Abstract: The article is devoted to the essence of art in general and special features of modern art I particular. The author differentiates between traditional art, Gestell art and post-modernity art. Gestell art has the following typical features: breaking of old bonds and relations of art with other spheres of life (for example, disruption of the ‘artist – audience’ communication and transformation of the ‘artistic reality – regular reality’ relation), the crisis of the classical concept of art (including the terms of artwork and esthetic subject), definition of functions of art in terms of Gestell, i.e. linking art to regular life (art as creating a special environment for working, as a special social optics and a form of organization of life and activity) and finally, technification of art when art is started to be perceived as a special semiotic and psychotechnical technology. An important mission of modern art is to help human to revive his feelings and emotions and the other mission of art is to create special conditions for his traveling through unusual and interesting worlds. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the essence of the ‘Science Art’ work where art, technology and science increasingly interlock within the framework of modern alternative experimental art. In order to achieve the above mentioned goals, the author carries out problematisation, implements methods of comparative analysis of historical forms of art and performs conceptual analysis. As a result, he manages to differentiate between and define traditional art, Gestell art and post-modernity art as well as to touch upon the problem of responsibility of a modern artist. According to the author, the modern artist faces a principal choice: what life style and future will he work for? A new stage in the development of art assumes that we will review and build new relations with art, technology, science and ourselves.

Keywords: art, Gestell, post-moderity, interpretation, life-sustaining activity, implementation, reality, science, technology, imitation.

Abstract: The author of the article touches upon the issue about the relation between culture and civilization that are being viewed in terms of development of communication processes throughout history. The importance of this problem is especially recognized due to the appearance of TV broadcast at the second half of the XXth century and the Internet over the last decade. However, the only provision being actually recognized is that in actual practice communication has been existing since the times of appearance of the written language. The history of mass communication relates to the successive involvement of different technologies in the cultural process. Quite often these technologies take communication processes beyond the borders of culture. Technology represents civilization preferences. However, the other side of mass communication addresses culture which, in accordance with Johan Huizinga’s statement, ‘is born in personality and therefore retains its health in personality’. This discordance between preferences of civilization and culture plays the decisive role in raising the problem about personal potential of mass communication. Where mass communication expresses preferences of civilization, personality plays the role of an object in the communication process. Civilization tends to expand the communication space and therefore to involve as many people as possible into the communication process. Mass communication is meant to solve the problems that usually arise in the history of civilization when mass societies appear and processes of massification of culture are started. Personality becomes an actor of communication processes only when technology answers the preferences of culture but does not take communication beyond the borders of culture as it often happens and what mass media such as cinematograph, TV broadcast and the Internet often demonstrates. Sometimes it takes too long for the critical evaluation of the new communication media created on the basis of advanced technologies to be formed. So the humanity is often too excited about the opportunities that the new mean of communication may offer. Such statement of the question makes it necessary to undertake further historical researches of communication but not in the apologetic meaning as it often happens.

Keywords: globalization, individualization, massification, civilization, mass communication, mass media, book printing, culture, written language, cinematograph.

Abstract: As a musical composition, march is a piece of music of a certain form and with a certain regular rhythm that is written for marching to and satisfying esthetic needs of a listener. In his search for answers to the question about the role and place of march in our life, the author faced the absence of methodological concepts on the matter and therefore chose to study the military march in all its kinds and forms. The subject of the research is the particular role of march as a piece of music in the life of an individual and ethnos, in the process of up-bringing, philosophical achievement of one’s personhood and development of culture. The research method is the search for and interpretation of information about the military music in general and military march in particular as well as comparison of discovered facts deriving from different epochs and cultures about military science, raising a warrior, formation and development of the army and attitude to music as an important element of culture. The novelty of the present research is in the attempt to provide a philosophical interpretation of the phenomenon of march, to compare this musical genre with other active branches of art and to analyze philosophical reflections on the role and influence of military march on the national culture. The author of the research article suggests that we should pay more attention to this unique phenomenon that has become not only the kind of musical composition but also the genre which, besides its ‘official’ purpose, has also created the grounds for further development of musical art and division of music into different musical genres.

