DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2022.11.39207

Abstract: The authors turn their attention to the study of the temporal picture of the world that exists in the consciousness of an individual and the supra-individual consciousness of society. Ideas about the past and the future are part of the present and their study contributes to understanding the processes taking place here and now, the causes and meanings behind current events. The subject of consideration are images of the past and images of the future as a set of representations representing the past and the future in the present. The purpose of the study is to consider the process of the appearance of images of the past and images of the future both at the individual and collective level. The question of what are essentially images of the past and images of the future, what are the principles of their appearance and functioning is still open. The authors of the article offer their own version of the answer to the question about the genesis of these temporal images. It consists in affirming the dominance of collective images of the past over individual ones. At a certain time period, there is one collective image of the past in culture, formed by ideology and social consensus on the basis of the historical narrative of professional historians based on real traces of the past and many individual images interpreting this semantic core. In the process of forming images of the future, priority is given to individual images reflecting a personal assessment of the dominant trends of the present, which will find their embodiment in the future. Individual images of the future, through the coordination of individual representations, are formed into variants of a collective vision of the future. Therefore, at a certain point in time, not one but several collective images of the future function in society.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0625.2020.11.34473

Abstract: The subject of this research is ten Russian science-fiction films released over the period from 2013 to 2020. The goal of this article consists in examination of scenarios of seeing the future presented in the Russian modern cinematography. An overview of approaches towards studying visual images is provided, based on which the author offers a new strategy for studying film images of the future that demarcates three groups of elements in the film – cognitive, visual, and emotional-modal, and four thematic components that correspond to the spheres of social life. As a result of implementation of the aforementioned method, the author determines four underlying themes in cinematographic representation of the future – space, armed conflicts, entertainment industry and drastic changes of human personality. It is established that the visual representation of the future is resembled in the four groups of images – universal images, images of the present, images of the past, and images unfamiliar to the audience that imply something unprecedented that makes the future attractive. It is acknowledged that in most films the future is presented as unfair, wrong, which causes moral discord. It is not the world we would like to live in. Most of the Russian films are dedicated to the local future for approximately 50 years from now. This approach engages the audience in the events, and conveys an pessimistic spirit about tomorrow, which is traced not only in the plot, but also in visual imagery of most films. Holistic mages of the future, functioning in a certain culture, can be determined based on the comparison of various sources, where cinematography is just one of such sources. Therefore, the conclusions on perception of the future by our contemporaries should not be made based on this alone. However, films are a valuable source of information on visualization of the future and transmission of general moods associated with it.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2020.2.32302

Abstract: This article reviews the research approaches, the object of which is future as an element of relevant social reality. The author familiarizes the Russian audience with such trends in studying future as “realization of future”, “orientation towards future”, “foresight”, “projectivity”, “futures literacy”, “anticipation”, and “image of future”. An original interpretation is given to the concept “image of future” as a reflective of collective representations of future that imply a complete or almost complete picture, but yet non-existent social reality.  The author examines the existing methodologies for studying the images of future and proposes the original one – comprehensive humanity analysis, which allows finding common denominator of social expectations in various types of sources. Unlike other angles of viewing the representations on future, the image of future enables reconstructing the pictures of future that functioned in the past, ant correlate them with realistic future. Examination of the image of future allows assessing the inclusion of society into time perspective, its attitude towards the present, level of content with reality, as well as particularize the perceptions of the purpose of social development and social values, within which it exists. Studying the images of future functioning in the past can also help to understand the connection between representations on future and future itself; and in case of establishing such connection it can be extrapolated upon the images of the future of our present and our future.