The text reflects on photographic methods of documenting the city. The paper is parted into four sections: the first presents the issues surrounding documenting, the second discusses historical examples of urban documentary, the third analyses the modern tendency of construction and, finally, the last fourth section introduces examples of contemporary art practice. Written with regard to the concepts of François Soulages I will discuss, among others, the following projects: The Inventory (Inwentaryzacja) by Ireneusz Zjeżdżałka, A Sky over Warsaw by Juliusz Sokołowski and The Other City (Inne miasto) by Wojciech Wilczyk and Elżbieta Janicka. All examples focus on different aspects of documentation: they allow preserving in a viewer’s mind the lost past, create a contra-image of a city or reveal the unseen and forgotten fragments of history.

The aim of this paper is twofold. The first part of the paper discusses development of the city image in Western literature and gives insight into visual methods Central European authors of the twentieth century have used to depict the city in their works. The second part of the paper shows how the urban space is represented, documented, evoked, and performed in the novels of Michal Ajvaz, Marija Jurić Zagorka, and George Konrad.

The article focuses on the practices relevant for digital mapping based on dynamic data processing and GIS. I argue that participatory mapping can be seen as a form of data driven activism and as such it is first and foremost the example of the collective knowledge. Hence, the primary function of the images (e.g. maps) produced in the process is not so much the representation of the city as rather it is the role they play in the dynamic operations of knowledge production on a grassroots level. Given that the computing technology and data processing saturate the social relations of the contemporary urban environments to the considerable extent, certain shift in the scope of analysis is required: the focus on how the images emerge and how they act in the world seems to be more relevant than the traditional analysis of the city’s visual representation.

The aim of the article is to present the challenges posed to the visual documentation of city cultures by the new social phenomena of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, which create new forms of participation in shaping urban culture and the urban community. In order to discuss the new phenomena some examples will be shown. A fake subway map, a crowdmap or an amateur science project data visualization show how visual tools can be used in the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding models of action as a collaborative project.

The aim of this work is the analysis of advertising message in expression culture jamming. Adbusting, subverting, billboard banity, hoating are techniques, which create new advertising message without primary meaning. The inspiration of culture jamming are samizdat, monkeywrenching, guerrilla graffi ti, underground journalism, subcultural bricol guerrilla art, poetica terrorism, technique cut and paste and turntablism. Culture jamming oppose to customer life style and globalization. The aim of activists culture jamming is to unmask mechanism and message of advertising. In this situation message of advertising lose primary meaning. New semiology of advertising, which come into being communicative fuss. In this situation secondary meaning replaces to primary meaning. Important for progress of culture jamming is memetics, science, which investigate disseminate and comprehend signs in culture. Understanding of denotation and connotation signs and symbols in culture facilitate using the linguistic code.

Review:

Joanna Aleksandrowicz, Pomiędzy płótnem a ekranem. Inspiracje twórczością Goi w kinie hiszpańskim, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Katowice 2012, ss. 358.