were 5th grade students. A set of symbols in a specific school textbook became the object of the study, and the nature of decoding navigation signs became irs focus. The series consisted of two stages of a didactic experiment; a creative experiment (the name of this experiment records the manifestation of students’ creative abilities); two stages of a verification experiment. By groups of participants, the series of experiments is divided into didactic and creative experiments, in which participants from a specific school took part, and a verification experiment, in which schoolchildren from other schools took part. The stages of the didactic and verification experiments are similar in methods. At the first stage, schoolchildren were offered open-ended questions, and at the second stage, closed-ended questions with answer options. The questions were aimed at establishing the possibility of decoding navigation signs in a specific Russian language textbook (published by Mektep). Out of ten navigation signs, four signs were not decoded during the didactic experiment (“Listen,” “Speak,” “Learn the theory,” and “Work with the word”). In the creative experiment, children were asked to create a visual sign about these educational activities themselves. The content of the “Research Results” section consisted of, firstly, navigation signs for four educational activities developed by the authors (based on the visualized ideas of students); secondly, a generalization of the verification experiment results (the new signs “Listen” and “Speak” acquired didactic efficiency, and the new signs “Learn the theory” and “Work with the word” did not, since the students did not understand the content of the formulations for these educational activities). A comparison of experimental data with theoretical results of visual semiotics achieved in recent years served for a number of conclusions. The semiotic diagnostics of symbols in a specific textbook helps to identify the need to modify the formulations of naming educational activities. This circumstance demonstrates the potential of visual semiotics, which allows us to draw conclusions about the didactic effectiveness of the entire textbook based on the corresponding diagnostics of its visualized part. It was established that, firstly, the involvement of schoolchildren, implemented in the course of a creative experiment, in the modification of navigation signs serves to identify those problem areas that require methodological reflection. Secondly, this involvement becomes a way to clarify schoolchildren’s visualized ideas, which serves both to determine the directions of the formation of types of visual literacy and to respond to changing social requirements for educational results. The need for a new scientific and practical direction is established: didactic visual semiotics.
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025;(1):9-37
9-37
Children and childhood in the school drama of the Reformation
Abstract
The article provides a rationale for setting the research objective: to observe the change in the semiotic parameters of the image of childhood based on a comparison of school drama of the Reformation era and illustrative material accompanying these texts. The material was the dramas of Sixtus Birck, Paul Rebhun, Joachim Greff, Theodor de Beza, Georg Rollenhagen, Melchior Neukirch, and Hermann Haberer. In the article, this material is presented in a table, which reflects two circumstances. Firstly, the table was intended to clearly express the volume of the studied material, on the basis of which the observation was conducted. The inaccessibility of these sources is obvious, which has an independent significance for the assessment of the observation results. Of interest is the style of the full titles of the sources. From these full titles, the composition of the plots (including repeated plots) intended for school productions is clear, and, consequently, the direction of the confessional edification is clear. Secondly, the table plays the role of a guide to the space of the material, since when analyzing its specific fragments, references to its content are given, which explains the arrangement of the authors listed in it in the sequence of the Russian alphabet, and not in the chronology of the sources, which would be more consistent with historical research. During the analysis, the author makes a number of observations. Firstly, she shows that the image of a loving family was typical for visual didactics of the Reformation era. A frequent motif is the stages of children’s growing up and the role of parents in raising and caring for children. Secondly, having examined the stage images of children in the context of school theatrical practice, conclusions were made about which students took part in the productions. Graduates of the second stage of education (Latin gymnasiums) played the roles of the main characters, youth and adults, i.e. mature people. For secondary roles, younger students were involved, including primary school boys and girls. They also played the roles of children, and the observation establishes that children’s characters were presented at different ages. From