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.

“ANTI-HYGGE” NORM: Cluttered, neglected spaces to explore… cautiously.

“ANTI-HYGGE” FORMS: Depictions of dwellings, rooms, and other contexts that are not exactly warm and bright. For example: Cluttered, dusty, dimly lit spaces with piles of stuff everywhere. Cabinets and other containers bursting with contents to be explored. Forgotten, abandoned spaces that nobody seems to care about.

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.