Role And Importance Of Arts Synthesis In Socio-Cultural Transformation Of Urban Environment

Abstract

The article discusses the main problems of arts synthesis in the urban environment, which opens up the possibility and assessment of the result of cooperation between the artist and the architect as an understanding of the achieved direct compositional unity of the arts, in which it is understood as a part of a more complex phenomenon. The use of the concept of arts synthesis is revealed, which covers both excellent examples of the achieved composite arts unity, and those where a formal approach to solve the problem is used. A program synthesis goal is described, which includes a number of specific tasks; in them, the general social program is reflected in the professional architecture and art, which share the main tasks of harmonization and aestheticization of the environment, its spiritual content and emotional coloring. The evidence of the importance of the synthesis of arts in the socio-political transformation is presented, as one of the most important elements of the cultural space in the modern region. Lastly, we present evidence that the values of fine art, design, photography, and advertising are means of creating aesthetic values and are actively involved in the formation of the regional urban environment, along with architecture, technology, nature, historical monuments. This process is presented by the authors as the specific arts synthesis and the fundamental trend of urban planning, not only based on exclusivity and primacy, but also based on integrity.

Keywords: Arts synthesiscultural transformationurban environmentculturearchitecture

Introduction

The rapid development of modern regional cities requires an active attitude to the urban environment. In the socio-cultural environment appear new genres and forms of monumental arts and crafts, including media components. Architects and city planners began to show greater freedom in the choice of topics, search for forms, materials and technologies. There is a tendency of architects and artists' convergence on the topic of the living environment formation in the regional cities of our country. Moreover, the artistic language means of expression, technique and technology of monumental art became more complicated. Design, industrial and computer graphics, artistic craft are all committed to tasks in the construction industry nowadays – altogether they help to develop the regional urban environment in the trend of global sociocultural changes.

Problem Statement

First of all, having studied the specificity of the concept arts synthesis, to reveal the importance of its inclusion in the process of modern socio-cultural transformation of the regional urban environment. Secondly, to state the necessity to reflect the sociocultural program of society in the context of the professional architecture and art, which are embodied in the aestheticization of the urban environment. Thirdly, to include the problem of arts synthesis in a cultural transformation of modern society in the organization of the urban environment because modern mass culture is a real environment, serving both as a customer and as a consumer of the professional architects, artists, designers and city planners activity results at the same time.

Research Questions

The definition of the concept arts synthesis, as well as the boundaries and modern specificity of the phenomenon defined by this concept have always been an important topic in theoretical and methodological design, architecture and visual art issues. This is confirmed by methodological studies and theoretical provisions in the field of design – developed by S. Khan-Magomedov, M. Fedorov, V. Sidorenko, G. Minervin, E. Zherdev, V. Glazychev, L. Pereverzev, V. Puzanov, etc.

The listed theorists discuss the problem of the arts synthesis nowadays. It represents the ultimate goal of the joint creative efforts of not only city planners, architects, monumentalists, but also painters, sculptors, applied art artists, designers, landscape architects, restorers, etc. This collaboration is considered not only as desirable and possible, but also as natural and necessary. Artists of all types of art participating in the formation of the human life environment is recognized today not only as an aesthetic, but also as an ethical program that implements a high humanistic principle. In this context, T. Poidin writes The modern type of project culture actualizes an appeal to the topic of regionalism, the importance of regional problems, the specifics of the project culture development in different regions, which legitimately updates the national and regional identity of regional modern design schools (Poydina, 2012).

Only recently, even in the wildest projects and dreams, the limits of the sought art unity did not exceed a single architectural ensemble. Nowadays the direct interaction of plastic arts, design and architecture is carried out in work on a broader object, which becomes the context of large urban complexes, understood in its dialectical relationship with the nature of the environment. “However, no matter how great contradictions between the elements of the ideal and the material are, they, as parts of a unit, are ultimately inseparable from each other: without material, the ideal would not become a phenomenon. A thought forms a word to the same extent as a word forms a thought, but a thought is impossible without a word, as a word is impossible without a thought. The interdependence of the two opposites is inseparable here, and in the cultural-historical process we observe not only their inconsistencies, but also mutual development (Slozhenkina, 2015).

When talking about the origins of the arts synthesis in the urban environment, we agree with S. Michailov, who believes that Historically, the city design (urban environment design) as an independent type of design and artistic activity was formed in the second half of the 20th century between architecture, design and urban planning and became a phenomenon of the twentieth century (Michailov, 2009).