this, a conclusion was made that the goal of educators of the Reformation era was to involve the maximum number of children in theatrical practices and give students feasible age-related tasks. Thirdly, episodes with the participation of children were considered in the context of children’s didactic literature. While agreeing on the general messages of the instruction addressed to children, the authors of biblical dramas were very limited by the source material, but tried to point out the consequences of certain actions in their instruction. Of the entire corpus of analyzed texts, the episode about the conflict between two boys from the drama Abraham by Hermann Haberer stands out. This work overcomes the dry didacticism characteristic of the didactic literature of that time, which makes it possible to compare Haberer’s text with the texts of children’s literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. The results of the observations were (1) semantic elements of children’s images; (2) components of syntax in children’s imagery; (3) the pragmatic component of the image of children that is subordinated to the content of edifications and instructions, which concerned the actions being performed and their consequences that occur for a person in their earthly future. When discussing the results of the observations, the author established that the representation of childhood in the school dramas of the Reformation era was associated with a change in the image of the future, which began to symbolize the near future. This brought closer the onset of the consequences of the actions being performed, which became the content of the instruction in the texts of school dramas. The author suggests that the study presented in this article will serve as material for clarifying the relationship between images of the future and images of childhood by semiotic means. In general, the conducted analysis, based on a comparison of textual and visual sources, allows seeing the multifaceted nature of children’s discourse in the era of the Reformation, observing the emergence of the need for a warm and caring attitude towards children as a moral norm, discerning the formation of pedagogical thought and age-related pedagogy and, finally, evaluating the artistic quality of works for children’s reading.
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025;(1):38-69
38-69
The semiotics of the letter in contemporary art: Typographic biohacking by Oded Ezer
Abstract
The work of a contemporary artist with fonts cannot be interpreted only on the basis of the traditions the artist refers. It is necessary to study actors who actualize traditions. The font, being a design element, in art can acquire the meaning of a bodily code that determines bodily reactions to social memory. The article examines the projects of one of the world’s leading media artists working with fonts. It is demonstrated that the semiotics of the textual sign can be supplemented by the premises and conclusions of Bruno Latour’s actor–network theory. The actor–network theory insists on the instability of systems and on the compensatory function of the body: the body is not some basis of experience or observation, but one of the factors of the presence of action, which makes it necessary to keep the system in a mobile equilibrium. The body participates in, rather than cognizes, a system of relations between cognizing and cognizable things networked together. Oded Ezer’s case study examines the implantation of the script in cultural memory, made possible by the development of media in art. Oded Ezer, although drawing on the traditions of the Jewish mysticism of the letter and the achievements of contemporary media art, understands the letter as a multiple authorized element embedded in networks of perception, both everyday and specialized. The plasticity of the works brings everyday optics closer to the optics of specialized practices, primarily medical, which engage different things as equals inside networked interactions to ensure a sustainable equilibrium of production. In this way, the actor–network theory proves productive for interpreting art that is neither reducible to science art nor to a reflection on the past. Ezer’s work needs to be reconstructed rather than interpreted, drawing on the advances of the actor–network theory and the critical study of self-presentation. The body proves to be the most malleable actor in the network, allowing us to identify gaze and memory, touch and action. Ezer’s work is not merely performative; it brings together different forms of participation, and thus its effect can be labeled as a typographic metaperformativity that incorporates natural objects as well. Ezer’s self-disclosure of the method is carried out in his work on the legacy of Franz Kafka, abandoning interpretation in favor of endowing Kafka’s metamorphoses with a new sense of biohacking in which human and non-human agents participate. Kafka’s hero turns out to be not just the author of fate, but the author of books and the creator of the mode of book production; i.e., the method associated with the actor–network theory is reproduced in the semiotic expressiveness of this work.
