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.

“OLD GUN” NORM: Grizzled veteran who is disillusioned… but a source of profound wisdom.

“OLD GUN” FORMS: The Old Gun is a kind of mentor — sometimes flawed — who helps a Predator begin their journey to Protector An Old Gun will typically have a heart of gold, no matter how hard-assed they seem. They are “cruel to be kind.” Often a veteran of war — which they’ve come to see as not noble or romantic, but wasteful and foolish. (Note the Vietnam War context of spaghetti westerns.) Sometimes the lesson is about how to survive and thrive in the West — for example, Major Colton schooling Lieutenant Bascom about wearing proper (though unsanctioned) headwear, in Battle at Apache Pass. Or Shea Brennan schooling the immigrant pioneers in 1883.

From a 2024 study of the CADRE (defined as: adopting a moral code, accepting responsibility for your actions, working with others for a common goal) territory within the American West space — as surfaced from movies, TV shows, and videogames. Semiovox collaborated with Ramona Lyons.