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.

“GOLDEN AGE” NORM: Luxury means freedom to travel back in time.

“GOLDEN AGE” FORMS: Pulling aspects of the past forward into the present.

From a 2025 audit of the SHELTER space (making a controlled retreat from an unpleasant world by constructing a luxurious shelter) within the Fine Writing category.