Kultura
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The Kultura Journal is an international scientific journal for the theory and sociology of culture and cultural policy, which follows culture in the widest sense of the word where science, education and all human activities are taken as its integral part.
It was started in 1968 courtesy to the efforts of Stevan Majstorović, founder of the Centre for Studies in Cultural Development, with the objective to encourage integrative, analytical and critical interpretations of the modern cultural phenomena.
At the time of its establishment, the Kultura Journal was unique in the domain of intellectual thought both in terms of its concept and its design. Since the first issue, i.e. over the fifty years of its existence, Kultura has been and has remained open to creative ideas from the country and the world, as seen from the texts of important foreign authors and contributions from professionals coming from the cultural centres of former Yugoslavia, as well as domestic authors who offered new ideas and approaches to culture. The recognizable design solution of the logo of the journal and its cover page were created by the artist and calligraphist Božidar Bole Miloradović, for the very first number.
As of 1971, the issues were edited thematically, which has been dominant practice to this date, with the aim of enriching certain thematic fields in our cultural and scientific community.
The first Editorial Board of the Kultura Journal consisted of eleven members, led by the Editor-in Chief Stevan Majstorović and Trivo Inđić, as conceptual instigators of the journal which heralded a new orientation in the intellectual field. Members of the Editorial Board were: Slobodan Canić, Dragutin Gostuški, Vujadin Jokić, Danica Mojsin, Mirjana Nikolić, Nebojša Popov, Bogdan Tirnanić, Milan Vojnović and Tihomir Vučković. Over the five decades of the Kultura Journal, editorial boards changed several times.
Kultura is issued every three months (four times a year) and its printing has been financed by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia since 2001. With support of the competent ministry, all numbers of this journal, from the first to the last issue, were digitalized in 2009. As a result, a DVD containing digital form of the journal, was available with the issue No. 129, titled "Electronic libraries". A few years later, in 2013, Kultura switched to the Cyrillic script, with an important note that it still published in Latin script those authors from the region who originally use Latin script(Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia). With the issue No. 140, on the occasion of marking the 45th anniversary of the Kultura Journal, a special USB was made available, with all the texts from the numbers 1-137. The web page of the Centre for Studies in Cultural Development contains all the texts ever published in any issue of the Kultura Journal over half a century of its existence.
The Department for Registration of Journals of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, the Kultura Journal was registered in 2005 (when categorisation of scientific journals started) marked as category P53. In 2010,it was registered as category M52 in the group of journals for history, art,history, ethnology and archaeology. At the beginning of July 2012, the journal advanced to the category of national interest, by Decision of the Ministry of education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia (M51).
Kultura is regularly deposited with the Repository of the National Library of Serbia, and since 2010, it has been included in the Serbian Quotation Index, where the texts published in Kultura can be found in full digital form. As of 2011, the texts i.e. scientific articles, apart from the regular UDK (universal decimal classification) also carry specific DOI (Digital Object Identifier) codes, that allow for their greater visibility and international indexing under international standards. In the meantime,electronic version of the journal was started i.e. the first steps were made towards electronic edition by CEON (Service for monitoring, measuring and valorisation of scientific journals) through Aseestant electronic editing programme. This has contributed to the quality of published articles, as the editorial board now have at their disposal adequate programmes for text checking in terms of correct citation sand listings of references as well as prevention of plagiarism.
Kultura is regularly delivered to the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade, Belgrade City Library,University Library "Svetozar Marković" in Belgrade, Library of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, Library of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade, Library of the Rectorate of the University of Arts in Belgrade, University Library in Niš and University Library in Kragujevac. The Kultura Journalis regularly received by numerous interested institutions of culture (libraries, theatres, museums, culture centres) as well as individuals. The Journal nurtures professional exchanges with many similar institutions and magazines in the country, region and in Europe (Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia,Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland and other countries).
In addition to respecting scientific rules and standards for publishing scientific papers, Kultura has not lost the curiosity or the freshness of an avant-garde magazine dealing with both eternal and very actual topics.
Pages
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- Customer relationship management strategy as an opportunity for improving the modern marketing concept
- Previous marketing practices have caused much criticism of this concept, which is why the necessity for its overcoming is emphasized in academic and professional debates. Therefore, the basic task of the modern marketing concept becomes building good relationships both with the market participants and the wider social public. This paper aims to show that creation of good relations with key participants in the market is one of the possibilities for improving overall business in the global environment. The starting point of this issue is consideration of the marketing criticism from a wider perspective and highlighting its solving potentials in the direction of building good relationships with marketing participants. In this process, it is important to emphasize the potential of marketing relations as the concept that we promote within the contemporary marketing. The concept of marketing relations will be considered through the 4 Os model. Reaching these complex but legitimate demands sets difficult task before the participants in today's market, but trends show that only by developing good relations it is possible to achieve a long-term sustainable position.
