QR Codes + Graffiti > Commerce

Everybody is talking about Calvin Klein’s “Get It Uncensored” QR Code billboard in SoHo. So what. It’s been around in Japan for ages (well, maybe not ages, but since the 90’s). Invented by Denso-Wave in 1994,  it’s now pretty much on every printable/projectable surface.

The US market is finally catching on and we started seeing commercial uses such as the Calvin Klein billboard or the Nordstrom storefront, or as tourism tool being utilized by European cities like Bordeaux, France, with its Digital City Project or Senigallia on Italy’s Adriatic coast with its QRCity. And yeah, it’s the next biggest thing and its cool. But it has to be more than commerce or tourism.

Then came the Berlin-based urban artist Sweza. Since graffiti are always removed by either the local authorities or property owners, he decided to photograph the graffiti to preserve it and after the graffiti was removed, he placed a QR code in the exact location, which shows you the original. It’s QR code acting as graffiti, but cleaner. Very clever.

Taking that a step further, Digit, a London-based interactive communications agency, is QR-Coding graffiti and making it a talking point. Called I Could Do That, the project basically stems from how everyone always has an opinion about different urban art. A QR code is placed next to each graffiti/art piece which brings you to a site where you can post your comment or read other people’s. So now the graffiti becomes an invitation to a dialogue, creating a reciprocity of some sort.

See samples of comments on Vhils piece above.

For me, it allows the city dwellers/walkers to have a kinship with the concrete you walk on and the walls you pass through. It is “if this walls could talk” times ten. And I like that.

End notes: Thanks to 2d code for being such a resource for all things QR code. What’s the future? I see on-the-spot public voting (from policies to ideas) and online-offline dialogue (think conferences or soapbox orations a la Hyde Park) to QR code as bouncers (yup, you’re not on the list, buddy!). It’s going to be a lot of fun.

If you have any interesting ideas on QR code application, let me know.