SEMIOVOX 2024

Broadcast by Josh Glenn, Posted December 31, 2024

I’m cofounder of the semiotics-fueled branding consultancy SEMIOVOX, editor of the consultancy’s eponymous website, and I’m founding coordinator of the monthly SEMIOFEST SESSIONS. Here’s a round-up of what we’ve been doing this past year…

Also see: SEMIOVOX 2022 | SEMIOVOX 2023.

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

SEMIOVOX’s methodology provides insight and inspiration — to brand and organization strategy, marketing, design, innovation, and consumer insights teams, as well as to their agency partners — regarding the unspoken local/global “codes” that help shape perceptions of and guide behavior within product categories and/or sociocultural territories.

During 2024, our projects included (but were not limited to) the following.

BRITISHNESS CODES. Via the UK strategic insight agency Craft, we analyzed codes of British-ness — as surfaced from recent British TV serials and movies, many hours of which we enjoyed viewing in January and February. It was fun to collaborate with Craft’s Konrad Collao, and our US-based colleague Ramona Lyons, on this one. The client, we’re allowed to say, was BBC Studios. Content-creation and marketing optimization.

MULTISENSORIAL CODES. On behalf of a multinational beverage company, we analyzed codes of multisensorial experience — covering multiple categories — in six markets including China, India, and Mexico. A combination of semiotic analysis and consumer research (which we conducted via our sister agency, Consumer Eyes). Marketing optimization across all channels, including pack design. (Continued from 2023.)

CIVIL WAR & OLD WEST CODES. Via Labbrand Paris, Ramona Lyons and I collaborated on an audit of Civil War and Old West codes — on behalf of an action-adventure videogame franchise. This involved analyzing many Civil War-, Reconstruction Era-, Western-, and Revisionist Western-themed movies and shows. (Semiovox’s sister agency, Consumer Eyes, conducted consumer research.) Content creation.

WESTERN NOIR CODES. Via Labbrand Paris, Ramona Lyons and I collaborated on an audit of Western Noir codes — on behalf of an action-adventure videogame franchise. This involved closely analyzing many Western, revisionist Western, and noir movies and shows. (Semiovox’s sister agency, Consumer Eyes, conducted consumer research.) Content creation.

SOPHISTICATED WHOLESOME CODES. We conducted an audit of Sophisticated Wholesome codes — on behalf of a videogame company developing a stylized game. This involved closely analyzing many videogames, movies, TV series, vinyl figurines, and more. Game character and world design.

OUT-OF-HOME COFFEE CODES. Via the UK-based design-, semiotics-, and anthropology-driven agency Visual Signo, on behalf of an instant coffee brand we conducted an analysis of US out-of-home coffee brand communications. Semiovox was Visual Signo’s US partner in an ambitious fifteen-market audit. Marketing optimization.

FAST FOOD on this side / CANNABIS on the other

In August, Ron Rentel and David Cory at the branding and innovation agency Consumer Eyes (sister agency to Semiovox) published the first issue of Cash & Carry. The inaugural issue of this marketing culture zine is dedicated to cannabis and fast food branding, marketing, and consumer insights. I contributed a top-of-mind semi-semiotic analysis of cannabis and fast food brand logos.

TEACHING & SPEAKING

In the Spring, I acted as a guest thesis advisor for five RISD MID students whom I’d taught the previous Fall. And in the Fall semester, I returned to the RISD campus as an adjunct critic in the Masters of Industrial Design (MID) program. I co-taught two sections of GRADUATE THESIS MAPPING & NARRATIVE. (Here’s my faculty page.)

Shown above: RISD MID students in the studio (Spring and Fall).

In May, I presented at SEMIOFEST — a biannual conference of commercial semioticians — in Porto (Portugal). This year’s theme was “liminality.” I’m grateful to Sónia Marques and Susanna Franek, and to their team, for organizing Semiofest Porto… and for inviting me to speak!

Slide from Josh’s presentation, “Liminality in Fantasy Narratives,” presented at Semiofest Porto on May 23rd, 2024. Click for closer view.

My Porto talk offered an analysis of how liminality operates structurally (vis-à-vis the “G-schema” I’ve developed) within fantasy narratives — as exemplified by the original Star Wars movie… and hypothesized that all sorts of narratives may, in fact, be fantasy narratives.

