From contemplation to participation. Cognitive-semiotic status of the installation during the Night of Culture

Abstract

Street festivals such as The Night of Culture (Noc Kultury) are aimed at fostering cultural participation. The growing popularity of such festivals raises the question, whether The Night of Culture creates an environment facilitating knowledge popularization. The paper explains that The Night of Culture creates an experience of engagement and immersion. The experience of immersion and engagement is grounded in blurring the clear distinction between representational objects and elements of so-called ordinary reality. Since the art installations at The Night of Culture are often designed to be treated as an extension of the physical space in which the participant is located, from the participant’s perspective they lose the standard representational function. The paper explains that blurring the distinction between representation and reality impose serious limitation on treating the installations at The Night of Culture as the objects with a cognitive function.