The figure of the «architectural critic» in the Russian media culture of the 1990s-2000s.

The article examines the figure of the «architectural critic» as a phenomenon of post-Soviet media culture, the main period of which falls on the 1990s-2000s. Against the backdrop of an extensive cultural background of significant transformations in the architectural sphere in the early post-Soviet period, the crisis of expertise of the discourse of Soviet architecture and at the same time architecture gaining widespread public interest, a new space of architectural criticism is being formed, which for the first time in a long time appeared on the pages of mass periodicals. The new critic is a kind of cultural observer, and his representation (including self–presentation) as an «architectural critic» is not just a designation of a type of professional activity, but an element of constructing his own expert position. Based on the study of an array of publications on architectural and critical topics in mass media, the main features of the figure of the «architectural critic» as a cultural phenomenon are demonstrated. With the help of a discourse analysis of articles of an architectural-critical orientation, which were published in mass media of the 1990s-2000s, it is revealed how the identity of an architectural critic is constructed: from what position he speaks, in what environment his figure is formed and to whom it is addressed. Research on the features of post-Soviet architectural discourse and its place in the media space undergoing significant transformations is currently significantly limited by institutional architectural optics, which assumes a linear view of the development of architectural criticism as a theoretical discipline and expert knowledge produced by architectural professionals. The dynamics of cultural forms in the 1990s-2000s shows us significant shifts in the field of expert knowledge production, giving rise to new critical practices and new identities that are associated with them, one of which is the «architectural critic». The study reveals the specifics of the critic's new status as a «public intellectual» actively involved in the processes of cultural consumption, and various practices of the struggle for expert hegemony are also revealed – from attempts at sole monopolization of discourse to «self-exclusion» within the framework of the establishment of expert totality.

architectural criticism, cultural journalism, mass culture, discourse studies, mediaculture, cultural intermediaries, media criticism, mass media, soviet architecture, modern russian architecture