Visual semiotics of city identity

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the visual semiotic aspects of city identity. The relevance of research on city identity is justified by its direct impact on migration patterns and migration behavior of citizens. The city identity contains a person's stable image of himself as a resident of a certain city, fixes the citizen's emotional and value attitudes to the history and culture of the city, to the city community, influences the individual's self-esteem and his productive activities. The purpose of the article is to analyze the visual semiotic aspects of city identity. The article solves a number of research problems: first, the structure of city identity is theoretically described; secondly, the structural interconnection of city identity components is shown; thirdly, the visual semiotic aspects are highlighted in each component of city identity; fourthly, the influence of the affective and value-semantic component of city identity on the migration attitudes of the practical component is demonstrated. The structure of city identity consists of cognitive, affective, value-semantic and practical components. The cognitive component contains a complex of objective ideas about the city in which a person lives, about the factors affecting the conditions and quality of life in the city. The visualization of these representations is reflected in geographical maps, graphs, charts, tables. In the affective component of city identity, an emotional and sensual perception of the city by man takes place. The ability of a city to generate experiences depends on its history, culture, architecture. The ability of a person to experience the city is brought up. The visual semiotic aspect of the affective component is represented by the appearance of the city, it depends on the complexity of the architectural images, it is comprehended by a person while mastering the skills of visual communication. The positive and negative emotions affect the attitudes of the practical component of city identity. The value-semantic component of city identity serves as a form of harmonization of people's ideas about the city, expressed in objectified forms of urban culture. The practical component of city identity directly influences the strategy of a citizen's life choice. The specificity of the visual semiotic aspects of city identity is illustrated by examples from the classic works of domestic and foreign researchers of urban culture, as well as specific examples of the everyday urban life of Omsk over two decades of the 21st century. The article identifies the reasons for the formation of a negative city identity of Omsk residents. The results can be a direction for further research on positive and negative city identity. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using by theorists and practitioners of urban development the ideas about the influence of city identity on the migration behavior of citizens.