Sónia and Susanna, photo by Martha Arango

It was delightful to spend time with colleagues from around the world, including: Martha Arango (Sweden), Chris Arning (England), Maciej Biedzinski (Poland), Myriam Bouabid (Tunisia; “Sea Skin: Liminal Spaces, Frontiers, and Enunciation”), Mariane Cara (Brazil; “The Museum of the Portuguese Language: Liminality, Transitional Challenges and Re-adaptations”), Natasha Delliston (England; applied biosemiotics), Vladimir Djurovic (China), Malcolm Evans (Wales; applied biosemiotics), Peter Glassen (Switzerland), Paulina Goch-Kenawy (Poland), Samuel Grange (France), Aiyana Gunjan (India), Emily Hayes (England), Yogi Hendlin (USA; applied biosemiotics), Sarah Johnson (Canada), Lucia Laurent-Neva (England), Charles Leech (Canada), William Liu (China; “Liminal Thinking of the Chinese — Manifestation of the Eight Diagrams, Yin/Yang System”), Sónia Marques (Portugal), Thierry Mortier (Sweden; “Is There a Limit to the Liminal?”), Rahul Murdeshwar (India; “Liminality and Cultural Innovation in the Semiotics of Juri Lotman and the Tartu Moscow School”), Maria Papanthymou (Greece / Russia), Vijay Parthasarathy (USA; “Designing Your Unique Operating Philosophy”), Gabriela Pedranti (Spain), Colette Sensier (England, applied biosemiotics), Hamsini Shivakumar (India; “Effective Hybridization & Semiospheric Borders”), Gianlluca Simi (Brazil; “On the Edge of Meaning: How Can Semioticians Navigate the Black Hole of AI-generated ‘Anti-content’?”), Ximena Tobi (Argentina; “Communication for Cultural Change Towards Energy Transition”), and Alfredo Troncoso and Adelina Vaca (Mexico; “Day of the Dead-ish”).

Ichigo Kurosaki, a fictional decoder from BLEACH

In September, I hosted a Semiofest Session on the topic of FICTIONAL DECODERS. (See SEMIOFEST SESSIONS, below.) The sessionists had previously contributed to the DECODER series, here at SEMIOVOX.

In October, I was a guest critic for Tony Leone’s graphic design class (theme: zines) at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt). Shown here: A “Mothra” fanzine in progress.

SEMIOFEST SESSIONS

I’m cofounder of and “convenor” for SEMIOFEST SESSIONS , a monthly-ish series of online get-togethers — put on under the aegis of Semiofest — intended not only to share best practices among, but to nurture collegiality and friendship within the global semio community. Here’s the 2024 lineup:

JANUARY: SEMIOTICS & CINEMA. Semioticians have long been fascinated with cinema. From Barthes’ analysis of “Roman-ness” in Hollywood epics to commercial semioticians’ deployment of movie scenes to help clients understand aspects of contemporary culture, we can’t stop decoding what materializes on the silver screen. Ramona Lyons, Gabriela Pedranti, and Adelina Vaca shared their enthusiasm for movies — and for movie analysis.

FEBRUARY: SEMIOTICS & MUSIC. In practical visual semiotics we generally first identify a denotation and then seek to identify and understand its connotation. Musical semiotics, however, is the opposite: it’s easy, even intuitive, to identify a musical connotation, but then trying to identify the denotative level is very difficult. Charles Leech, Mariane Cara, and William Liu discussed such questions as: How are we to understand how music communicates? How might synesthesia play into it?

MARCH: SEMIOTICS & ETHICS. Three applied semioticians explored the rarely discussed ethical implications of semiotics work — especially in the context of sustainability, health, and the impact of technology on information manipulation. Drawing on their own experiences, our guests (Yogi Hendlin, Max Matus, Clio Meurer; Lucia Laurent-Neva hosted) covered topics such as diversity, identity representations, biosemiotics, mental health, and the broader ethical landscape of contemporary society.

