Maria Papanthymou

1. BORN IN THE NEW RUSSIA
SEMIOTICS OF RUSSIAN YOUTH CULTURE
Prepared by Maria Papanthymou, LocalTalk Semiotic Research
Semiofest 2018
Album cover of Russian rapper Face

2. Question to the audience:
What did you dance when you
were a teenager?

5. IS RUSSIAN
YOUTH
DIFFERENT?
RUSSIAN GEN Z
Patriotic?
Hedonistic?
What are the ways for self-expression? Are
authoritarian rules still present?
Liberated?
Is it true that generation Z in Russia is culturally closer
to its peers in other countries than to their own
parents?
What is the local specifics which is important to know
for marketers and communication specialists?
How motherland is represented in youth media
and culture?
What is the attitude to success and material
values?

6. Heroes and contexts of documentary films, music and
art
DESPERATE PROVINCIAL GUYS
RUSSIAN YOUTH: SEVERAL REALITIES
Social inequality creates parallel worlds
Heroes and decorations of TV series popular bolgs, and
majority of advertising campaigns
CUTE URBAN SLACKERS

7. WE TRIED TO FIND
COMMON IDEAS
We looked for ideas and narratives that were typical for mass
culture of Russian youth. Codes and concepts that differentiate
new generation of Russians from the others.
Definition of youth in this study: core Generarion Z, people
aged 13-20.

8. THE RESULT OF SEVERAL SEMIOTIC
STUDIES

9. Blogs, social networks, music, art, independent online content.
Period: 2017-2018.
AND MATERIALS
CREATED BY YOUTH
Fiilms, series, professional online media, advertising, branding.
Period: 2015-2018.
WE ANALYZED CULTURAL
MATERIALS TARGETED AT
YOUTH

10. RESIDUAL:
PERFECT IMAGE
DOMINANT:
COOL REALITY
EMERGENT:
MY OWN REALITY
DIRECTION OF CHANGE
10

11. 10 FACTS

12. Where are we know, where are we know?

13. 1. YOUTH IS
POWERFUL
IT IS BETTER TO BE YOUNG THAN ADULT
Teenagers shown as superior.
Adults try to look as teenagers.

14. 1. YOUTH IS POWERFUL:
OLD STARS COPY STYLE OF GEN Z

15. 2. NO FILTERS
HONESTY AND REALISM
Natural look, nothing specially arranged.
No artificial smile, real mood of the moment.

16. 2. NO FILTERS

17. Asymmetry, broken lines, deliberately not beautiful,.
3. ANTI-BEAUTY
BREAKING CLASSIC RULES OF HARMONY

18. 3. ANTI-BEAUTY: BREAKING THE RULES

19. 3. ANTI-BEAUTY:
DECADENCE

20. 4. ACCEPTANCE OF
DIVERSITY
BE YOURSELF, NO STANDARDS
Body positive, acne positive: everything natural is ok.
No rules. Beauty in individuality.

21. 4. ACCEPTANCE OF DIVERSITY
“The core idea is in reflection of human, natural energy”.

22. 5. MY SUBURB
HIGH-RISE BLOCK FRACTALS BECAME A
SYMBOL OF GENERATION
Embracing ugly surroundings as they are, being fully aware of their
visual unattractiveness.

23. 5. MY SUBURB

24. 6. POST-SOVIET
AESTHETIC
MYSTERIOUS 1990-S, AWFUL AND GREAT TIME
Memories from the first years of childhood or youth of parents.
Trying to understand the 90-s.

25. 6. POST-SOVIET AESTHETIC

27. 7. OLD IDOLS
DEMYSTIFIED
RETHINKING OF SOVIET EXPERIENCE
Lenin, Stalin and other Soviet idols may fall in the same semantic
feild with Dart Weider.

28. 7. OLD IDOLS DEMYSTIFIED

29. 8. GOODBUY,
SUPERHERO
IN LOVE WITH REAL MAN
Heroism of common people, without super abilities.
Or no heroism at all: just normal happy life.

30. 8. GOODBUY, SUPERHERO

31. 9. JUST ME
MOMENTS FOR MYSELF
Staying out of crowds. Personal experiences, personal way..

32. 10. POST IRONY
AND META IRONY
IT IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK
Postirony: The border line between serious and ironic attitude is not
obvious.
Metairony is a new sincerety, the balance between truth and
sarcasm.

33. ‘MONSTRATION’ RALLIES
‘ALL POWER TO IMAGINATION!’
rephrasing of old slogan ‘All power to
Soviets!’
Alternative demonstrations with funny slogans.. A Mirror To Absurd Reality

34. ‘YOU DON’T CHOOSE YOUR
FAMILY AND PRESIDENT’
‘THINK GLOBALLY. ACT SILLY’

35. ‘FAUCAULT IS ALWAYS ALIVE’
‘PUDDING - THIEF’ (rephrasing of the
opposition’s slogan ‘Putin - thief’)

36. CONCLUSION:
BE FRANK,
DON’T BE TOO SERIOUS

38. COMMENTS AND LINKS TO VIDEOS
Slide 4: Skibidi Dance original video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDFBTdToRmw
Part of viral challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuAK0LQc0Mw
Retail brand joined the challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQZ1oE7Iv4w
Slide 7: Trailer of TV serial ‘Is it easy to be young?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8KfpeYgnaM
The serial is made in a form of documentary, taking the idea from a serious post-soviet film about youth with the same name (1987, by Yuris Podnieks)
Slide 8: Trailer of documentary film ‘Beauty’, presented at Artdocfest 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpGLmejIBAA
Slide 14: The group is called Komsomolsk , full clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vwiM1TZPNQ
Slide 16: full clip of the old star https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAuzNXGmkL4&t=101s
And some of the the references he possibly used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBHGxGPTsAI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itKsZDpIxx4
Slide 28: Monetochka (literally, ‘little coin’), ”The 90-s’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4h-WpSsXVw
Song in the final video (slide 39) also by Monetochka ‘Post-post’

39. THANK YOU!
Local Talk
Semiotics and Cultural Research in Russia
mp@localtalk.ru
39