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- Cyber-performance as a new media art
- This text analyses the relation between the world of reality and the world of illusion in the frame of global dominance of cyber culture through transformation of one of the forms of performing arts praxis into a new media art praxis. Classical theatre has gone a long way from breaking traditional forms through introductions of new technologies into live performances to a total transformation on the Internet. This opened up the problem of the theatrical performance happening here and now and the performace using only the human body i.e. the live image (separating this praxis from all other art forms). After the key intervention has been made with essencial determination of the theatre by transfering the theatre as a means of communication into a cyber space, this theory has found itself in a slippery field of interpretation and critical approach to its new onthology. This text just opens some of the questions without offering explicit convictions, and it does not give a rounded opinion on the topic since the modern art problematics, whose specific sphere enables introduction of polemics about the new media, develops like an IT network without a possibility for a reliable foundation or casting full light onto its functioning.
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- Cybernetic eugenics
- In the work 'Cybernetic Eugenics: Culture in the Bermuda Triangle and the Disappearance of Man' we identify strategic concepts and theoretical directions and analysis of culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, authored by Paul Virilio, a cultural theorist and phenomenologist, whose thought is based in physics, philosophy, politics and urban planning. Paul Virilio's analysis is focused on mutual interweaving and taking human's ontology that takes place in the triangle of war - speed - the means of representation, such as machines of perception and logistics of perception. Virilio's project is not, however, aimed only at identification of the impact of internal logic of individual technologies or technological phenomena on culture, but also penetrates into broad implicit impact that this technology has on the collective perception of space and time, where each new technological device has affected the discipline and colonization of the human subject, allowing establishment of the 'globalitarian' power which, supported by science without conscience and bio-technological extremism, shatters and breaks down the very foundations of humanity.
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- Cyrillic in the Constitution of Serbia
- In spite of introducing Cyrillic as an official script in the Serbian language, its use shows a declining tendency. A review of relevant legal and language sources show that the question of the status of Cyrillic is one of the manifestations of ideological struggle of two opposed groups: the Euro regional one whose standpoint arises from the language policy from 1972, the 1974 Constitution and the Opinion given by the Venice Committee, and the other one of a nationalistic/centralistic tone grounded in the comparative law of the EU member states. The balance of power in this struggle is also reflected in the decision of the Constitutional Court, which has imposed its authority in the matters of the Cyrillic script, as paramount language use authority.
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- Dandyism and fashion
- In an attempt to examine the phenomenon of dandyism this paper deals with the relation of an individual's freedom and his conditioning by the swings of fashion. Although first set in a certain place and moment in history, dandyism holds a universal cultural significance since it promotes a new understanding of individuality. A dandy exists only thanks to his own judgment of taste reflecting in the clothes he wears, in his forbearing and his manners. Instead of dressing himself according to the customs of his social class, as was expected, a dandy as a modern individual saw an opportunity for self-realization in the free choice of clothes and manners. We owe the credit to the dandyism for the discovery of a possibility to express one's independence and originality so directly and externally. A key question that defines the cultural reach of the dandyism as a phenomenon remains if this behavior can ensure true freedom to an individual or if it only opens up a new field of social manipulation.
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- Darkside of the national liberation war heritage
- The focal point of the article is the practice of using Yugoslav World War II memorials as scenery in music videos and fashion campaigns, as well as the controversies it raised in the social media in the past few months. Whereas some perceive it as commodification, fetishization and desecration, and regard it as abuse of such heritage in general, others support this form of using cultural resources and claim that it offers a new stage in the life of the memorials which had been destroyed or marginalized for more than a decade. The main issue arising from the ongoing dispute is that the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable mode of using the Yugoslav memorial heritage must be determined, extending onto the question of which authority should set these boundaries. In order to suggest a possible solution for overcoming the conflict, we have considered the causes for the increased interest in the memorial heritage of the former Yugoslavia and the issue of the conflict itself. Drawing on the distinct theories of heritage, commodification and cultural management, we advocate for a constructive critical dialogue that would include all the interested groups. In addition, the very opening of this dialogue would enable revaluation of the Yugoslav memorial heritage and hopefully prevent intensification of its abuse.
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- David Štrbac
- The paper deals with the influence of Petar Kočić's (1877-1916) literary opus based on a daily comic strip David Strbac created by Miro Mlađenović (1949-2007) and published on the pages of Banja Luka newspaper Glas (Glas Srpske), from 1973 to 2007. This comic strip sublimates the humor and satire featured in the classical Serbian drama Badger on trial (Jazavac pred sudom), while skillfully connecting and actualizing Kočić's literary world, situating it in the present age.
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- Death
- From Roger Fenton's 15-second exposure to Instagram. The first war photographer took pictures of soldiers chatting at ease around trenches but avoided photographing death scenes. He wanted to show a less gruesome side of war. The famous Valley of the Shadow of Death, a photograph Fenton took during the Crimean War, represents more than an objective documentarist approach. There is no explicit death on this photograph, but it is in a way a portrait of death without the dead. Today, with Instagam app, we can upload death scenes to the web instantaneously, at the moment of exposure. The photographs of death we took in passing along the local road will immediately be uploaded to our FB profiles, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr and Posterous. Hybrid forms of photo apps and social networks have made death scenes even less of a taboo by making them commonplace - a trend which had already started with the advent of digital photography. The first major change was introduction of a rolled photographic film by Kodak ('You press the button, we do the rest'). The phenomena which shed more light on the process of de-tabooing death and creating a phenomenon of popular culture include WEEGEE and other art photographers who build on their tradition.
