The purpose of this article is to shed a philosophical light on the nature of the living, and to do so on the nature of the various vital operations, the symbolic and sensory embodiments of which will be studied. That phenomenology will be firstly done from a general point of view: what is life? what is a vital act, a vital operation? But that general definition being an abstraction made from the diversity of reality, we will also consider that diversity, i.e. acts such as development, sensible knowledge, intellectual knowledge, inclination and transmission. That approach is part of a general context in which many reflections are carried out about what a “living machine” could be. Furthermore, a context in which emerging hypotheses make connections between vital characteristics on the one hand, and confidence and attachment to objects on the other hand. That invites us to question the nature and diversity of vital operations, as well as their tangible characteristics.

A constant in the whole Universe: “the Golden Number”. It is the basis of the artistic evolution which leads to beauty, and formulates its parameters. All these parameters generate a grammar, which will also have a determining impact on social reality. Can one escape the influence of the Golden Number ? The notion of Territory will open up avenues to transform differences into complementarities. This will lead us to the development of implementation rituals.

This short study attempts to address the internal meaning of a famous painting by Salvador Dalí: The Persistence of Memory (1931), using theoretical and methodological tools developed by the “School of Paris” semiotics. Thus, we move from the hierarchical description of the plane of expression (from percepts to formants), to the progressive organization of the form of the content through a semanticization of all the units identified in the previous phases of the analysis. This makes it possible to set up the deep semantics specific to this work and the values it carries during the semiosis process. Thus, the meaning of this statement (visual text) is gradually revealed through a less naive reading of this major work of art history which is at the core of broader cultural concerns both for the artist and all readers: the conceptualization of time through various prisms, both plastic and semantic.

The paper aims to reveal how a semiotic idea of collateral experience and observation makes it possible to experience cinema by means of metaphoric knowing through interpreting activity. Thus, the audience as interpreting agent activates the semiosis of cinema in the quest for meaning. Metaphor as a grounding vehicle characterized by a twofold mode in the expressive and the symbolic allows one to transform the cinema image on the screen into diagram-icon for a communicative act.

Smart cities are ideal cities with emphasis on functionality, efficiency, and convenience. On the other hand, smart cities are constantly reproducing ‘spaces of governance' under the influence of neoliberalism. The smart city control approach is to reduce social costs by maximizing the effect with minimal capital. It is highly likely that all smart cities will be implemented as technology-oriented cities that emphasize only big data and artificial intelligence-oriented efficiency. In other words, smart cities have resulted in a holistic crisis at the anthropological level, including human identity, cultural and ethical levels. This study aims to re-examine smart cities and local cultural values in the so-called paradigm shift due to COVID-19 and establish the concept of smart cultural cities for regional cultural development. Therefore, this study focused on European cities and domestic historical cities as a case study of smart cultural cities. These discussions mean that smart cultural urban research and realization should be carried out through interdisciplinary research that considers technology, culture and policy aspects together. In addition, local citizens themselves will have to become main agent of smart cultural cities, resisting governance. Michel de Certeau once said that the everyday space itself is a work of art and a “place of practice”. These studies will provide the potential for complementary relationships between smart cities and cultures and the direction of related research.

Pertaining to the new migrant wave of Québec, Felicia Mihali professes a plural identity by personal example, depicted in her ten novels, as well as by building original narrative worlds in a literature of intranquility. The present analysis focuses on a kaleidoscope of feminine characters torn by individual histories or the collective History of (post)communism. She are at the same time (de)mythicalized and (de)mystified, thirsty women driven by migrant ardour, exiled to a real or imaginary somewhere else in search of resilience.

The purpose of this work is to construct a problematics of narrativity manifested in the diverse discourses of the Covid-19. It attempted to show some narrative and metaphoric features of this discursivity. The Covid-19 pandemic produced a variety of narratives and is also constructed by such narratives. This mutual constructiveness provides insight into narrative change strategies in the context of Covid-19 for the future. Now in the era of pre-Coronavirus (BC=before Coronavirus), the main narrative at the beginning of the age of 21 was how to create openness to move the narrative of the unsustainable state of populism and neoliberalism. Covid-19 expanded the semiotic space where narrative changes can occur. How do we make meaning in a global pandemic? The narrative semiotics may highlight some of the principles for changemakers who are moving forward in the world of Covid-19.

Geneva! Place du Rhône square, we can see a NON metamorphosing into a OUI on a large sky background, even though this small square is nestled between buildings. In order to successfully display this vision against the background of the sky and thus avoiding the buildings and signs of this square, Markus Raetz had to reduce from 90° to 66° the angle between the axis of vision of NON and that of OUI. If 90° is the right angle to hide one image from the other, wouldn't the OUI and NON images have a chance of appearing simultaneously at 66°? Would it then be a form related to the Duck-Rabbit? Precisely, not far from the famous Raetz' Rabbit, I found another one, on the famous Geneva altar painted by Witz!

This study analyzes the impact of a practical teaching of critical thinking on the writing skills of French language learners in an institutional context in Iran. Learners were divided into two groups, an experimental group and a control group; Honey's (2005) Critical Thinking Questionnaire was administered to the participants and their scores were analyzed to ensure that there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding their critical thinking abilities at the beginning of the training. Learners completed five semesters of coursework with identical course objectives and activities. However, the experimental group also received critical thinking training through media analysis, debates, and problem-solving activities. The analysis of the data, which consisted of qualitative analysis of students' writings in the middle and at the end of the training, indicates that the experimental group outperformed the control group in writing. These results imply that critical thinking activities had a positive impact on learners' writing skills since they allowed them to perform writing tasks by paying attention to the writing as a process, rather than only focusing on the final product.