Search

Wondering recently in London how to present this enormous subject to an enlightened but very mixed audience, I strolled out into St James’s and then through Green and Hyde Parks. The grass was still short and the trees were bare, but here and there fine clumps of daffodils and flashes of crocuses were in full bloom, and the ‘lakes’ were alive with all manner of waterfowl. In quiet corners I met more blackbirds than one generally sees in a long walk in the country—not to mention the hordes of pigeons and sparrows. Some early-flowering Prunus trees added a delicate tinge of pink. The entire prospect was delightful in early spring, though almost entirely artificial: not at all typical of the biosphere, but an impressive display of what man has created—and can do even better—when the will, knowledge, and money, are available. Given these last three prerequisites, it is also a portent of what we may expect to see more and more of in future, as human population burgeons and great cities multiply, extend, and ultimately coalesce.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the limits of the intersemiotic perspective in favour of intermedial and performative approaches. The concept of intersemiotic translation focuses on the meaning transferred from one sign system to another. Consequently, sign systems are considered largely in regard to the significant power of their semantic, syntactic and structural devices. However, contemporary art and communication often take advantage of the materiality of signs. This quality, along with the problem of mediation, becomes crucial when sign systems are considered as media. That is why intermedial studies offer a more adequate approach to a wide range of modern communicative strategies. The problem should be examined on base of some examples from concrete poetry: a paradigmatic intermedial art form which exposes the materiality of language in two medial shapes – as the written medium and as the oral medium, suggested by the written form, performed live or recorded and processed by means of studio techniques. The latter is strongly connected to the aesthetics of the performative which has been a new principle of modern art, according to Erika Fischer-Lichte. Its aim is not to generate and convey meanings, but to create phenomena to be received as they are. The scrutiny of such phenomena goes far beyond semiotic analysis, taking medial and performative aspects into consideration.

Various forms of street art, such as murals, anamorphic painting or urban interventions, become an important component of urban space. The paper examines examples of selected works of urban art in the context of space and its reception. These unexpected “events” entertain and educate. They become, on the one hand, a tourist attraction, and on the other hand, a major voice in the debate on the public nature of visual urban sphere. Although ephemeral and inconspicuous, usually reluctantly accepted by architects and urban planners, they successfully urge viewers to reflect on space and its existing functions.