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Introduction: Translation and transformation in audiovisual and digital culture

Author(s): Evangelos Kourdis,Kristian Bankov / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: Translation; Transformation; Audiovisual Culture; Digital Culture

The contributions to this volume of Digital Age in Semiotics and Communication deal with various translation phenomena such as intermediality, film adaptation, film colorization, remediation and various technospheric phenomena such as cinefication, audiovisual and digital mass culture, digital transformation, cyberspace, and digital image. The first group of articles shows that those phenomena are characteristics of a rich interesemiotic space. As Torop (2020: 269) states, “in intersemiotic space, the original text and all of its translations comprise a mental whole, which is all-encompassing for collective cultural memory and selective for every individual reader. In the context of culture, intersemiotic space is also a space of transmedial translation”. The new cultural texts (metatexts) resulting from intersemiosis is expected to carry additional connotations1, a characteristic of particular semiotic interest. The second group of articles reveals the advantages of the semiosphere of digital culture. As Bankov (2022: 26) highlights, “in digital culture, language is no longer the lord of semiotic phenomena; the latter is the communicative disposition of the culture holders. The language is there, together with an incredible variety of visual, audio, kinetic and other expressive forms”. A significant innovation is that other expressive forms could also be interactive.2 Τhis interaction seems to be the essential different characteristic in relation to the study of other cultural texts, an element that justifies the use of the term platfospehere in the context of the semiosphere.3

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Intermediality in contemporary avant-garde cinema: Blurring media boundaries in Jean-Luc Godard’s films

Author(s): Loukia Kostopoulou / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: intermediality; avant-garde cinema; Jean-Luc Godard; Film Socialisme; First Name Carmen

Drawing on the premises of avant-garde cinema (experimentation, transformation, liminality), this paper seeks to examine how intermediality functions as a form of experimentation in contemporary avant-garde cinema. It also bring new insights regarding the nature of the medium and the impact on the spectator. Examples will be drawn from Jean-Luc Godard’s films First Name: Carmen (1983) and Film Socialisme (2010).

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The cinefication of museums: from exhibitions to films. The case of Tate Modern

Author(s): Aluminé Rosso / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: modern art museums; museums communication; semiotics of space; contemporary art exhibitions; cinema; cultural industries; exhibitions trailers

Since the end of the 20th century, museum institutions have been adopting the logic of communication, promotion, and administration typical of cultural industries, mainly Cinema. In 1994, Andreas Huyssen argued that the museum, as an elitist place of preservation of canon and high culture, gave way to the museum as a mass medium. Cinema became the paradigm of contemporary cultural activities whose new exhibition practices respond to the changing expectations of the public and their constant search for stellar events.This process is evident in the increasing use of banners, marquees, and all manner of resources aimed at promoting the temporary exhibitions gaining their place as the main attractions of art museums. Moreover, with the advent of social media, the phenomenon of cinefication of the museum has accelerated. Exhibitions are now titled, conceived, promoted, and distributed as films, while artists, adorned by the figure of the genius, are presented as parts of the art history star system.In order to highlight this phenomenon, we present an analysis of the programming and promotion of temporary exhibitions at Tate Modern, the paradigm of 21st-century museums. This institution not only titles its exhibitions in a cinematographic manner but also produces trailers and posts them on its website and social media. Our work focuses on one exhibition in particular: Picasso 1932, Love, Fame, Tragedy. To this end we observed both the curatorial discourse and the communication strategies applied by Tate. This paper is part of a research project that includes MoMA, Malba, Centre Pompidou, and Reina Sofia. The study of this phenomenon will provide an overview of the epochal style of modern art museums in the conception and communication of modern and contemporary art exhibitions.

