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.

“3D UNCANNY” NORM: Less stylized can be more complex and emotional… and more creepy.

“3D UNCANNY” FORMS: 3D animation that is less cartoonish, and more technical, detailed, and realistic takes us into the “uncanny valley” where it can border on the creepy. 3d animation gets uncomfortably close to reality in the following ways, for example. Characters may have more range of movement and more realistic flow — less charmingly “clunky” — the gamer/audience may not as easily project their own imagination onto a 3D character. Closer to photorealistic — feels less nostalgic, less like a children’s cartoon or story book. Less stylized, abstracted, simplified than 2D.

From a 2024 analysis of the OUT THERE territory (unsettling, eerie — satirizing the safe, cozy, familiar) within the space of “sophisticated wholesome” videogames, animated movies and series, etc.