revolution of dignity in ukraine: visual fractals of national self-organization
TRANSCRIPT
Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine: Visual Fractals
of National Self-organization
Dr. Olena SemenetsProfessor, Chair of the Department of Social Communications
Zaporizhzhya National University, Ukraine
Main Points of the Investigation:
1. Ukraine in 2013–2016. Revolutionary and combating country.
2. Visual communications in a modern city: interdisciplinary approach.
3. Fractals and Self-organization.4. Visual fractals of patriotic self-organization
in modern Ukrainian society.
Maidan.The Revolution of Dignity(November 2013 – February 2014)
Maidan created a new realityin Ukraine
- the new social time
- and the new social space
Two specific features of the research:1. The analysis of Visual Communications2. The use of the Theory of Complex
Dynamic Systems (Synergetics)Its main concepts:• complexity• non-linearity• non-equilibrium• chaos and order• attractors (trends) of evolution• fractals• self-organization
Synergetics studies systems of different character. It aims at discovering fundamental regularities, fundamental patterns which are common for complex systems: • in the world of animate and inanimate
nature,• in the Universe as a whole,• in human society,• in the sphere of human mind and creative
work.
The notions of fractals and self-organization are worth of special attention.
Fractal is a self-similar object: a part contains information about a whole object; a repeating pattern displays at every scale. (Fractal – from Latin, it means ‘fractional, broken’. The term was coined by the French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in the mid-1970s.)
Types of fractals:1) self-similar pattern;2) quasi-self-similarity;3) stochastic self-similarity – randomly generated
fractal (a statistical fractal, it depends on measurement).
1) Self-similar pattern: the replication is exactly the same at every scale.Example: the Koch curve (the Koch snowflake). described in 1904 by the Swedish mathematician Helge von Koch).
2) Quasi-self-similarity: the replication is nearly the same at different levels. It may contain small copies of entire fractal in distorted and degenerated forms.Example: the Mandelbrot set .
3) Stochastic self-similarity: it repeats a pattern stochastically (a randomly generated fractal). A statistical fractal (depends on measurement).The well-known example: the coastline of Britain.‘How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension’(the paper by Benoit Mandelbrot, first published in ‘Science’ in 1967).
Measures: 200 km; 50 km – more exact,
more precise.
Fractals exist in the nature (animate, inanimate) and in the human society as well. Natural fractals, for example, are ocean waves, coastlines, shapes of clouds, mountain
ranges (inanimate nature); crowns of trees, starfishes and seashells, animal
coloration patterns, vegetables, flowers and fruits (animate nature);
respiratory system (‘respiratory tree’), blood vessels, DNA molecules.
Natural phenomena with fractal features: - inanimate nature
- animate nature
Fractal structure also manifests in social phenomena, in material and ideal outcomes of human creativity: political and state symbols, ethnical stereotypes and so on. Fractal principle is one of the most fundamental regularities in the Universe.For instance, a surprising similarity appears between the patterns of neuronal connections in human brain (the left
image) and the structure of the Universe (the right image – computer
simulation represents a large cluster of galaxies surrounded by the network of stars and dark matter).
The similarity of the structures is observed in the scale: from microns – to billions of light years.
Now fractal graphic images can be generated according to mathematical formulas using special software.Examples: Fractals created using Apophysis computer program and other similar software.
Fractals generated using software.Of particular interest are the fractal structure with a distinct core and a periphery (as on these images). Such fractal patterns vividly demonstrate the dynamics of system development.
Features of a fractal structure: self-similarity (a part is similar to a whole system); scale invariants (the same pattern is repeated at all levels of system organization); potential for developing, continuing structure (the cores, the centers of fractal organizations can ‘unfold’ themselves and continue their structure at different levels of a system).
Fractal structure Self-organization
Applying the Theory of Fractals in studying Social Communications, in particular
visual communications in modern Ukrainian cities
A special role in organizing visual discourse during the Revolution of Dignity was performed by national and state symbols: the State Flag of Ukraine the State Coat of Arms (the Ukrainian
Tryzub) traditional folk embroidery (the Ukrainian
Vyshyvanka).
National and State Symbols of Ukraine
Ukrainian Vyshyvanka
Violent events of the Revolution of Dignity, civil conflicts in the Eastern Ukraine and external aggression (2013–2016) had an effect of fundamental changes in human consciousness. Ukrainians had confidently and powerfully felt themselves as the nation. They had understood common aims, their unity and determination to act together. Bright changes had occurred at the same time in the organization of visual space of Ukrainian cities and villages.Strong yellow and blue wave rose over the whole country, and that wave was gaining expressiveness and power from day to day.National visual symbols penetrated all social and cultural space; they found more and more new areas of realization. They enriched those areas with a particular excited content and absorbed the memory of the people’s new historical experience.