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RRemediating fantasy narratives for participatory fandom: Tolkien’s stories and their translations in films, video games, music and other products of the culture industries

Remediating fantasy narratives for participatory fandom: Tolkien’s stories and their translations in films, video games, music and other products of the culture industries

Author(s): Eirini Papadaki,Nestoras Volakis / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: Lord of the Rings (LOTR); Tolkien; translation; transmediality; francize; media texts

The phenomenon of fantasy transmediality (Rebora 2016) has been discussed by many researchers and scholars during the last decade. The need for the creation of alluring cultural products in the highly competitive new media environment has led to synergies between many cultural industries and/or cultural producers, such as film, music, literature and videogame industries, etc. Many well-known and fan-developing narratives have been remediated – repackaged and redistributed – through the various media, answering to the contemporary nostalgia of pastness (Williams 2016), the cherishing of the familiar and intimate, as well as the need to further popularize “a pre-conceived merchandising industry” (Ball 2002), create new side-products for a fan community or even offer escapelands, which fantasy narratives succeed in creating. This paper will examine the translation and adaptation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (LOTR) to different media and cultural industries, such as:- Peter Jackson’s films,- role-playing games (RPGs),- the music industry – with reference to well-known songs and bands.Through comparative analysis of certain segments of the LOTR industry market and comments made by fans on digital platforms, the paper underlines the basic story elements of the Tolkien universe, as adapted to each above-mentioned variant and examines the role of fans in the digital semiosphere.

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Me, myself, and my avatar - a semiotic study into digital transformation via avatars

Author(s): Kyle Davidson / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: Virtual identity; space; digital self; avatars; hyperreality

The Chinese musical idol show, Dimension Nova, (produced by entertainment company IQIYI) follows the same formula as other shows where a panel of judges choose from a pool of hopefuls to find the best singer. However, the contestants for Dimension Nova are virtual beings. The way these characters are presented, and the way the show is edited, intends for the creations to be the focus of the audience, not the creators behind them. Thus, augmented reality cameras render dances, conversations, performances, and rehearsals for broadcast with the models – or avatars – simulating a mixed reality environment. The audience fantasy is a collaboratively constructed reality – a feat made possible by virtue of the ubiquity of the digital avatar within the zeitgeist of society. The transformation of the avatar from a representation of the user to an individualised entity, interactive and reactive, as we progress from Web 2.0 era to the new Web 3.0 society of omnipresent computing is the focus of this article and is introduced by what I term the “hypervirtual” environment of the future.

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A wailing wall in cyberspace: Loneliness, censorship, and collective memory – in memory of Dr. Li Wenliang, the whistle blower

Author(s): Hongjin Song / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: collective memory; modern loneliness; censorship; online mourning

As the whistle blower of the outbreak of Covid-19 in Wuhan, Dr. Li Wenliang was dismissed as the spreader of rumors and punished by the authorities. His later death from the coronavirus outraged the netizens in China on various social platforms. His post on Weibo, written by Dr. Li on the day he was finally diagnosed as infected, has thus become a wailing wall in cyberspace. It has invited millions of Weibo comments below, both from those who lost their loved ones in the outbreak and netizens in general. The post functions as a monument in cyberspace for people to commemorate the bereft in the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, the first place where Covid-19 was reported. Considering the transmediality of cyberspace of our modern times, the phenomenon of online mourning urges a semiotic explanation, especially when it concerns a figure who only became famous after his death. The study aims to conceptualize the dynamics of collective memory with the monument in cyberspace following the insights of Eco’s concept of “the open text”. The wailing wall in cyberspace functions as a mnemonic text for members of society, which interacts with the collective memory restored in the social sphere. Moreover, censorship also played an important role in the formation of the wailing wall. All these features are brought together to make the wailing wall in the cyberspace a unique spectacle in online culture, which paves the way for further discussions in the future.