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025;(1):70-92
70-92
Increasing the educational potential of children with autism spectrum disorders: Overcoming semantic-pragmatic speech disorders
Abstract
The study was preceded by the following interpretation of the problem. For children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), verbal language is either not a means of communication or is not the preferred language of communication, but other languages (visual, mathematics or music) perform this function, so the task of mastering verbal language is similar to mastering mathematics or music by children who do not have inclinations and abilities for them. A study was conducted on the use of methods implemented in work with children in some cities of Belarus and Russia. The aim of the study was to organize the methods at three levels: a characterization of speech disorders, effectiveness of methods for diagnosing speech disorders, a combination of methods for increasing the educational potential of children with ASD. The first level of organization was based on the analysis of heterogeneous conclusions of psychological and semiotic theories that concern the production and perception of speech. The result was the establishment of the main communicative deficits caused by the difficulty for children with ASD to recognize the context of a communicative situation. The authors assessed this conclusion as the basis for the relevance of combining the contextual and semiotic approaches to their study (the semiotic approach was implemented in the conceptual version of “semiotic diagnostics”). The second level of ordering was carried out when assessing the effectiveness of diagnostic methods, which is presented in the article in tabular forms (1.1–1.2). The results of the undertaken ordering were the identification of the main attitudes in the organization of the educational environment for children with ASD: “communicative development”, “social integration” and “cognitive formation”. The relationship and interdependence of these areas allowed for another ordering of the methods (the result is presented in the article in tables 2.1–2.3). Conclusions are made about the deficiencies in the organization of the educational environment for children with ASD and, consequently, about the need to replenish these deficiencies. This replenishment is possible based on the application of the methodology of visual semiotics, and specifically the procedures of “semiotic diagnostics”, which will allow (1) broader use of visualizations in correctional practice; (2) flexible application of methods, since each child with ASD is unique; (3) implementation of “pedagogical bioethics” initiatives relevant to the uniqueness of such children.
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025;(1):93-116
93-116
“Cancel culture” and family values: A prospect for the interpretation of visual effects and a methodology for their analysis
Abstract
The article analyzes the potential and prospects of “cancel culture” in assessing the place and role of family values in modern society and proposes a version for developing a methodology for their research. To solve this problem, the results achieved in the research and journalistic literature in the discussion and understanding of this rather controversial topic were characterized. It is assumed that the basic target of “cancel culture” is the recovery of violated social justice, namely, in the form of sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, racism, bullying and certain forms of harassment, in relation to objects that are not capable of resistance for one reason or another; the object is, as a rule, significant persons, their statements or actions, or certain sociocultural products; and the tools of implementation are certain forms of disapproval used, according to supporters of “canceling”, due to the ineffectiveness of traditional mechanisms. Based on the results of the analysis, an assessment was made of critical arguments made on “cancel culture” in mostly journalistic literature. The thesis about the suppression of freedom of speech as an essential characteristic of “canceling” is called into question. The predominance of a critical attitude, also characteristic of Russian authors, prompted a closer analysis of texts with a positive assessment, and the conclusions that are drawn in them. It is argued that the key purpose of “cancel culture” is rather to create a sense of responsibility. Based on the understanding of the texts, a theoretical and methodological framework was developed that could become productive in characterizing both “cancel culture” and objects that are or can be canceled. In particular, a methodology is proposed for assessing objects’ symbolic status and interpretation. It is argued that it is based on an interpretation of the movement of modern society towards increased diversity, which implies a refusal to apply unified interpretations and explanations to its different segments. As a result, an attempt was made to apply the results obtained to the analysis of “family values” by thematizing them in specific historical and social conditions, which made it possible to develop a methodology for their analysis, in particular, in the direction of defining and selecting indicators of these concepts for subsequent empirical research. It is concluded that even the preservation of the traditional set of such values suggests that they can (a) have different significance and different values for different individuals; (b) have different interpretations, the most typical versions of which should be reflected; (c) give rise to various and, above all, negative consequences; (d) assume a different normative ideal in the interpretation of the so-called “good family”.
