The article introduces a cultural research of the mega-project “One Belt — One Road”. It shows that the People’s Republic of China positions its global initiative to resurrect the Great Silk Road as an infrastructure project. Its realization is accompanied exclusively by political and economic discourse. According to the author, it is a great omission since the success or failure of the grandiose plans of the Celestial Empire depends not as much on the administrative and financial resources involved as on the sincere interest and involvement of people, on the interaction in terms of a much wider cultural background. The study of Russian information materials devoted to this project shows that the humanitarian component of the New Silk Road still remains at the level of declarations and formal thematic procedures. The project lacks publicity. The great history of the Silk Road is not updated. The cultural perspective of its revival is out of the discussion. No one dreams of enriching the cultural synthesis. Any anticipation of discoveries and prospects is not heard of. The project as a whole lies on the periphery of media attention and evaluation. But what would happen if globalization continues its development not from the Protestant ethics standpoint but the Confucian or Buddhist one? It might offer a good alternative that would change everything. This can change many things if accompanied by goodwill but we do not see discussions pertaining to the cultural transformations the project may lead to. One can observe rather the opposite. In the eighth year of the implementation of the initiative “One Belt — One Road”, a project hitting the scope of transformations and huge investments, the enthusiasm of its participants (politicians, administrators, and businessmen) is often tinged with doubts caused by discrepancies in understanding events and agreements. Ontological reasons for such a state of affairs constitute the cultural constellation (dependence upon a point of view and the divergence of the ontical “assembly” of the same phenomena). Through viewing specific examples, the author concludes that the misunderstanding of ideological landmarks, the incomprehensibility of values, the diversity of motivation and aspirations of participants make the confidential and interested cooperation problematic. Without actualization of discourse, without involving people in co-creation, without a broad and deep inclusion of the informally organized humanitarian sphere, where the problems of “human, too human” are solved, the project is unlikely to meet expectations in terms of its historical mission.

The development of digital culture has made significant changes in the field of culture and information, in particular in the field of library activities. Digitization of library collections forms a digital resource of knowledge, which requires reflection and identification of its potential, strengths and weaknesses. The strengths of the digital resource include a multiple increase in the availability of the book collections and a qualitative change in the opportunity of their research. The problematic aspects of digitalization include the issue of reliability of the digital sources and authenticity of a book unit translated into digital format. One of the verification solutions to this issue may be creating a digital information block accompanying a digital book to collect, accumulate and preserve information about the paper book unit and the history of its existence.

Due to the development of digital technologies, a paper book ceases to be the only medium of information. From an information document, it turns into an object of culture with a memory value, historical and artistic features. The translation of the book into the category of a cultural object brings together the position of libraries and museums as medium socio-communicative institutions that act as a platform for the presentation of their collections, one of the most optimal forms of which are exhibitions. The article considers the issues of representativeness of book exhibits and book exhibitions in the conditions of development of the digital environment and digital technologies. There is examined the representativeness of book exhibitions using the example of thematic and artistic-mythological exposition methods.

The article considers the activities of the Museum of Painting Culture (MZHK) and the Higher Art and Technical Workshops (VKHUTEMAS) and their experimental searches of the first third of the 20th century in the field of creating new museum exposition forms and exhibition formats. The author draws parallels between universal methods of working with an art object developed by MZHK and VKHUTEMAS and working with book exhibits when creating an exhibition today. The article briefly outlines the tasks solved by the curatorial and design group to strengthen the representative function of an exhibit-book. There are analyzed modern forms of real and virtual exhibitions, their interrelation and mutual influence, formats of interaction. The article notes the importance of exhibitions for the self-presentation of cultural institutions in the digital space.

The role of media projects in the modern world is growing. Today they are used in various spheres of activity of subjects of sociocultural communication. Theaters and museums, striving to remain a living part of society, are increasingly using media projects, providing their visitors with the opportunity to interact with the cultural achievements of the present and past.

The article considers media projects as a promising communication technology in the development of cultural institutions. The article describes the transformation of the museum and theatrical space organization, the trend towards the growth of interactivity as a form of open dialogue between the visitor and the cultural institution. The author defines the concept of “media project in the field of art”. Museums and theaters today are participants in the process of mediatization, they actively use digital communication technologies and new models of communication with the audience. There are considered examples of successful media projects using virtual and augmented reality technologies in Russian museums and theaters over the past few years, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article focuses on the connection of cultural institutions with new media — both of them disseminate information content, seek to gain and retain the attention of the audience. There are described examples of new media that have a successful experience in the implementation of educational projects. The article also discusses culture-oriented media projects in the field of education, which contributes to the formation and strengthening of the cultural competence of a modern specialist in any field.

