Abstract: The article subject is dialogue about the development prospects of the so-called “embodied approach” in design, conducted by Western researchers for the past ten years. Some of the Western researchers indicate the fundamental impossibility of creating the theory of somatic-oriented design in view of the fact that such a theory will have to rely on the “silent” knowledge of the body. The author of the article sees the exit in, firstly, to turn to the experience of Chinese and Japanese designers, for whom “embodied cognition” is deeply rooted in the regional tradition; and secondly, to form a categorical apparatus necessary for the development of the theory of somatic-oriented design, based on the category of traditional eastern philosophy, allowing to fix the experience of the body (we are talking about the image “хiang” and the intentions “yi”). In the course of the study, the author focuses on the specifics of the body's perception in the East, since oriental experience does not lead to the expansion of involved perception channels (use in addition to vision, for example, smell and hearing), but to understand the project as a spontaneous process, form as an “open” for the embodied meanings. For oriental designers it is important not to “gestalt” of previous experience, but an embodied intuition of the future, aimed at creating a product later in demand by society. In conclusion, based on the categories of eastern philosophy, the author of the study introduces the concepts of “embodied image” (spontaneously arising figurative-scheme of human interaction with the environment) and “embodied design intention” (the direction of the thought to the transformation of reality, based on the somatic relations of the designer with the world).

Abstract: Chinese calligraphy is viewed as the key to a more in-depth understanding of the Chinese cultural code; therefore, the goal of this research consists in determination of cultural meanings underlying the spatial structure and visual image of hieroglyph. In the course of this study, the authors advance the idea of the national Sinologist V. V. Malyavin, which implies that artistic realm of the works of Chinese calligraphy represents a “median” space for interaction of the two diverging planes of existence – revealed and concealed (“earlier Heavenly” and “later Heaven”). The study applies the culturological method for interpretation of artistic space of hieroglyph within the context of the traditional for Chinese culture spatial models. The formation of “median” space though the description of hieroglyph testifies to the competence of a calligraphist to find balance in the “flow of changes”. Hieroglyph represents a visual metaphor of the moving human body that is in the state of inner peace (which is reflected in the precision of internal connections of the symbol, its relation to the physical center, and sense of the “firmness” of emptiness.

Abstract: In her research Aganina analyzes calligraphy as a time-related intermedia and this is why the nature of the line movement and the sign pattern in general is one of the main criteria for evaluating the caligraphic piece. Considering that the aesthetics of the handwriting movement is more developed in the calligraphy of the Far East, the purpose of this research is to analyze movement as a category that creates the identity of Chinese, Korean and Japanese handwriting in order to review and to use the experience of Far Eastern calligraphy in the European writing. The methodological basis of the research involves the following: the problem statement, classification of aesthetic categories, comparative historical and axiological analysis, and iconological method. As a result of the research, the author concludes that the compositional movement of signs in the Far Eastern calligraphy directly and symbolically relates to the free movement of human body (and spirit) through the space. The fact that China, Korea and Japan have different concepts of the movement of spirit dictates differences in the nature of the sign pattern in the calligraphy of these countries. 

Abstract: Designing the visual interaction of a letter and a hieroglyph in a multicultural field of graphic design is a very topical issue. The problem is that in practice graphic solutions often turn out to be a vulgar stylization, since the figures of a letter and a hieroglyph are associated with fundamentally different cultures of writing. To solve the problem of stylizing a letter to a hieroglyph, the author of the article proposes to analyze the experience of Korea that uses a unique syllable alphabet that looks like hieroglyphs, and therefore is a bridge between letter and hieroglyphic writing. Accordingly, the object of the study is Korean calligraphy, and the subject is the visual adaptation of the Korean alphabet letter to hieroglyphs. The author of the article relies on Korean and Japanese sources, among which it is worth highlighting the collection of scientific reports at the international symposium in Niigata (Japan, 2015), devoted to the problems of aesthetics of calligraphy of China, Korea and Japan. As a result of the study, the author identifies three historically established ways of visual adaptation of Hangul to hieroglyphs (actual and for letter) which are not reduced to stylization since they express the Korean idea of beauty itself. Since the hieroglyphic letter is not rooted in the national tradition, the author considers the search for the identity of calligraphy with a brush as the most important task of the designer allowing to significantly improve the quality of stylizing the letter under the hieroglyph.