2026 № 1 (56)

UDC 14; 7.01

LBC 71; 87.8

DOI: 10.51678/2226-0072-2026-1-84-105

For cit.: Markov A.V., Shtayn O.A. The Visual Gavagai. Hudozhestvennaya kul’tura [Art & Culture Studies], 2026, no. 1, pp. 84–105. https://doi.org/10.51678/2226-0072-2026-1-84-105. (In Russian)

Markov Alexander V. 

D.Sc. (in Philology), Professor, Cinema and Contemporary Art Department, Faculty of Art History, Russian State University for the Humanities, 6 Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047, Russia 

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6874-1073 

ResearcherID: Q-7934-2016 

Scopus Author ID: 57215218399 markovius@gmail.com 

Shtayn Oksana A. 

PhD (in Philosophy), Associate Professor, Department of Social Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, The First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University, 19 Mira Str., Ekaterinburg, 620002, Russia 

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1701-3147 

ResearcherID: KQV-1280-2024 

Scopus Author ID: 59277695700 shtaynshtayn@gmail.com 

The Visual Gavagai

Abstract. This article develops and introduces into scholarly discourse the interdisciplinary concept of the ‘visual Gavagai’, extending Willard Van Orman Quine’s famous thought experiment on the radical indeterminacy of translation into the realm of visual perception and art. The proposed concept allows for transcending the traditional art-historical dichotomy between the search for an immanent authorial intention and the subjective arbitrariness of interpretation, instead affirming the ontological status of indeterminacy as a fundamental property of the artwork itself. By synthesizing the methodological frameworks of Ernst Gombrich (schema and correction), media theory, and receptive aesthetics, and by engaging with the speculative philosophy of Armen Avanessian, the article demonstrates how meaning emerges through a dynamic dialogue between the stable structure of the object and the act of its perception. A detailed analysis of the interpretative polyvalence of Alexander Pushkin’s The Bronze Horseman, as examined by Yuri Borev during his transition from structuralism to receptive aesthetics, reveals that the integrity of an artistic world is constructed externally — within the horizon of expectations of the beholder, who actively ‘mends’ their understanding by integrating new cultural codes. Ultimately, the visual Gavagai proposes a new research optic and an ethics of perception founded on a tolerance for the multiplicity of meanings and a recognition of the artwork’s right to its own agency, irreducible to human comprehension. This opens new perspectives for the analysis of both classical art and contemporary digital media landscapes. 

Keywords: Gavagai, visual philosophy, indeterminacy of translation, interpretation, receptive aesthetics, media theory, philosophy of art, visual perception, meaningmaking, horizon of expectations 

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Received 28.09.2025 

Revised 15.01.2026 

Accepted 19.01.2026