A visual text of an Arctic city: analysis methods and interpretation options

The study is devoted to the consideration of a city as a semiotic phenomenon and the identification of specifics of visual signs and sign systems that form it. Its relevance is caused by the need to use a humanitarian research of a city, especially on strategically important northern territories. A visual text of a city is considered in several aspects: the meaning of individual signs (a semantic analysis), principles of connecting signs into systems of various levels (a syntactic analysis), the interaction of signs with a perceiving subject (a pragmatic analysis). A pragmatic analysis of a visual text of a city is presented in the case of Murmansk. Described interpretation options of a visual text are based on answers of informants to the questionnaire developed as a part of the project ‘The Creative City - the Territory of Development’ of Murmansk Arctic State University. As a result of the survey, recommendations are formulated about the formation of an architectural and artistic appearance of this city. The scientific novelty of the study consists in applying the methodology of a semiotic analysis to a visual text of Murmansk. The theoretical significance lies in the possibility of using these methods in relation to visual texts of other cities.