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.

“OPULENT IMPUNITY” NORM: Celebration — often tongue in cheek — of the drug cartel opulent lifestyle.

“OPULENT IMPUNITY” FORMS: Automatic weapons (often gold/bejeweled), thrones, “saint”-like iconography. Buchona: wife to a narco (because they drink Buchanan’s Whisky).

From a 2021 study of “Mexican-ness” codes — as perceived in US culture.