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- Declining of political culture in Hollywood
- The aim of this paper is to show a trend in which, by the 1990s, American media became more and more depoliticized. In that light, historical trend of media depolitization finds its expression in contemporary Hollywood filmmaking, as well as in other areas of cultural life. The paper states that the vast majority of studio executives, altogether with directors, want little to do with projects that might be called political. Declining of political culture has become one of the most important features of contemporary Hollywood cinema. Even films that engage in politics usually do that in unhistorical and incorrect manner, vastly using irony. The major problem is the fact that when Hollywood deals with social problems such as class struggle, racism and poverty, it perpetuates the myth that hurdles in life can be overcome by means of either luck or hard work. Hollywood cinema fails to deal responsibly with today's important social and political questions. On the other hand, we are facing the situation where most of the new films neglect political issues. Postmodern cinema represented in the works of Tarantino, Rodriguez, Coen Brothers, Stone, or many other film makers, take as their essential point the references from other films, using their images and recycling them. The images in those films function as the interchangable signs, with meanings of their own, a closed world of media-based references. The Baudrillard and Jameson theory of simulation is used to explain the process where signs lose any relationship with reality in contemporay media. Politics, if it exists in the cinema at all, becames more than ever a part of the entertainment culture, a sign with no meaning. The postmodern turn in culture enables us to encounter the spirit of antipolitics in the most developed form so far. While New Hollywood directors largely celebrated the liberal democratic legacy during the 1960s and the 1970s, postmodern pictures show tendency toward declining of political culture.
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- Deconstruction of stereotypes in the animated series South park
- This essay has few levels. First part is about notional mechanism considering stereotype status, signification and importance of stereotype deconstruction in society. The second part is analysis of the characters, content and the way of implementation of deconstruction models in cartoon sitcom South park, emphasizing research object, questioning the role of stereotype deconstruction and consideration of the possibilities of dispositive changes. Third part refers to the interpretation - theory implementation and presenting the results of research with discussion on ethics problems in the process of deconstruction of stereotypes with the suggestion for its implementation. In the first part, I take over notional mechanism from two studies. One refers on media studies, and the other one on media ethics. The term of deconstruction is implemented here in such a formulation as it is constituted inside the philosophy and theory of Jacques Derrida. In the content analysis I explore which stereotypes are the most present in cartoon sitcom South park and in which way the deconstruction of narrative was done. I discover few ways of deconstruction of content stereotypes-that will be explained on the examples from the cartoon sitcom-as it follows: 1. Stereotype vs. stereotype: Implementation of theatrical power of the same mechanisms that stereotypes use. 2. Passive deconstruction of stereotypes: Exaggeration in stressing the traditional stereotypes without subversion of provided attitude. 3. Meta-position of stereotypes: When the stereotype is discussed, scientific discourse is used. In this essay I will discuss the role of this cartoon sitcom referring to the local context (the tough stereotype opinions inside some groups to whom the material for deconstruction of the stereotype should be offered), time and place of broadcasting content (Channel B92), superannuation of the spectators who are allowed to watch the show (18+) and intervening value inside this content framework. In the last part interpretive method will be present by theory of deconstruction and theory of sexuality and through affirmation of thesis and necessity of deconstruction of media contents in local context.
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- Defense of humanity
- In this paper we will try to consider the problem of Body and Personality in the sci fi romantic drama Her by American director Spike Jonze in the light of Christian anthropology and Theology of Personality. We understand Jonze's art work as a case study related to the specific consequences of certain phenomena of postmodern society, such as alienation, loneliness or emotional instability. In his film, the director and screenwriter presents increasingly topical issues of our civilization, but also individual connection with high technologies in various aspects of life i.e. delicate relationships between man and self conscious forms of Artificial Intelligence. By basing the film storyline on the relationship between these two entities or two beings, Jones did not want to offer satire but to deal with the very delicate problem of personality in general alienation. As a result, the future world is inhabited by lonely individuals, inseparable from their smartphones, who receive love and attention from the virtual world. In his own aesthetic way, Jonze opened the Pandora's Box of possible outcomes of life with machines, which has begun in our own timeline. Therefore, we cannot unambiguously determine whether Her is a film dystopia or a film utopia.
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- Defining art
- There are two opposite approaches when we speak about art and status of a work of art. The first approach, according to the essentialist theory, tries to find some intrinsic property of art which it considers to be independent from social and historic influence. The existence of such essence would give to such work of art a universal and timeless transhistorical and transcultural value. The second approach starts from the premise that the status of a work of art is always a matter of convention, not essence. This view rejects the perceptual and phenomenological approach, emphasizing a whole series of contextual conditions - social, cultural and institutional - without which it is not possible to talk about the status of a work of art. Art is redefined on contextual, rather than aesthetic qualities, taking into account the historical and social context in which works of art are created, presented, interpreted and finally - consumed.