There are formulated the problems that a cultural institution may face at the stages of planning and implementing a media project. The author comes to the conclusion that media projects help to attract a wide audience to a cultural institution and retain the interest of its regular visitors; and interactivity, gamification and high-quality design will bring media projects in the field of art to a qualitatively new level.

The article presents an overview of the literature on the history of the study of Greek religious engravings. For the first time, there is collected information about the Greek engravings, from the first mentions of them by travelers, to scientific works — monographs, articles, catalogs of collections and exhibitions dedicated to this rare phenomenon of mass religious culture of the 19th century, which has received insufficient attention, especially in Russian literature. This kind of art is quite fully represented in Russian collections, but it remains known only to a narrow circle of specialists. The article presents a systematized review of the world literature, which shows the extent of the study of the topic and opens up space for further research. The article shows the first pre-scientific (empirical) experiments in the description and interpretation of Greek engravings as a special type of church art, mainly Athonite. Further, the author considers the first scientific research and analyzes the monumental works on which all subsequent scientists rely. These are such catalogs as “Paper Icons” by D. Papastratu (in two volumes), “Khilandar Graphics”, “Svyatogorsk Graphics” by D. Davydov. Along with the studies of the main contemporary authors, there are also mentioned studies related to the theme of Greek engraving in an indirect way — those concerning the genesis of the phenomenon of this type of church art. These are studies of proskynetarions, specific engravings and paintings with views of holy places. The article concludes with a historiographic survey of recently published Russian catalogs and studies. This presentation structure corresponds to the task of studying the interest of scientists in this kind of art, identifying scientific problems that attracted researchers in different periods of time.

The main purpose of the paper is to trace the continuity of the form of pilgrim signs: Renaissance secular hat badges inherited the shape and composition of late medieval pilgrim badges. More than a hundred European portraits of the late 15th — first half of the 16th century represent a model in a headdress decorated with a similar medal or badge, often with an emblematic image inside. This accessory originates from the religious tradition of keeping small medallions from pilgrimage sites, made of cheap metals or wax and known as “pilgrim signs”. The relevance of the research lies in the comparison of cultural traditions usually studied separately from each other due to their belonging to different periods of art history, as well as in an attempt to trace their continuity. The author analyzes the process of transferring the semantic meanings of pilgrim badges from the religious sphere to the field of socio-cultural practices associated with secular aristocratic fashion and the goals of personal self-identification. The article highlights the main aspects of the existence and functioning of pilgrimage signs, analyzes the practices of their purchase, wearing and storage. The author examines the development of their external forms, the variety of materials, as well as the meanings with which these signs were endowed in everyday life. There is found that Renaissance hat badges still retained the meaning of religious patronage. In some examples of portrait images, there is presented the practice of wearing jewelry badges-brooches that were part of aristocratic fashion suits, the elements of which can be interpreted in the context of personal self-identification practices. In this role, the hat badges imply a kind of expression of feelings, moods and intentions of the person portrayed. In the process of comparing the Renaissance brooches and pilgrim signs, there is also manifested their significant semantic difference organizing the visual narrative.

“Frost” on tin is a decorating technique widely used in the Russian chest production of the 19th—20th centuries. The technology is based on the crystallization of molten tin plate (a mixture of tin and lead) with the addition of water droplets and a chemical reaction on the crystallized tin plate of a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acids. The technique of “frost” on tin as one of the means of decorating chests and caskets has not been previously devoted to a special study. The purpose of this paper is to identify the origins and significance of this technique in the history of chest production in Russia, to determine its artistic features in comparison with foreign items, as well as to analyze specific works. Items from the collection of the Folk Art Department of the State Russian Museum were used as research material. The chronological framework of the study is the 19th—20th centuries. The author of the paper concludes that the “frost” on tinwas extremely popular over a vast territory. This technique was not a feature of the applied art only of Veliky Ustyug. For a long time, it played an important role in decorating chests, caskets, cellarets and boxes. In some centers, this technique successfully competed with painting. Perhaps, the “frost” on tin was a borrowed phenomenon. This had become possible due to the favorable conditions associated not only with trade but also with the development of the culture of certain regions of Russia. The foreign technique was adapted by Russian craftsmen in accordance with local artistic traditions.

