Pilsētas semiotika. Telpa
Semiotics of the City. Space

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to a special theoretical consideration of the city that arises from viewing the city as a semiotic phenomenon. The semiotic interpretation of the city allows for, in principle, three possibilities: the city as space, the city as language, and the city as text (within the tradition of borrowing and reevaluating concepts). In this article, preference is given to the spatial consideration of the problem which in feturn is based on the hypothesis that the city is formed as a space and that it is considered, understood and used as a system of parallel functioning of verbal and nonverbal meanings. The time factor is relevant to its perception and use, while the //loss,/ of time is of most importance for understanding space, which shows a certain degree of non-temporality in all space descriptions. The structure of verbal descriptions of the city arises mainly from movements in the space of the city, which they represent, whereas their consequences arise as time-losing abstractions. In this way, the propositions which describe space are gradually reduced to names, thus leading to an explanation of space that often makes the space of the city hard to understand. Since all systems of signs in the city depend on general principles, the systems of describing the city become their objects in the descriptions of the city - leading to a false conception that they belong to the phenomenon (the city).

• Details
• Contents