Keywords: march, music, philosophy, war, religion, rites, musical instruments, state, army, peace.

Abstract: The subject under review is mutual relations and interactions between the artist and the government. Special attention is paid to the transformation of the dominant, in the author’s opinion, model of the opposition between the artist and the government that was established during the pre-Soviet and Soviet periods of social development. Within the framework of the aforesaid model, relations between the artist and the government have become somewhat neutral without direct opposition between the aforesaid institutions at the present stage of development. Moreover, the author views another model of mutual relations between the artist and the government. Analyzing the latter, the author, on one hand, shows the singularity of American and Soviet popular cultures and, on the other hand, views the need for active influence on products of Russian popular culture by the government for the purpose of formation of national values. Methodological basis of the research is the neo-classical ontology of relations and interactions. Research methods used by the author include both general research procedures such as historical and logical methods and method of comparison and special research methods, in particular, the method of hermeneutic analysis. The author defines and analyzes peculiarities of the ‘neutral’ model of relations between the artist and the government and proves it to be the dominant model in today’s Russia. The author also shows that the process of artistic reflection is mostly the process of formation of new forms during which the artist views the objective reality in accordance with the beauty standards and Universal laws. The main conclusion made by the author is that in today’s Russia changes in social conditions lead to the complication of forms of interaction between the artist and the government.

Keywords: artist, power (government), popular culture, creativity, opposition, de-socialization, art, culture, model, traditions.

Abstract: Thoughts and reflections provided in this article were initiated by the discussions about the role of religion in the modern (post-secular) world. Activation of religious beliefs related thereto and initiated thereby takes different forms and degrees. One of the position of such post-secular religious approach is the denial of Modernity as it is which has its meaning and purpose related to the religious truth and religious methods of life arrangement. This position can be called ‘anti-modernistic approach’. Anti-modernistic religious approach views modernity and secularization as the desire to interpret the truth of low significance as the truth of maximum significance. Therefore, modernity is viewed by the anti-modernistic philosophy as an easy target for criticizing. Accoring to the author, this position can be illustrated by A. Kyrlezhev’s article ‘Post-Secular Conceptualization of Religion’. In this regard, the author sets a goal to define the ‘minimal’ rights of modernity and secularization that can’t be denied by the religious approach. In other words, the author tries to understand the ‘lesson’ taught by modernity that today’s religious community has to learn in order to maintain a more constructive approach. At first the author analyzed Kyrlezhev’s article and appraised his aspirations. Then the author showed the two directions towards finding the essential ‘truth’ of secularization, build the model of the ‘minimal modernity’ based on that truth and summarized the results of his research by describing the ‘symbol of faith’ of a modern post-secular human. When building the model of the modernity, the author based himself on his own concept of modernity as the interculture. When the author analyzed creation of a modern constitutional democratic state as a result of modernity, he referred to Jurgen Habermas’ works.

Keywords: culture, interculture, secularization, post-secular epoch, religion, ideology, New Art (Modernity), Post-Modernity, minimal modernity, symbol of faith.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the phenomenon of composition of television programs which is usually called ‘the line of television programs’. The author describes the prehistory of the process of composing television content in the theater culture, studies the principles of composition of the ancient and medieval performances, Renaissance civic and court theatre and entertainment in the Western Europe and Russia of the early modern period. The author studies the phenomenon of co-existence of theatre acts and plays of different genres and styles within the framework of one performance in the old Russian forms of entertainment, for example, in Skomorokh performances, puppet theatre, bear-baiting and school theatre. The author also compares entertainment performances of different national cultures where actors were not involved such as the Russian raree show and English Eidophusikon. In her research the author combines methods of cultural research and art history and extensively uses typological analysis of the phenomena that are related to different national cultures. The modern stage of the development of screen culture is perceived as the latest modification of the entertainment art closely connected with the pre-screen forms of art. The author describes the two patterns of organization of the conditional ‘play’ reality. The first pattern involves the presence of a solid form-containing statement that can and should be perceived only as an integral and successively developing phenomenon. The second pattern is a sequence of different form-containing statements that do not have to be related in their narrative. These ‘play’ statements do not have to be of the same genre or style. The line of television programs relates to the second pattern of the conditional entertainment reality that has been quite popular in the history of culture. The author concludes that the composition of television programs has a traditional pattern as well as the demonstrative nature of creative impersonal processes while there is the continuous sequence of television forms and frustration of responsive creative needs of the audience. This contradiction of the television art is solved within the framework of the computer culture, the latter being a more complicated and interactive screen form of art.

