Tomsk. An image of the town based on a handy sketchbook

Abstract

Text concerns on visual dimension of urban space. It's based on analyses of historical and contemporary processes and phenomena shaping that space. The main topic is urban landscape of Tomsk (Russia). Nevertheless, the article contains a theoretical and methodological proposal that connects anthropological-semiotic approach with the idea of presenting various urban aesthetics of the city in context of relations between systems of values and political and economic disputes over the urban space. It's reflection on patterns of behaviour, norms, beliefs, expectations and needs of citizens. For author, city is not only a physical place structured by material objects but also as a human communicative environment - semiotically and axiologically marked space, which reflects the position of a human being as a cultural subject initiating the cultural activity. On example of wooden buildings, he shows relationship between the sociocultural and architectural complexes. The author analysed architecture and architectural environment of the city as a text (semiotic construct), which manifests different types of lifestyle, aesthetic preferences, modernisation projects, ambitions of power, political strategies. He is particularly interested in the transformation of “reality” - the impact of urban texts on the perception of space and thinking about space (also in dimension of community and social differences).