The CODE-X series catalogs a vast codex of source codes (aka “signs”) extracted from past audits.

The object of study in semiotics is not the signs but rather a general theory of signification; the goal of each “audit” is to build a model demonstrating how meaning is produced and received within a category or cultural territory. Signs on their own, therefore, only become truly revelatory and useful once we’ve sorted them into thematic complexes, and the complexes into codes, and the codes into a meaning map. We call this process “thick description”; the Code-X series is thin description.

“UNCANNY WEST” NORM: The West as almost another dimension or plane of existence — eerie, uncanny, at times hellish.

“UNCANNY WEST” FORMS: The boundary between this world and the beyond gets stretched thin in the West. Extraordinary experiences — outré, uncanny, eerie, quasi-psychedelic. Lurid, livid colors (red, yellow, black) — the colors of flame and gore. A villain or antihero’s seemingly supernatural skills (tracking, shooting…). References to Hell: “To get to Heaven you must pass through Hell” (Dead Man). “To know it you must walk it, bleed into its dirt, drown in its rivers, then its name becomes clear, it is Hell, and there are demons everywhere.” (1883)

From a 2024 study of the PREDATOR (defined as: rebellious and unorthodox, rewriting the rules to suit yourself) territory within the American West space — as surfaced from movies, TV shows, and videogames. Semiovox collaborated with Ramona Lyons.