APRIL: SEMIOTICS & POLITICS. In a world (and branding landscape) becoming more ideologically polarised, how can applied semiotics meaningfully engage with political issues? In this session, three experienced semioticians — Roman Esqueda, Anastasia Karklina Gabriel, and Raphael Llorca — shared their perspectives on election-campaign communications, how brands mediate nationhood, and how activists can make use of cultural-insights work. Chris Arning was the session host.

JUNE: POST-PORTO LIMINALITY (I). The theme of Semiofest Porto, in May, was LIMINALITY. The conference was a great success… but we all wanted more! So Sónia Marques invited Jerry Mathew, Alice Sweitzer, and Shion Yokoo to chat with us about: Bridging Cyber Liminality and Ancient Wisdom, The Semiotics of Protest and Demonstration in Berlin’s Consumer Culture, and Liminality and Theatricality in Performances. This was the first of two liminality-themed post-Porto sessions.

JULY: LIMINALITY POST-PORTO (II). The theme of Semiofest Porto, in May, was LIMINALITY. The conference was a great success… but we all wanted more! So Susanna Fránek invited Christo Kaftandjiev, Ashley Mauritzen, and Marie Lena Tupot to chat with us about: Heroic Myths of Transition in Mass and Marketing Comms, The Crisis of Western Masculinity, and Gender as the Epitome of Liminality. This was the second of two liminality-themed post-Porto sessions.

SEPTEMBER: FICTIONAL DECODERS. Encountering a talented “decoder” in a work of fiction is entertaining, and for semioticians it can also prove inspiring. So I invited Becks Collins, Whitney Dunlap-Fowler, Eugene Gorny, Rachel Lawes, Chirag Mediratta, and Antje Weißenborn to discuss a few favorite decoders from literature, movies, TV shows, and anime too!

OCTOBER: ON COLOUR. Lucia Laurent-Neva invited color experts and theorists from outside our own discipline — Alexandra Loske, Pete Thomas, and James Quail — to share their insights on how colour systems reflect evolving social and cultural dynamics; how the ‘materiality’ of color connects with broader historical contexts and design practices; the cultural biases and commercial interests involved in color naming; and more.

NOVEMBER: JURI LOTMAN. Maarja Ojamaa invited Max Matus, Maria Papanthymou, and Auli Viidalepp to discuss how key concepts — including the “semiosphere,” cultural “unpredictability,” and the “growth of meaning” — of the University of Tartu’s Juri Lotman (1922–1993) can inform applied semiotic work around branding, public education, artificial intelligence, and more.

DECEMBER: COMMUTATION TEST. When we swap out a marketing campaign or brand’s signifiers for close alternatives, which signifiers are revealed to be meaningful… and which meaningless? Ludmila Lacková Bennett has invited semioticians from various fields to discuss the potential of the “commutation test,” an overlooked methodology from structural semiology that could prove a useful tool for commercial semiotics.

Coming up in 1Q2025:

Yogi Hendlin will host a session on MEDICAL SEMIOTICS | Chris Barnham will present his thesis on NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SIGN | Adelina Vaca will host a session on SEMIOTICS & SPIRITUALITY.

All SEMIOFEST SESSIONS here.

SEMIOVOX.COM

I’m the editor here at SEMIOVOX, our consultancy’s eponymous website. Here’s what we published during 2024.

MAKING SENSE is an ongoing series of Q&As dedicated to understanding what makes semioticians tick. I’ve asked my commercial-semiotics colleagues from around the world to answer a set of leading questions. Here’s the 2024 MAKING SENSE lineup:

Coming up in 1Q2025:

All MAKING SENSE installments here.

DECODER is a 25-part series — the contributors to which are commercial semioticians from around the world — that explores fictional semiotician-esque action as depicted in books, movies, TV shows, etc. Here’s the 2024 DECODER lineup:

