PRACTICES of VISUALIZING NARRATIVES of the CITY’S CULTURAL MEMORY: The CITY’S BRAND AS A MYTH

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of practices of visualizing narratives of the city’s cultural memory on the example of the analysis of brand as a myth. The relevance of the research on the practices of visualizing narratives of the city’s cultural memory is confirmed by the increased scientific interest in the phenomena that symbolically determine the urban reality, as well as by the episodic nature of research related to the study of the city’s cultural memory. According to the author, narratives that represent the symbolic repertoire of fragments of the city’s cultural memory play a special role in the processes of representation of images of the city’s past. In this regard, the city brand is considered as a myth that conveys and supports the idea of the city for various audiences through the accessible symbolism of visual forms, evoking stable associations that identify the city through cultural meanings. Considering three levels of the narrative, the author reveals various aspects of the brand-myth functioning in the urban environment: a) the formation of a stable identification of the place and its “distinctiveness”, b) the construction of a cultural collage, parts of which form coherent texts of the city in chronology and in space, с) the implementation of social practices aimed at the reflection and interpretation of the brand idea. Since the narrative text assumes the presence of semantic sequences, the brand idea should be presented in the urban reality by regularly deciphering the meanings embedded in the brand. As an illustration of the proposed theses, the author refers to three types of city branding practices that visually manifest different ways of place uniqueness: the brand myth of the city, based (1) on folk crafts and cultural traditions, (2) on historical events, and (3) on the sacred meanings of nature. The symbolic nature of myth allows considering the city brand as one of the practices of visualizing narratives that construct urban reality through images of the city’s cultural memory. The visual media of the urban myth represent one of the modern ways of representing the narrative, which, using accessible forms, “packs” complex meanings of the city’s cultural memory into simple forms understandable for most people. Meanwhile, the mythological nature of the brand makes it a powerful determinant of structuring cultural meanings and therefore a factor in constructing urban reality. The author states that brand should be considered not only as a means of increasing the attractiveness of the place, but as a tool of understanding the city for citizens. In this regard, city branding is one of the directions of the symbolic policy of regional elites.