Reflections of memory in media or how image construction and promotion technologies reconfigure traditions

Abstract

Dear readers!

Issue No. 3 of the online scholarly journal "Experience Industries. Socio-Cultural Research Technologies" (EISCRT) presents—to both regular and new readers—interim findings from domestic and international authors regarding the latest research into the interdisciplinary study of how cultural memory functions within diverse models of media communication.

Minsk researcher Alexander Loiko opens the issue with reflections on the prospects for establishing an object-oriented ontology within contemporary media philosophy in the "Reflections" column. The transformation of media ontology has become particularly acute as society shifts from analog to digital modes of communication. Numerous international studies explicitly note that media are viewed not merely as texts but as a distinct visual and virtual metaverse. Modern media acquire such attributes, for instance, within the gaming industry; this development drives the transformation of the emotional design of media products and the interfaces of empathy for the contemporary individual.

The "Tradition" section features articles analyzing various aspects of how cultural memory functions and is represented in contemporary media products. The section opens with a study by Yaroslavl researcher Lyudmila Gritsay, examining the specific ways Vladimir Lenin is portrayed in modern Russian feature films and television series. The author concludes that cinematic depictions of this prominent Russian and Soviet politician are deliberately caricatured and demonized. Historical accuracy is intentionally supplanted by emotionally charged imagery, enabling the construction and mass dissemination of a media image of Lenin as a symbol of political catastrophe. Such a media narrative directly contributes to the erosion of historical continuity across the imperial, Soviet, and Russian periods of our country's history.

Dmitry Muza, a cultural scholar from Donetsk, offers readers his reflections on the explication of symbolic meanings from Leonardo da Vinci’s painting *The Adoration of the Magi* within Andrei Tarkovsky’s film *The Sacrifice*. The author identifies original symbolic parallels between the imagery of the great Italian master and Tarkovsky’s narrative, rightly regarding self-sacrifice as the guiding principle of artistic expression. It is precisely by following this strategy that the artistic context naturally evolves, first into a moral-philosophical one, and subsequently into a theological one.

Olga Nevskaya and Denis Artamonov reflect on the metamorphoses of the photographic portrait. They successfully establish a novel analytical approach, tracing the evolution of the photograph from a curious, trendy technological novelty into a full-fledged tool for identity construction. Based on an analysis of extensive empirical material, the article posits that the transformation of the photographic portrait has shifted from a mundane documentary record to its interpretation as a complex sociocultural media construct that organically integrates diverse semiotic fields and meanings.

The research team Sofya Rezvushkina and Ekaterina Milyaeva focuses its media analysis on the Soviet musical underground. They are particularly interested in the work of Egor Letov, which not only shaped the musical trends of the USSR during the "Perestroika" era but also made a significant contribution to the intellectual landscape of contemporary Russia. The authors rightly argue that Letov exemplified a distinctive type of non-academic philosophizing, one that paradoxically combined folklore and Christian motifs with the philosophy of the "placemen" group and existentialism. This intellectual practice underscores the enduring significance of the existential metaphysics of "yurodstvo" (holy foolishness), which effectively determined the trajectory of the domestic philosophical underground for decades to come.

Grigory Tulchinsky’s intellectual insights focus on an analysis of the ritual practices found in contemporary culture. He examines films that have served as landmark milestones in the evolution of meaning-making for generations of domestic and international audiences. The author identifies and describes two types of meaning-making, establishing that the processes of stabilization and potentiation give rise to distinct forms of subjectivity. This theoretical framework is explored through the examples of two outstanding films: "It’s a Wonderful Life" (USA, 1946) and "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!" (USSR, 1975). In this context, the film itself emerges as a fully realized medium for presenting cultural rituals and traditions, while
the cinematic texts under analysis directly embody, respectively, cataphatic and/or apophatic worldviews.

The third issue concludes with an article by Saratov researchers Sofya Tikhonova and Dmitry Melnichuk, which analyzes the transformation of the "techno-generational" experience. They argue that the digital environment alters forms of socialization, both everyday and formal communication, and the perception of reality as a whole. Generational experience should be viewed not merely as a collection of biographies, but as the integrated outcome of the sociotechnical conditions in which an individual lives under conditions shaped by sociocultural codes linked to specific technological paradigms. The authors maintain that such sociotechnological contexts require comprehensive analysis from the perspective of the social sciences and humanities.

The editorial board hopes that the theoretical generalizations presented in this issue will evolve into a wide-ranging scholarly discussion, including within the pages of our publication.