Picturing the Past: Historical Memory of the Civil War in the Optics of Visual Semiotics and Eye-Tracking Research

The article reflects the first results of the experiment launched at Tomsk State University in the problem field of the history of memory. Methodologically traditional qualitative approaches of historiography are combined there with neuroscientific methods of research into the perception of historical images, in order to reveal the heuristic potential of the joint use of initially distant from each other cognitive tools. The object of research is visual materials from the era of the Russian Civil War (1917-1922), and on the basis of this perception are determined historical representations characteristic of residents of Russia without special historical education. The presented article analyses the results of the implemented technology of eye-tracking. The approach allows judging on the characteristics of visual perception and attention of respondents when viewing the material of incentive - in this case, historical posters made by 'Reds' and 'Whites' with the aim of ideological influence on the minds of compatriots during the Civil War. Methodologically, the research is located at the crossroads of the Memory Studies and visual semiotics, which provides an opportunity to decode iconic forms of interaction between the past and the present, as well as research algorithms of neuroscience. The data obtained through the use of eye-tracking technology made it possible to objectivise the process of visual perception and to study participants' attention patterns to different elements and areas of images. Although the duration of fixations and the time that participants with different historical sympathies devoted to the images did not differ, respondents sympathetic to the Red Army were more attentive to the textual inclusions on the White Movement poster designed in the pre-revolutionary style, than to other elements of both posters. In turn, the attention of participants sympathetic to the White Movement was evenly distributed between the posters. In this regard, we believe that the relationship between the attention to the studied materials of the past and the historical sympathies of the respondents requires further study, including a detailed consideration of the factor of the age of the participants, the graphic style of historical texts and attitudes towards the studied historical period. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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