It has been argued that in daily practice the concept of arts synthesis accompanied all discussions about the presence of fine art and design in the composition of an architectural construction (internal or open external architectural space). Equally, it covered both successful examples of the composite unity of the arts, and those with a formal approach for solving the problem. As a result, this term acquired a metaphorical meaning to some extent, revealing the presence of participation, the fact that artist worked in architecture, and not the qualitative side of complex artistic process.

Therefore, a clearer task definition of forming the environment opened up the possibility of exchanging thoughts about the very essence of the synthesis problem. It is aimed at assessing the result of cooperation between the artist and the architect and also at the understanding of the direct compositional unity of arts, in which it is conceived only as part of more complex phenomenon.

The program objective of the synthesis, as mentioned above, includes a number of specific tasks; the general socio-cultural society program is reflected in those tasks in the professional architecture and art, which have the main tasks of harmonization and aestheticization of the environment, its spiritual content and emotional coloring.

The main trend in solving these problems nowadays should be considered a change in the nature of the fine arts and design participation in the formation of the regional urban environment. In other words, the complexity of its artistic formation should become a reality of the regional urban complexes construction, the reality of the old cities reconstruction.

Integrated artistic design of the environment should be considered in two ways. This process is focused, firstly, on the integrity of the subjects participating in it, and secondly, on the artistic unity of the context, the environment as a whole.

What should be the nature of this desired new integrity, what types are possible here, what levels of complexity, what kind of openness to changes, what measures of flexibility, and what kinds of possibilities for transformation? How coexist different, from a common point of view, aesthetic structures in the surrounding space? What are the maximum and minimum sizes of an urban construction with readable integrity? Here are the questions for a discussion of professionals. First of all, regardless of the specific concepts of forming a regional urban environment, one of the common and essential conditions for solving this task is achieving organic unity between the artist and the architect. It is clear that not all questions can be sufficiently, consistently and methodically developed, but their very formulation speaks of a new level of the synthesis problems understanding at the present stage.

It can be said that the transformation of the synthesis problem into the complex regional urban environment' organization problem opens up the possibility of a transition to a new level of professional thinking. The basis of this thinking is the need to reflect the social program of society in the context of the professional architecture and art, which are embodied in the aestheticization of the urban environment.

Creative workers, especially those who are involved in the urban environment art synthesis (architects, designers, artists, decorators, photographers, advertisers, etc.) should include these key aspects in their works. According to Stratonova L. M. and Kutluyarovoj E. V. ... the designer offers not only concrete projects on the organization of a specific urban environment fragment, but by implementing this project, he contributes to the transformation of the people themselves, changing their view of the city, the place where they live (Stratonova, 2016).

Due to the common ideological and creative tasks, the processes of urbanization and modern constructions' automation, the initial situation that architects and artists encounter when creating works of synthesis has many similarities.

When selling products of art synthesis as a real business all the differences and shades should be taken into account. As a result, we will get a complete picture of world architecture and design, that multiple space, in which there will be a place for any architectural and design activity and their results.

Architects and designers usually get tasks from an outer customer. Everyday creative work is so multitasked and diverse that it is sometimes difficult to decide what is the main or decisive, and what is secondary. It all gets even more complicated because the secondary in this case does not mean optional. It is just that some aspects and stages of creative activity are auxiliary, characteristical, while others relate directly to the creativity goal.

In relation to each of their objects, they must satisfy such a huge number of requirements, among which there is an obvious aesthetic minority, and they often seem to be secondary. However, that is a false belief. The inclusion in the tasks that modern specialists are solving while working on the aestheticization of the urban environment, the social program for the development of society and the results of its sociocultural transformation, ensures the actualization and harmonization of the sphere they are working at.

Yet the difficulty lies precisely in the process of technical improvement and the improvement of ergonomic characteristics, which are trying not to exclude the arts synthesis from the socio-cultural space of the modern city. Quality of life is directly linked to the results of the activities of those specialists, who work to create an environment with improved living conditions not only for the modern, but the next generations of the country's population (Nefedov, 2012). Urban design, which is actively forming the urban planning, became the main link between the city architecture and the person, the link that provides the psychological and aesthetic comfort for the modern city environment (Prohnenko, 2015).

All this suggests that the architectonics of the modern urban space is associated with the cultural heritage and does not exclude a subjective transformation with regard to universal humanistic principles.