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Body and senses in the production of cultural meaning: from Middle Ages to TV series, films and video games

Author(s): Gerardo Fabián Rodríguez,Lidia Raquel Miranda / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: Body; senses; meaning; culture; Middle Ages

In medieval times, the literary nature of the works, including written ones, were determined by contextual elements such as the acoustic and momentary channel of communication along with the domain of gestur-al, instrumental and vocal codes. These elements conditioned writers and performers when they improved and perfected their capacities and perfor-mance, on which the message as a whole depended. Today the media and entertainment industry also use complex and rich connections between verbal and visual signs to produce highly symbolic messages through im-aginary re-enactments of the past.The wide range of discursive productions of the Middle Ages can be ana-lysed through the study of the elements and factors that become carriers of meanings and the way in which they do so. We consider that a comparable perspective is also suitable for contemporary semiotic practices that, when interpreting documentary sources of various types and incorporating them into suitable fictional formats for the general public, constitute playful re-configurations of the historical, literary and fantastic Middle Ages. Accordingly, this paper attempts to examine certain components of mass culture which have transformed narratives, characters and fictional worlds, distinctive of the Middle Ages, into communicative and semiotic practices reinterpreting historical and literary texts as a way of reflecting on people, social life and its problems in the present world. It starts from con-sidering that semantic plurality and diachronic bases of the idea of body and senses enable an interdisciplinary and comparative study, in order to understand their historicity, their ideological effect and the innumerable aesthetic possibilities which they promote in different areas of culture. The reflections take into account the bodily and sensory aspects of the Middle Ages selected by series, films and video games with an impact, as signifi-cant elements, on current cultural orientations and attitudes.

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Beyond Mona Lisa’s Smile: A theoretical approach to the persuasion of likeness in the digital image

Author(s): Fee-Alexandra Haase / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: digital image; icon; simulacrum; fake; persuasion; new media; mimesis

In this article we discuss the digital image as a form of representation of likeness in the digital environment. The English word likeness entails the meaning of similarity that in the theory of rhetoric constitute persua-siveness. Likeness is an implicit and often taken for granted quality of the communicative performance of digital media. While the term image is a ty-pological classification, semiotic relations of the transfer of meaning can be described with the terms icon and simulacrum. We show their presence in the digital environment tracing their tradition of their function regarding the establishing of likeness to philosophical ideas. We exemplify with the case of the digital images as derivations from the portrait Mona Lisa that the appearance as an image of all what is displayed on the screen constitutes the specific likeness of digitality. The persuasiveness of digital images is in line with the theory of rhetoric in an exaggerated presence of the im-age as source of aesthetic perception with the sense of sight of the viewer.In this article we discuss the digital image as a form of representation of likeness in the digital environment. The English word likeness entails the meaning of similarity that in the theory of rhetoric constitute persua-siveness. Likeness is an implicit and often taken for granted quality of the communicative performance of digital media. While the term image is a ty-pological classification, semiotic relations of the transfer of meaning can be described with the terms icon and simulacrum. We show their presence in the digital environment tracing their tradition of their function regarding the establishing of likeness to philosophical ideas. We exemplify with the case of the digital images as derivations from the portrait Mona Lisa that the appearance as an image of all what is displayed on the screen constitutes the specific likeness of digitality. The persuasiveness of digital images is in line with the theory of rhetoric in an exaggerated presence of the im-age as source of aesthetic perception with the sense of sight of the viewer.

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Territory and urban gangs:identity, crime, boundary setting

Author(s): Zbyszko Melosik / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: territoriality; gangs; criminality; violence.

he main of the article is to present the role of territory in the construction of youth gangs identity. The territorial identification and battle for territory appears to be one of the most important features and even aims of the gangs; and the violence is often used in this case. It will be shown on the example of United States and Great Britain, with taking into account the social and historical variety of conditions typical of these countries (high criminalization of gangs vs. low profile of criminality). The relations between gangs territoriality, social marginalization of theirs members and criminality are also presented. Much of the attention is devoted to reconstruction of ways of space „marking” by gangs and delimitation of borders between them. In the next part of the article the activity of non-territorial gangs and mobile gangs are anaysed. The narration of the text is concentrated on the triad: membership of gang – territory – criminal activity.

