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.

“WE FEEL YOUR PAIN” NORM: You are not generic, and neither is your pain — we get that.

“WE FEEL YOUR PAIN” FORMS: Closeup photographic portraits, revealing the pain sufferer’s character. Expressions of personal pain and frustration. “Advil helps me do what I love.” “I thought the stress would kill me before the cancer did.” “I teach a class of 4th graders with my RA pain.”