It seems important, on the one hand, to preserve the national identity of old cities in the conditions of mass construction, and to know how to achieve the unity and complexity of the material and spiritual structure of the new ones – these problems are essential for the specialists working on the aestheticization of the urban environment. Decades of intensive architectural environment development in the mass cities development of our country have not been wasted. Moreover, it is not just the high professional level of the best works. Experience has been accumulated, which, perhaps, is already sufficient both for a meaningful definition of the real parameters of today's arts synthesis, and for reasonable predictions of its development in the nearest future.

This experience makes it possible not only to make theories about specificity, but also to extract it, this specificity, from practice. Such genres that create multilateral influence, the multicolor and richness of the objective impressions and built environment come to the forefront and must go to the forefront of urban planning. The scale denoting genres is drawn from the values of artificial light, color and sound through the color dynamics. Photography, advertising, pavilions, identification marks, etc. have not been considered away from the culture of the urban environment for a long time now.

According to the authors of the article Characteristics of design and advertising in the postmodern aesthetic paradigm: ... advertising and design are represented as an integral part of the modern mass consumer society, within which it exists and which determines its essence. Mass culture has become that real environment, which acts both as a social customer, and as a consumer of advertising and design products. On the one hand, this is undoubtedly a positive phenomenon for the development of advertising and design, because mass culture, according to many researchers, is much closer to the average consumer than elite culture; it is sensitive to its vital needs, experiences, and complexes, communicating with in an accessible, frank and popular language. On the other hand, this culture dictates extremely stringent requirements for the products created, in particular the aesthetic criterion (Slozhenkina, Pitko, & Pishchugin 2015). Modern urban environment and urban communications from high architecture to technical spaces are turning into viral advertising media today: escalators, passages and stairs, technical hatches, bins, turnstiles, lampposts, bus stops, green spaces, billboards, street markings, navigation or the texture of the urban environment (Starikova, 2017). About this writes A.Y. Zaslavskaya, speaking about the problem of forming an aesthetically balanced urban environment ... the environment of Russian cities often looks fragmented and fractional, the architecture of the streets does not form uniform harmonious ensembles, chamber historical spaces stand near to new large buildings (Zaslavskaya, 2014).

What are the guidelines, tips and general recommendations we can outline and formulate now? First of all, a more thoughtful approach to the reality that encourages us to discuss such issues and which, in the absence of a better definition, are called the problem of bringing beauty into the urban environment or aesthetization of the urban environment with the help of art synthesis. Try to find in the components of this environment not the sum of utilitarian and aesthetic terms, but the product of a huge number of natural and cultural factors, including the laws of nature, industrial work, ecology, folk customs, demography, socio-economic processes, anatomy of the urban environment and languages of symbolic communication, raw materials and symbolic values – all that will help to feel the materialized projections of the living human existence in cities.

The focus of modern architects, designers, artists on the ordinary architectural environment, attempts to transform it and turn it into aesthetically healthy environment mark a very important step in the history of modern urban development. We agree with a number of authors who define this provision: (Mitrokhina, 2014; Petrova, 2017; Shuvalova, 2017; Skripacheva, 2015; Vlasov, 2013; Mikhailov, 2013).

Thus, we are convinced in the great importance and role of art and design in the modern urban environment. Let us draw some conclusions. Fine art, design, photography, advertising are approved today not only as a means of creating aesthetic values: they are actively involved in urban environment shaping along with architecture, technology, nature, and historical monuments. In their joint activities, the specificity of the arts synthesis is hidden as a fundamental trend of urban planning - not only based on exclusivity and primacy, but also based on integrity. Architectural design is not art in the newest sense, but art in its primary meaning. In conclusion, we can say that an understanding has emerged in the public consciousness that art is designed to complexly shape the environment of a person. At the same time, it becomes clear that not all possibilities of the arts synthesis have been used in the practice of urban planning.

These are some aspects of the arts synthesis question, which are reflected in this article. Knowing them will undoubtedly give results in the activities of those involved in problems of the arts synthesis.

Purpose of the Study

To justify the role and importance of the arts synthesis in the socio-cultural transformation of the urban environment

Research Methods

In carrying out the study, the following methods were used: the method of synthesis and analysis, the method from abstract to concrete and the method of system analysis.

Findings

The result of this study is the statement of the inclusion of the arts synthesis, a program for the development of a socio-cultural environment, national characteristics and elements of mass culture in the transformation of the regional urban environment.

Conclusion

In the conditions of a changing socio-political situation and regional cultural processes taking place, it seems important to strengthen the arts synthesis in the organization of the modern urban environment.

References

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