People’s creativity was looking for ways of embodiment of the national patriotic content.Example: the luxury Golf Club in the city of Zaporizhzhya circled with a yellow-blue ribbon the territory of his restaurant in April 2014. “Ribbons are our talisman, – says the master. – After we hung flags and tapes, good people nearby became more.”
It is significant a huge range of fractal replication: from a gate of a private yard – – to patriotic colors of Obolon’ embankment in Kiev (1750 sq. meters), which took more than 500 kg of paint.
Especially grand events occurred on Constitution Day (June 28) in 2014. In the evening the Motherland monument in Kiev ‘got dressed’ in yellow and blue attire. Because of two powerful spotlights painted 100 meter high statue into the colors of the national Flag. And on the shield in her hand the Emblem of Ukraine – Trident – there was designed by spotlights.
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In the city of Dnipropetrovs’k a huge flaming Coat of Arms appeared on the unfinished hotel ‘Sail’. 80 volunteers lighted from the windows of building the Ukrainian Coat of Arms first with flashlights and then with torches. The immense Trident covered overall 15 floors high. In such way activists honored the memory of heroes died on Maidan (‘Heavenly Hundred’) and of those people that were killed during the military operation in Eastern Ukraine.
Fractal objects have a feature of scale invariance. Hence, there are inexhaustible opportunities to folk art, to implantation of important meanings on different levels, in different spheres, in more and more new contexts. For example, in everyday life, in women’s adornment, in outdoor advertising, etc.
Different types of fractals:1) self-similar pattern (exact
reproductions of the object at different scales)
proportion 2:3(width to length)of the blue and yellow bicolour
2) quasi-self-similarity (some variations of the established proportion)
3) stochastic fractals (parameters vary under the circumstances). The main conceptual content gets creative, innovative design in them.
Traditional folk embroidery (the Ukrainian Vyshyvanka)Vyshyvanka is the Ukrainian traditional clothing which contains elements of ethnic embroidery. Ukrainian folk embroidery is the core of traditional folk symbolism, embodied memory of millennia. During those memorable events it has gained the vast spread in streets of towns and villages (in different cities of Ukraine there were ‘Marches of Embroidery’).
Along with all those events, the embroidery became an exponent of the new revolutionary implications. Moreover, the embroidery moved beyond the merely national discourse and – as a symbol of determination in the liberation struggle – it acquired the status of the world trend.
Hollywood Stars: ‘Parade of Embroidered Shirts’
‘Car embroidery’ in Ukraine(patriotic cars tuning)
Collection of bagged sugar ‘The Ukrainian Embroidery’
Collection of bagged sugar ‘The Ukrainian Embroidery’
Fractals are manifestation of unity and integrity of the system because the basic idea is reiterated at all levels of the organization. Strong symbolic relationship permeates all subsystems of the society (individual – family – social groups – the whole society) and all spheres of activity (everyday life – professional area – culture – social and political spheres). All those processes occur spontaneously. Those phenomena do not arise under the pressure. On the contrary, the innovations rise from the deep layers of the system upwards. This is a true manifestation of the society’s self-organization.
Medical Center ‘Global Diagnostic’ in Zaporizhzhya. Slogan:
‘Ukraine is indivisible!’
Social network “ВКонтакте”. The group ‘The Flag of Ukraine for everyone’
All this visual patriotic discourse, with its fractal structure, was a powerful surge of creating the nation, especially in spring – summer 2014.However, moods in a society, dominants of a public opinion are substances variable. Accordingly, there is a certain dynamics in a visual organization of urban space as their reflection.After a while, some feelings of frustration and disappointment appeared in the community. It was caused by people’s terrible tiredness, by horrors of the war, by many months of psychical tension, and by the lack of real reforms in the country and the notorious corruption.Pain of enormous human losses in the war.Mutilated bodies of badly wounded people.Incurable wounds in souls of those who have survived in the war.
Moods in a society, especially their emotional components, is a very dynamic thing. Nevertheless, social sentiments in their changes subject to certain laws:• ‘rhythms of civilizations’ (Lev Gumilyov)• ‘waves’ of a social development (Alvin Toffler) • and other concepts.The dynamics of current events in the Ukrainian society is also subject to those ‘wave’ patterns. Under such rhythms, after a while, public energy reduces the level and accumulates potential for a next rise.Over time, a new visuality appeared on streets, squares and public gardens in Ukrainian cities and villages:
- portraits of the ‘Heavenly Hundred’
- portraits of the heroes killed in battles in Eastern Ukraine
The Ukrainians…
...on their own land.
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