Мultimedia exhibitions as an object of political analysis: the challenge of multimodality

The methodological essay argues for the need to rely on the literature on multimodality research in studies of multimedia exhibitions. The rise of the role of such projects in Russia is demonstrated by the cases of the historical parks “Russia – My History”, and of the exhibition-forum “Russia” on the territory of VDNH, that is also planned to be transformed into a long-term project. Modern technologies create ample opportunities for broadcasting the necessary information content and at the same time make the consumption of such content an exciting form of entertainment. However, facilitating use of such exhibitions as a tool of symbolic politics, i.e. the ability to broadcast multiple streams of information through channels that involve different modes of sensory perception, it hampers their study by the traditional methods focusing on specific characteristics of either linguistic or visual content.
Searching for relevant methodological solutions, the author addresses the litera-ture on multimodality. The essay seeks to apply the system of concepts and principles proposed by J. Bateman, J. Wildfeuer and T. Hiippala in their problem- oriented intro-duction to multimodality to the cases of regional exposition of the exhibition “Russia”. It presents the ontological analysis and systematization of the communicative resources used in these expositions. According to the author’s argument, it is hardly correct to assess the ideological impact of the exhibition within the framework of a model that considers communicants as passive recipients of messages, because the most part of the employed communicative resources provide customers with active participative roles, although in the boundaries established by designed scripts.

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