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Motherhood of convicted women as an overarching value in their social rehabilitation process

Author(s): Kazimierz Pierzchała / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: prison isolation; mother; child; social rehabilitation; values.

The purpose of the article is to attempt to theoretically present the value of motherhood in the process of social rehabilitation of women in prison isolation, through cognition, understanding and pointing to conclusions. This issue is particularly relevant for young mothers who begin the story of their motherhood with their child(ren) while in prison. Such a mother should feel that the value of motherhood depends only on herself, and in this context it becomes essential for her to receive an appropriate offer of rehabilitation from the penitentiary system, without overlooking the huge role of herself in all this. Strengthening inmate mothers’ perceptions of motherhood as a value should provide the basis for their social rehabilitation, moreover, it should become a stimulus to intensify this process, and should ultimately be a contribution to changing their lives.The methodology used to write this publication was the conduct of a critical analysis of literature, using the author’s own academic work (elements of research for two future monographs on motherhood) and other documents, including available Internet resources, as well as their own professional experience of many years of working with persons deprived of liberty.

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Moods of people serving prison sentences during a pandemic

Author(s): Agnieszka Lewicka-Zelent / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: moods; convicts; pandemic.

The effects of a pandemic are across the globe in various aspects of their people. They also touched the emotional sphere. That is why it is worth doing research on the basis of which you can store yourself in this place. Due to the isolation conditions in which they are detained, it is worth checking their moods during the pandemic. So, it means that you think people were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The advantage is based on the verification tests, which tests check whether they can test the different (length of stay in the CC, type of CC, work and disease, and test persons) tested in this area (n = 429). Research in 2021 in 6 penitentiary units. The General Mood Scale and the Mood Scales by B. Wojciszke and W. Baryła were used. The benefits of the results in legal entities prove that they appear between them and the respondents.

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Covidoalienation. Pedagogical dimensions of self-care versus the effects of isolation during a pandemic

Author(s): Mirosława Ściupider-Młodkowska / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: covidoalienation; social effects of isolation in children and adults; coldness of interpersonal relations; cultural narcissism.

The main objective of the article is to analyze the phenomenon of covidoalienation. It discusses selected effects of isolation during the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 disease situation, referring them to the sociology of isolation institutions. The theoretical con-struct is based on several categories: Michael Foucault’s care of the self and the concept of “le visage” (subject, face, countenance) by Emanuel Levinas. The research part consists of selected analyses from understanding interviews (J.C. Kaufmann) and participant observation on the emotions experienced during the isolation among the students of thirteen classes and the teachers from these classes. Participant observation was carried out during a series of classes on emotions in isolation with 335 children from second and third grades of primary school, in May/June 2021. The research constituted at the same time a project to strengthen the scope of pedagogical and psychological assistance, taking into account the effects of covidoalienation in the space of the institution, for which the triad: student, teacher, parent is important. The text, apart from its review and theoretical function, will serve practitioners who want to counteract the effects of covidoalienation as a situation leading to objectification, frustration, loneliness and helplessness in children and adults experiencing isolation, bereavement, helplessness and other negative situations requiring professional support.

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The predictive role of parental attitudes in adolescent maladjustment

Author(s): Sławomir Sobczak,Tamara Zacharuk / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: parental attitudes; social maladjustment; antisocial behavior; youth.

Social maladjustment is the result of, inter alia, improper socialization interactions, first of all parental attitudes, i.e. all relatively permanent dispositions to apply specific reaction patterns to the child. The aim of the research was to determine the predictive role of parental attitudes in the social maladjustment of young people. The research obtained data from 100 socially maladjusted people and 100 people who did not show socialization deficits, aged 15–17. It was hypothesized that positive parental attitudes (acceptance, autonomy, protection) play a predictive role in social maladjustment and contribute to reducing the risk of anti-social behavior. It was found that these attitudes have a significant negative correlation with the socialization dysfunctions of youth. The predictor in the model turned out to be the attitude of accepting the mother and the attitude of father’s autonomy, allowing for the explanation of about 60% (R2 = 0.597) of general variance in the variance of antisocial behavior in adolescents.

