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.

“STUBBORN STYLE” NORM: Participating in a living tradition — living in the present as though it were the past.

“STUBBORN STYLE” FORMS: Old-timers still doing their thing. Or: younger men who look like they stepped out of history. Continuity. “Since 1863.” “Your code means something. Hold onto it.”

From a 2018 study of the Timeless & True space — defined as staying true to yourself, a vanishing way of life — and what really matters.