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.

“TIME TRAVEL” NORM: The past is here (to misquote William Gibson), it’s just not evenly distributed. Luxury allows privileged access to the past… as though history were a nightclub with an exclusive membership.

“TIME TRAVEL” FORMS: Throwback fashion, interior design, pack architecture, etc. “Some style is legendary.”

From a 2022 study of the US Luxury space — across categories.