What is Semiotics? Why is the sky blue? And just what is a tomato?

To ask what Semiotics is, one must first question reality. What is? What isn't? What makes a tomato a tomato? How do you know what anything is?

And... just why is the sky blue?

Well, to answer the last question first: the sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light.

What does this have to do with Semiotics? Nothing. Whoops.

So, then what is reality? Is it anything more than a collection of thoughts, ideas, and concepts? Or is it a collection of physical objects, that we strive to provide meaning for? Just how do we apply meaning to this physical word that surrounds us? Because as we apply a layer of meaning to everything, we see the birth of spoken word, civilization, written word, communication, and ultimately: semiotics.

So just what is Semiotics?

Semiotics is the study of signs, signifiers, and their signified concept. A signifier is a form that can take shape in a word, a symbol, an image, a noise, anything. It's the text. The signified concept is the ultimate end: it's the concept that the signifier represents. Together, the signifier and signified co-exist to create a sign. And we use signs every day.

So, what makes a tomato a tomato?

Well, let's consider the word itself: tomato. The word is, in itself, a signifier. It's signified concept is a lone tomato, sitting by itself, a pristine red fruit. In most cases, a signifier will have multiple (if not many) signified concepts. Other signified concepts could be a farm, it could be a supermarket, or it could be a BLT. But, in general, the direct relation between an actual "tomato" and the word "tomato" is what make up the sign.

There is other ways it could be the same signified concept, but have a different signifier: A drawing of a tomato; the sound of a tomato being squished; or even just the letter "T" when you order a "BLT". These are all different signifiers for the same concept.

In the end, semiotics is a theory about how we apply meaning, language, and signs to everything in our life. It's how we communicate. We use symbols and signs everywhere, all the time. Every word we speak signifies something. It's hard to avoid seeing Semiotics come to life around you once you've learned just what the theory is.

For a more in depth look into semiotics, I highly recommend reading Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler.

But, for the real reason you've read this blog: just what the heck is a tomato? Is it a fruit or a vegetable? Well, you should ask an expert, because I certainly don't know!

Matt Richards
COMM-403

Graphic Novel: An Artistic Vision of Battlefield 2

View "The Dawn of Battle," a Battlefield 2 graphic novel on my website.

This is an artistic vision of the popular Battlefield 2 modification, Project Reality. I went in and recorded all the action, in a single-player battle against bots. I then went in with the Battle Recorder, and took a ton of screenshots from a variety of angles.

The next step was utilizing Adobe Photoshop to construct a unique theme to the images. I went in, constructed an HDR profile of each image, then applied various lighting and coloring techniques to try to tie everything together.

Then I applied the images to the graphic novel pages, using a variety of overlays and lighting styles to blend everything together. The goal was to sharpen certain elements - like facial features and the weaponry, whilst blurring out the background. I then applied various artistic filters and blended them into the images.

The final step was adding text. I had constructed the plot before hand, so I knew exactly what was happening throughout the graphic novel. Then, I applied an action that darkened the edges and added a slight film grain throughout the page.

Whilst not the perfect graphic novel (in fact, it's "to be continued"), I felt it had a very unique, interesting visual style. Especially since the base material was, in fact, a video game. It's fun to read, even more fun to look at, despite the rather bland plot.

Exploring New Media and Web Careers

My goal in searching for a career is to apply experience I've already accumulated with my Mass Communication degree from Shepherd University. I feel that these two overlap very well.

Before coming to college, I've had quite an extensive amount of experience in the video game and web design industries. Here is the short list:

• Created well over a dozen separate websites over a six year period (and ran them as Webmaster). Most are related to the video game industry.
• Designed over forty websites over six years
• Developed a variety of movies (mostly game related)
• Written over thirty video game reviews (nearly all of them I have received the game from the publisher for)
• Operated a blog for three years with over one hundred blog posts.
  
• Professional web designed for three years, and co-own a small business that specializes in photography and design services.
• Created two maps for Counter-Strike Source, learning the in-and-outs of the complex "Hammer Editor" (that all Valve / Source games use as an SDK).
• Played video games professionally, having competed in dozens of online tournaments, as well as a few respectable LAN events, and earned my name as a top team leader.

Okay, so not exactly a short list. But I entirely plan to use all this past experience as the base to my career.

There is three main careers I am pursuing:

Community Manager
A community manager would be my ideal job. I've worked with gaming communities extensively, and would love to work on video games communities in the future. Community managers can be in charge of promotion, viral marketing, web design decisions, videos, screen shots, wallpapers, art, and more. They're also in charge of the core maintenance of the community - assigning moderators, keeping the site up to date, and generally communication with the game's fans and followers through the web, print, and more.

I've met a few different community managers, and they have a wide variety of skills and I feel I align well with the job they perform. They know enough about game design to know what is happening, but not be consumed by game or art design. The focus on the community interaction.

This would pull from nearly all of my skills (if in the game's industry), as well as use my Mass Communication degree very well. It's all about communication between a product and its consumers in the most efficient ways possible, and the focus of the job is all around New Media.

Games Journalist
Having already been an amateur games journalist, I really enjoyed doing this. Most video games are described on varying levels of "fun." As a games journalist, it requires you to break down many different levels of describing just what is the "fun" of that game, or the lack there of.

It is an exciting, challenging, but not very well-paying career path. But it's more about remaining within the games industry in a way that I already have extensive experience in, as well as in a way that I enjoy.

Web Designer
This is the most likely career path. I've designed and developed countless websites, and managed many projects. I current am a co-owner of a small business, FPSPhoto, were I currently web design. It's not a well paying job yet, but it's only part-time work while I finish my degree. I'm well versed in Web 2.0 design and development, and am learning PHP and Javascript. I've already proficient in Adobe Photoshop, CSS, and XHTML.

Matt Richards
COMM 203