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 MONEY” NORM: The (low-key, carefully un-ostentatious) trappings of inherited luxury, status, privilege.

“OLD MONEY” FORMS: Sailing, yacht clubs, dockside lifestyle: boat shoes, weathered wood. In general, a sense of being at (say) a Kennebunk estate, or Martha’s Vineyard.

(From a 2016 audit, commissioned by a global spirits company, of “Premium Spirits.”)