This paper discusses the phenomenon of “russerie” (“Russian theme”) and its specific embodiment in the work of the French engraver and artist Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (1734—1781). A student of François Boucher (1703—1770), he consistently developed the rocaille aesthetics of his teacher. Le Prince arrived in St. Petersburg in 1757. After spending five years in Russia, the artist returned to his homeland in France. Over the next decade, reflecting on the impressions received during his trip to Russia, he created numerous works devoted to the “Russian theme”. It was these works that formed the basis for “russerie” — a new genre of exoticism in European art. The most outstanding examples of the “Russian theme” in graphics are the prints produced in the new engraving method called lavis, invented by Le Prince (1769). These prints, creating the illusion of a watercolor drawing in printed graphics, have hardly attracted the attention of Russian scholars until recently. This article, for the first time, consistently examines the features of this technique and, basing on a number of archival documents, presents the reconstruction of public opinion and the evaluation of these works by the audience. The central part in the article is devoted to the “Russian theme” in lavis. There is shown the originality of “russerie” in lavis on the plot and stylistic levels. Besides, the article considers the relationship of this theme with “chinoiserie” and “turquerie”. In addition, the author outlines the development prospects of the “Russian theme”, which appeared under the influence of prints in the manner of lavis.

The article examines a number of M.V. Dobuzhinsky’s graphic works published in “Jester”, “The World of Art” and “Apollo” magazines, in comparison with the works of artists in the Munich magazines “Jugend” and “Simplicissimus”. There are revealed the motifs that influenced Dobuzhinsky’s works: the image of pavement and brickwork, the image of a black cat. The author has found that Dobuzhinsky repeated the drawing of the devil by T.T. Heine in a vignette for the magazine “Golden Fleece”. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that, for the first time, it analyzes M.V. Dobuzhinsky’s graphic works published in Russian magazines of the turn of the century, comparing each of them with drawings with similar motifs in the magazines “Jugend” and “Simplicissimus”. The chronological method of analyzing the works of M.V. Dobuzhnisky’s magazine graphics made it possible to reveal the genesis of the image of the city, as well as to clarify the beginning of his appeal to the theme of classicism architecture. In addition, the article introduces into scientific circulation Dobuzhnisky’s drawings for the Petersburg satirical magazine “Jester”. Their chronological analysis in comparison with similar works from the Munich satirical magazines reveals the genesis of the artist’s mastering of Jugendstil drawings in the first year of his autonomous activity. The results obtained demonstrate the influence of woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer on the formation of a unique line in Dobuzhinsky’s drawings. The author concludes that that due to the artist’s appeal to Dürer’s woodcuts, as well as to engravings by Japanese masters, M.V. Dobuzhinsky followed the same path as the masters of the Munich magazine graphics, having developed by the mid-1900s their achievements to a new level in his works.

This study focuses on the development and changes in the visual language of E.A. Kibrik in the conditions of co-participation in the system of philosophical values of P.N. Filonov and his school. There is explored the process of sign interpretation in illustrations of graphic and symbolic art language of E.A. Kibrik as a component of P.N. Filonov’s natural philosophy doctrine. The notion of “analytic art” or “analytic method” can be considered primarily as an innovative development of P.N. Filonov, which is characterized by the concept of artist-researcher based on the disclosure of the “purity” of forms by analytical means.

In the context of studying the creative thinking of E.A. Kibrik during the Filonov period, it seems significant to consider the conjunction of problems in illustrating literary works with the method of natural philosophical pictorialism and technical expressiveness of details. E.A Kibrik’s works allow us to identify the themes, psychological and social motivations that are characteristic of Filonov’s doctrine, as well as to raise the question of the incompleteness of the search for style and artistic language in that period of time.

The ideology of the new time, identical to the innovative content of the Russian avant-garde, was also manifested in the works of E.A. Kibrik in the late 1920s — early 1930s. His role in the general process of creating a paradoxical art reality is defined primarily by the influence of P.N. Filonov, a theorist and master of analytical art. The study is especially relevant because it analyzes previously unexplored and unpublished works by E.A. Kibrik of the Filonov period (1930) from the family collection of art historian A.A. Agamirova and Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts B.F. Belsky. The article presents E.A. Kibrik’s unknown drawings that are the result of the artist’s first creative business trip. The unexplored graphic sheets reveal the multi-variant nature of the artist’s method and his experimental approach, which has largely remained unknown to a wide audience.