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025;(1):117-137
117-137
OPEN LECTURE
Taxonomy for the non-material experiment
Abstract
The article examines the epistemological relations between the classical laboratory experiment, the thought experiment, and the computational experiment. In the context of the modern history of the philosophy and methodology of science from positivism to the so-called experimental turn and contemporary discussions of immaterial experiments, the question of the epistemological similarities and differences between material, thought, and computational experiments is raised, as well as the methodological specificity of the experiment as a concrete scientific method and a generic concept for this controversial, but de facto used taxonomy. A common feature of all quasi-experimental methods in scientific knowledge is their semiotic function as a means of ensuring objectivity, giving meaning to the formal structures of knowledge. The first section examines the so-called “experimental turn” in the philosophy of science, associated with the works of the Stanford School and the transition from understanding the experiment as “simply” armed observation to its interpretation as a practice of active intervention in reality and the producing of facts. The moment of “spontaneous realism” in experimental science and the presence, as noted by Ian Hacking, of a “life of their own” for experimental practices and the facts reproduced in them are emphasized. The second section is devoted to the epistemology of thought experiments. The arguments in favor of denying thought experiments’ “experimental nature” and recognizing them as a type of theoretical models that deal exclusively with logical consequences and logical integrity (consistency) of a theory are critically examined. Using the example of the EPR paradox and related plots in history of physics, the ability of thought experiments to create new knowledge and “live a life of their own” is emphasized, i.e., an ability to reproduce in different theoretical contexts and to give different results rather than only those supposedly fixed once and for all by their logical structure. The third section emphasizes that computational experiments and digital simulations are similar to thought experiments in their “immateriality”, but differ in the cognitive infrastructure used and in the transparency of obtaining results. While a thought experiment relies on the work of the imagination and provides the immediate clarity of obtaining a result, a computer simulation uses an “external” computational infrastructure and, due to the high complexity of models and calculations, makes the origin of specific observed results opaque to the researcher, which makes simulations closer to classical laboratory experiments. At the same time, the ability of modern computer simulations to model empirically non-existent objects, giving them observability, and to produce different results in different iterations emphasizes their methodological “experimentality” as sources of new quasi-empirical data. In conclusion, it is noted that a productive solution to the “taxonomic confusion” is the recognition of the essential epistemological kinship of material, thought and computational experiments, despite the exact degree of closeness has yet to be clarified. The presented material is intended for the lecture part of the courses Philosophy and Methodology of Science and Modeling, Forecasting and Expertise in Scientific Activity (taught, respectively, in semesters 3–4 and 7–8 to undergraduate students of Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Faculty of Philosophy), and is completely given by the authors within the framework of the course Experimental Practices in the Methodology of Social Sciences (Master's degree program of the Faculty of Philosophy).
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025;(1):138-167
138-167
ESSAY
The frontispiece of Leviathan as a visual source of interpretation of Thomas Hobbes’ ideas on demonology
Abstract
The frontispiece of Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil (painted by the French engraver Abraham Bosse in 1651 in collaboration with Thomas Hobbes) is an important component of the political work. The figure of a “huge man” holding a sword and a bishop’s staff marks the identity of secular and spiritual authority. The richness of Hobbes’ work and the multitude of themes it contains force us to turn to the frontispiece as a visual source. This paper is particularly interested in Hobbes's demonology. The choice of this theme is explained by the reference to the context and the work of the English philosopher himself. In terms of the context, the seventeenth century appears as the historical period which unfolds the debate about demonology in England. From the point of view of the text, it is confirmed that the work is structured in such a way that Hobbes transitions from the themes of human nature, politics and theology to a critical dissection of demonological views. The relationship between demonology and the frontispiece is contradictory. On the one hand, the image of Leviathan is associated with demonology. On the other hand, the image of the “huge man” does not contain explicit references to demonology. In order to reconcile this contradiction, I identify the main interpretative aspects of the frontispiece. First of all, it is necessary to understand how the frontispiece outlines Hobbes’s political model. I further turn to the topic of images in Hobbes’ works to highlight their main functions within political philosophy. Finally, building on the previous tasks, I identify the interpretive aspects of the frontispiece in relation to demonology. The main visual components of the frontispiece are the reference to a verse from the Old Testament, more specifically the Book of Job, the symbols of secular and spiritual authority (sword and bishop’s staff), and the people who make up the body of the “huge man” (“μάκρος ἄνθρωπος’”). Thus, the image of Leviathan reflects the main points of Hobbes’ text about the assembly of citizens to conclude a social contract. The ecclesiastical symbolism of the image creates a sense of Leviathan’s power through rights such as excommunication. It is noticed that people turn their gaze to the face of Leviathan (sovereign), to whom they owe the coming of peace and protection. The concentration of the gaze on the sovereign also demonstrates the psychological nature in the civil state. Further, I note that the image carries the functions of remembering, honouring and arousing fear of violent death. I show that one of the visual components of the frontispiece is the set included in the body of Leviathan. This component is associated with the demonological logic about the plurality of the devil, which does not have a single face. A curious point is that humans look at Leviathan through his eyes and are supposed see a world devoid of supernatural entities. As a result, we wonder: could the image of Leviathan be used against Hobbes’ political conception, given the polysemantic nature of the frontispiece?