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Prevention of risky behaviors in socially underprivileged areas– needs and limitations

Author(s): Grzegorz Bolesław Głupczyk / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: youth; prevention; poverty ghetto; risky behavior.

The article presents part of the results of research on the prevention of risky behaviors of young people in socially disadvantaged areas, focusing on the needs and limitations of these activities.The presented results are based on qualitative research conducted in three Silesian cities. The research was conducted in schools, aid centers and non-governmental organizations. The results emphasize the need for institutional and methodical diversification of risk behavior prevention in socially disadvantaged areas and the need to increase the availability of specialist support.

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Characteristics and Components of the Cyber Hygiene as a Subclass of Cyber Security in Military Environment and Educational Issues

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Characteristics and Components of the Cyber Hygiene as a Subclass of Cyber Security in Military Environment and Educational Issues

Author(s): Boyan Mednikarov,Yuliyan Tsonev,Borislav Nikolov,Andon Lazarov / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: Cyber hygiene; Cyber security; Cyber hygiene's instructions

In the present study based on the main characteristics and components of the cyber hygiene as a subclass of the cyber security, educational challenges on the cyber hygiene in military area are considered. Based on institutional experience in the scope of the cyber security in the digital environment, a sequence of activities to keep resilient and reliable cyber hygiene in army organizations are analyzed and recommended. Definitions of basic cyber hygiene characteristics are suggested. Cyber hygiene software issues and institutional information security controls are discussed. A malware infection as main cyber hygiene concern is analyzed. Fundamental cyber hygiene instructions to ensure military Internet users and institutions stay protected are defined. Exemplary curriculum for education of military staff with basic themes is presented.

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Affirming Wellness Culture Through Innovative Methodology Related to Blaze-Pod Trainer System

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Affirming Wellness Culture Through Innovative Methodology Related to Blaze-Pod Trainer System

Author(s): Darinka Ignatova / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: motor capacity; motor activity; motor potential; Wellness culture in Bulgarian primary school

The present material brings out theoretical foundations with an emphasis on development of motor potential and specificity in motor qualities. The following are tracked: scientific status in teaching methodology of physical education and sports in initial stage of basic educational level, educational standards for development of motor quality and agility. Technology for development of motor quality and agility with aim of increasing motor capacity has been approved. Statistical verification of effectiveness of a tested technology is presented with following: organization of experimental work, ascertaining, training, and control stage. Scientifically based conclusions and generalizations are drawn. The purpose of study is to establish and assess presence of Wellness Culture in primary education by applying an innovative methodology for development of motor quality agility and increasing motor capacity of students from initial stage of basic education level by testing an innovative methodology in training of PES , consisting of an author's set of motor exercises related to Blaze-Pod Trainer System and checking its effectiveness in practice.

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A semiotic analysis of representations of maids in Greek movies of the 1950s and 60s

Author(s): Thomas Bardakis / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: Semiotics; representations; Greek cinema; maids; servants

A variety of semiotic codes, for example, proxemics, kinesics, dress code, verbal code, usually construct specific representations in audiovisual culture. This paper explores the semiotic systems in synergy which seem to lead to consolidation of the social representations of maids in pop culture texts, such as Greek movies in the 1950s and 60s (the old Greek cinema era). The research questions explore the social representations which have been constructed and the ways in which the verbal and non-verbal signs of the maids can lead to the consolidation of their social image or even to a myth construction based on specific ideological perspectives. So, how do maids act in Greek movies in the 1950s and 60s? What does their performance signify? A semiotic analysis will examine all these questions through semiotic codes in those multimodal texts (Greek movies), selected from the field of the historically Greek pop culture texts. These verbal and non-verbal codes work coherently to translate the depiction of Greek society and culture and to convey connotative meanings.