This article examines contemporary English-language research on multiplayer role-playing games. There can be identified several large problematic areas. The article aims to trace how the largest of them are formed, to describe the process of their emergence and development at the present time, as well as to describe the main points that researchers have worked out. The discussion of this topic makes it possible to understand how the conceptual apparatus of the research on multiplayer role-playing games is changing in modern English-language studies.

One of the major problematic areas is related to the study of the participants’ motivation in multiplayer role-playing games. This problematic area seeks to answer the question: “What keeps players coming back to the same game over and over again?” Scientists working in this field believe that players return to virtual worlds to get opportunities for virtual earnings, a variety of social interactions, role-playing, and because of the spirit of exploration. Another problematic area is based on the study of player-to-player relationships and explores the construction of social connections around a video game. The researchers are interested in the issues of leadership and social consolidation, which takes the form of guilds in multiplayer role-playing games. The third major problematic area arises from the study of player self-identification. The scientists are trying to understand which parts of a player’s identity influence their experience and how it is mediated. The research on multiplayer role-playing games is a complex interdisciplinary phenomenon that requires involving specialists from different fields, in particular economists, sociologists, linguists.

The article deals with the iconography of the Easter holiday in Russia, specifically the image of “The Resurrection with the Descent into Hell”, common to the Russian art of the 17th—18th centuries. This image arises as a result of copying Western European engravings by Russian icon painters. The engravings illustrate the Apostles’ Creed — its fifth formula, which is different from the Orthodox one. In the Orthodox Creed, the fifth formula is called the Resurrection on the Third Day, in the Apostolic one — the Descent into Hell and the Resurrection. The Apostolic Creed is included in the Protestant Bibles, which turn out to be a source of new plots and compositions for Russian painters.

In the process of its existence in Russian art, the new image of “The Resurrection with the Descent into Hell” is filled with additional plots, but most importantly, its main compositional scheme changes.

The two main plots that make it up — the Descent into Hell and the Resurrection — are located on the icon field in different ways, depending on the interpretation of the painters or in strict accordance with the engraving model. Based on the location of the plots that make up the icon, there are distinguished compositional variants with either sequential or vertical arrangement of the plots. Within the first variant, there may be some subgroups: “The Descent into Hell” (whose topos is the underworld) is located below “The Resurrection” (whose topos is earthly space). We see that the iconographers correlate “The Descent into Hell” with the image of “Anastasis” (the Orthodox icon of the Resurrection). This follows from the way the location of the plots changed, when on older monuments — in contradiction with the composition of the engravings — “The Resurrection” had been located below.

The most famous in Russian art is the vertical compositional version. The two plots are located strictly above each other, forming the central axis of the entire iconographic work, around which other storylines are added. In accordance with the Western European engravings, “The Resurrection” is located here in the upper register. These various modifications must be taken into consideration in order to understand both the genesis and the main content of the new iconography.

The archetype of ideal city is one of the most significant in the development of world culture due to the fact that the idea of perfect world order, embodied in a spatial image, has reflected from ancient times the most important value orientations of the cultures of the Middle Ages and the Modern Times, both of the West and of the East. In Russian culture, the archetype of ideal city is embodied in the images of the Heavenly Jerusalem and the City of Kitezh. We have chosen as an object of research the works of Russian naive artists of the 20th century, which allows us to trace the development dynamics of this archetype in modern Russian culture. The subject of the research is the embodiment and peculiar interpretation of the archetype of ideal city in the works of naive artists Pavel Petrovich Leonov (1920—2011), Vagan Yerevandovich Sakiyan (1926—2002), Yury Dmitryevich Deev (1944—1998). The aim is to identify culturally conditioned interpretations of the national archetypes of ideal city in the naive art of the twentieth century. The article also conducts a multi-level cultural research of the creative world of the naive artists P.P. Leonov, V.E. Sakiyan and Yu.D. Deev, revealing the most characteristic features of this art phenomenon. The study of national Russian culture involves referring to a number of works on cultural studies, philosophy, mythology, history, philology, folklore studies, etc., devoted to the issues of national archetypes. The analysis of the naive painting works by Russian artists is carried out on the basis of cultural-philosophical, comparative-historical, typological, and analytical approaches. The naive art as a cultural phenomenon of Russian culture is very little studied in modern science; meanwhile, it combines many different cultural-psychological, cultural-historical and socio-cultural phenomena.

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