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025;(1):168-180
168-180
BOOK REVIEWS
Video games in a multimodal perspective (Reflections on Multimodal semiotics and rhetoric in videogames by Jason Hawreliak)
Abstract
Video games, which create and convey meanings through complex semiotic ensembles, are one of the most multimodal media. However, the multimodal methodology per se is hardly ever used in the analysis of video games in the Russian game studies discourse. The article aims to introduce a multimodal approach to the Russian game studies discourse by presenting the key ideas and conclusions of Jason Hawreliak’s book Multimodal Semiotics and Rhetoric in Videogames. The work of the Canadian media semiotician seeks to solve two major problems: firstly, the development and explication of a theoretical approach to the semiotic definition of video games through the prism of multimodality and rhetorical analysis; secondly, the creation of a theoretical basis for a deep, sustainable dialogue between game studies and cognitive linguistics based on multimodality as a common denominator. Methodologically, Hawreliak uses an approach to multimodality based on discourse analysis and social semiotics. Structurally, Hawreliak’s monograph comprises three parts. The first part considers specific types of semiotic modalities realised in videogame media texts. Hawreliak pays special attention to the explication of procedurality as a particular semiotic mode of video games. Here the author refers to the book Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace by Janet Murray, which adds novelty to the explication of the language of procedurality. Murray’s work still has heuristic value, containing a number of original insights about the dynamic interplay between cybertext and the process of its reading within the consolidating contour of language. Therefore, its rediscovery in the monograph by Hawreliak is important for contemporary media discourse. In addition, the Canadian media semiotician identifies the non-sensory nature of procedurality as the main factor accounting for its being underexplored within the framework of multimodal studies. The second part of the monograph investigates various modal configurations that result from combining different kinds of semiotic modes of video games. Hawreliak studies the phenomenon of multimodal consonance, i.e. the form of a special organisation of semiotic modes within a single ensemble, when they enhance each other’s influence, creating the effect of “rhetorical multiplication”. He introduces into modal consonance the element of user experience, which turns out to be a factor and the most important constituent of the “empirical rhetoric” of video games. Hawreliak expounds the mechanism of phenomenological persuasion in the video game space through the convergence of semiotic modes. The author proposes changing the traditionally negative understanding of game dissonances. He introduces the concept of “modal irony”, demonstrating how it contributes to the formation of new game options for the user through “positive tension”. In the final part of the book, the author empirically proves that video games are unstable semiotic objects. In the final chapter, which is predictive in character, Hawreliak models hypothetical scenarios of possible convergences of multimodality and promising technologies capable of creating new elements of the semiotic design of video games. In terms of style, the work strikes a good balance between comprehensibility and academic rigour. Hopefully, the consideration of multimodality in video games through the analysis of Hawreliak’s book Multimodal Semiotics and Rhetoric in Videogames will contribute to the practical convergence of game studies and multimodal studies.
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025;(1):181-199
181-199