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Narratological approach of the film adaptation of Thérèse Desqueyroux by François Mauriac

Author(s): Despina Gialatzi / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: Liberty; nature; crime; justice; isotopies; Thérèse Desqueyroux; intersémiotique translation

The aim of this paper is to examine translation as a phenomenon from literature into movies through isotopies. In particular, the research concen-trates on the intertextual phenomenon between the original classic version in literature and the two film versions (1962 and 2012). In Gideon Toury’s work, translation is seen as an intertextual phenomenon. The three “texts” form an intertextual triangle. Mauriac’s classic novel is at the top of the triangle as a significant guide, and at the same time the two films rest on the triangle’s base. In 1927, the French writer, François Mauriac wrote his iconic work, Thérèse Desqueyroux. In his novel, the writer describes the tragic story of a poisoner. This is a woman who hovers between the romantic of the past and the realism of the present. The young heroine lets herself go psychically into her dreams, and she does not see reality in its logical dimension. Her marriage is not a romantic, happy and ideal union taken from the romantic works of the 19th century. It is a cold, cruel and indifferent marriage. In a way, Thérèse is a victim of herself. Unveiling the psychographic image of this fatal woman called Thérèse D, the application of Greimas’s narratological method offers a fertile field of research, and the examination of the transformation into a double cinematographic portrait. Thérèse is a woman prisoner in her name: Desqueyroux. The narrative structure of the work turns on the fragile psyche of the heroine. Is she really a fragile female figure or, a cruel poisoner in a search of mental freedom?

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The colorization of Greek classic films as intersemiotic translation

Author(s): Dimitris Neofotistos / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2022

Keywords: Colorization; intersemiotic translation; color; Greek cinema; culture studies

Intersemiotic translation constitutes a field of research and application including those of different modes of expression and substance transmis-sion from one text to another. According to Torop (2000) different types of texts such as films, and comics function as signification systems submitted into different translation processes either intra- or extratextual (intralin-guistic or intersemiotic as referred by Jakobson [1959]) to serve a different kind of media communication. It is well known that the textual nature of film is ascertained by specific elements such as sound, episodes, montage including color which as a medium (“color means” as stated by Kress & van Leuween [2002]) plays a very important role in the transfer of meaning ventured by film makers. In this paper I will attempt to designate the role of color as a mode of new signification through the application of colorization in two classic Greek black and white films. I will examine the films “And let the wife fear her husband” («Η δε γυνή να φοβήται τον άνδρα») and “A mess” («Της κακομοίρας») both classified in the classic Greek cinema period (1940–1970) and very popular with the Greek public. Film colorization was a widespread technique in the ‘80s in the United States and lately in Greece, not always well received due to film forgery reasons, as maintained by fans. In this paper I will try to explain how film colorization works as intersemi-otic translation and what is the new meaning acquired for the public by this procedure in the two films examined in the corpus.

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Space Debris as a Threat to Space Sustainability

Author(s): KADIR YOZKALACH / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: Space debris; Space sustainability; Satellite; Debris mitigation;

Aim: The issue of space debris (or space junk) is an important aspect of the sustainability of space. If not properly managed, the accumulation of space debris could make some orbital paths too dangerous to use, potentially limiting our ability to explore and utilize space. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the space debris problem. Design / Research methods: This article is based on a review of official statistics, policy papers, and media coverage related to the topic of space debris. Findings: The data shows that intentional and non-intentional debris-creating events are still occurring. The increasing amount of debris brings higher risks to functional satellites and missions. While there are new projects to mitigate debris, these are challenging to put into action due to their high cost and high level of technology. Originality: This paper presents an overview of the space debris problem in the context of the sustainability of space, by focusing on legal and technological aspects. The paper also touches upon different ways to mitigate space debris.

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