Alfredo Troncoso (Mexico) on THE ODYSSEY | Gabriela Pedranti (Spain) on MUSIC BOX | Charles Leech (Canada) on PATTERN RECOGNITION | Lucia Laurent-Neva (England) on LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY | Whitney Dunlap-Fowler (USA) on THE GIVER | Colette Sensier (England / Portugal) on PRIESTDADDY | Jamin Pelkey (Canada) on THE WONDER | Maciej Biedziński (Poland) on KOSMOS | Josh Glenn (USA) on LE GARAGE HERMÉTIQUE | Antje Weißenborn (Germany) on BABYLON BERLIN | Ximena Tobi (Argentina) on SIX FEET UNDER | Mariane Cara (Brazil) on ROPE | Maria Papanthymou (Greece) on MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS | Chirag Mediratta (India) on BLEACH | Dimitar Trendafilov (Bulgaria) on THE MATRIX | Martha Arango (Sweden) on ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE | Becks Collins (UK) on THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY | Iván Islas (Mexico) on THE NAME OF THE ROSE | Paulina Goch-Kenawy (Poland) on THE SENSE OF AN ENDING | Eugene Gorny (Thailand) on SHUTTER ISLAND & FRACTURED.

We wrapped up DECODER (which began in late 2023) in July. I’m very grateful to the series’ contributors!

The CASE FILE series — the contributors to which are commercial semioticians from around the world — shares stories of things we were amazed and amused to learn, whether or not they proved useful to the client. Here’s the 2024 CASE FILE lineup:

Coming up in 1Q2025:

SEMIOVOX continues to offer glimpses into various audits we’ve done via installments in the long-running series CODE-X. Here’s a selection of CODE-X installments from 2024:

Also see: SEMIOVOX updates from 2022 | 2023

MIT PRESS: RADIUM AGE

I’m the founding editor of the MIT Press’s RADIUM AGE proto-sf reissue series. During 2024, we published the following four titles.

THE INHUMANS AND OTHER STORIES: A SELECTION OF BENGALI SCIENCE FICTION, edited and translated by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay. The first English translation of a cult science fiction favorite by Hemendra Kumar Roy, one of the giants of early Bangla literature, and other sf stories from the colonial period in India. “This anthology of Bengali science fiction captures the timelessness of human speculation.” — S. B. Divya. View this title.
Charlotte Haldane’s MAN’S WORLD, introduced by Philippa Levine. In a eugenics-driven future society, will one young woman’s defiance make a difference? “A volatile admixture of feminist revelations with racially biased eugenic theorizing, nearly a century after its first publication Man’s World offers unique insight into its historical moment — and our own.” — Alexandra Minna Stern. View this title.
Edward Shanks’ THE PEOPLE OF THE RUINS (1919–20), with a new introduction by Paul March-Russell (August 6). “A penetrating tale of near-future disillusion that gazes upon a future made by World War I. Shanks, in 1920, is us, now.” — John Clute. View this title.
Francis Stevens’ THE HEADS OF CERBERUS AND OTHER STORIES (1926), edited and introduced by Lisa Yaszek (September 17). “The stories in this collection are richly evocative of their time’s vision for our possible future, and their influence on the genre continues to broadly underpin the language by which contemporary works now explore today’s futures.” — Suzanne Palmer. View this title.

I also worked with the MIT Press editorial staff, during 2024, on moving four titles that will appear in 2025 into the production stream. More info here.

More RADIUM AGE series updates: 2022 | 2023 | 2024

HILOBROW

HILOBROW is SEMIOVOX’s sister website. Here are a few semio- and cultural analysis-related series and posts from 2024.

During 2024, I wrapped up SCHEMATIZING, a series via which — over the course of 50+ installments, since early 2023 — I’ve attempted to depict the intellectual and emotional highs and lows of developing a semiotic schema.

SEMIOPUNK is an irregular series dedicated to surfacing examples (and predecessors) of the sf subgenre that HILOBROW was the first to name “semiopunk.” Here’s a sampling of the 2024 lineup:

In April, I contributed an installment — in the series REPO YOUR ENTHUSIASM — on Bruce Robinson’s 1989 comedy HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING. Excerpt: “The genius of this movie, I implore you to understand, is not so much the heavy-handed anti-marketing satire than the satanic glee with which Richard E. Grant utters banal phrases like ‘nosh pot.’”

More HILOBROW updates: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024

On to 2025…

Tags: G-schema, Josh Glenn, Semiovox

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SEMIOVOX 2024

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

TEACHING & SPEAKING

SEMIOFEST SESSIONS

SEMIOVOX.COM

MIT PRESS: RADIUM AGE

HILOBROW