Keywords: cultural research, ‘archeology’ of mass media, television, theatre, miracle-play, raree show, cinema at the fair, line of television programs, interactivity, entertainment.

Abstract: The problem of interpretation of a classical work of art with the help of modern artistic language has been examined in the paper. Opera “The Tempest” by the contemporary British composer Thomas Ades based on the play by Shakespeare and its stage representation have been analysed. The author shows the importance of fantasy element in Shakespeare’s work which helps the composer to show a number of problems of human existence, morals, power, love in a fairy-tale form, which accents the universality of these problems. The article also poses the problem of translating the meanings of the work in a different cultural context and in another cultural form. Methods of textual analysis of materials concerning the work of Th.Ades and its stage representation have been used as well as semantic analysis of cultural texts (the literary source and the operatic text). Elements of comparative study are also present in the paper. The novelty of the research work is in posing the problem of interpretation of a classical work not only by the language of a different period, but by another cultural form, which creates a complicated interpretative matrix. The author introduces into the field of Shakespearean studies the work of Thomas Ades, one of the most interesting composers of our time, who created an original and talented version of “The tempest” by Shakespeare for contemporary opera scene.

Keywords: classic, cultural form, interpretation, music, art culture, image, fantasy, translation, meaning, work problems.

Abstract: One of the most important indicators of a society ready for war is the appearance of scenarios of a future war in literature. Before the Great Patriotic War the Soviet leadership actively used the genre of the ‘military utopian novel’ to prepare the public conscience to the war but when the war was over, the genre of military utopia was prohibited by the public conscience. However, today there are a great number of books about a forthcoming war being published. This allows to analyze and classify scenarios of future wars. The majority of typical scenarios is balancing on the ‘to be or not to be’ edge. Some scenarios can be called pessimistic because they describe the loss of Russia in the future war. Other scenarios are rather optimistic and propagandize the revival of nation through winning the war. Generally speaking, except for unrealizable or alternative history scenarios, modern scenarios of a future war outline the following courses of events: 1) Russia can be involved into a war with the third countries or alliances as a result of the Ukrainian or Caucasian conflict. The Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk are also mentioned as the starting point of a future war but less frequently. 2) Most writers see it as the war between Russia and the United States and their NATO allies although some authors also suspect the war between Russia and Japan or China. 3) The war is most likely to turn into a series of interweaved local conflicts. Otherwise a limited or even full-scale exchange of nuclear attacks may occur. Noteworthy that the Second World War was also meant to be a series of local lightning wars but turned into a global massacre two years after it had started. 4) Most modern writers see the victory of Russia as a miracle. Writers either describe a desired future that has very little to do with the reality or use all kinds of ‘magical’ inventions. However, it is better than the decadent’s moods typical for the same genre of science fiction in the late USSR. 5) Some writers doubt that the modern Russian leadership is able to firmly and adequately defend the country’s interests using the military force. 6) The majority of writers express the opinion that if Russia loses the war, it will not be only occupied but also subject to prolonged genocide. Generally speaking, modern scenarios of future wars perform their main function which is to prepare the public conscience to fighting ‘their own’ war and to mobilize the public conscience during the ‘period of threat’.

Keywords: future war, military utopian novel, predictive capabilities, alternative history, alarmism, mobilization of the public conscience, anti-utopia, military alert, literary series, post-apocalypse.