Read The Fences

Earlier last month, someone alerted us about seeing some strange stuff down in Houston and they think it’s an alien message. Turns out, it’s actually a fence, nothing scary, with a QR Code on it. But it’s a really unusual sight, actually, because we’ve seen QR Codes on posters, on cups, on plates, on bananas, on scarves, on sand…and now, these codes can be embedded into the design of a fence too. 

Well, upon further research, it was found that the said QR Code fence can be found not only in Houston but on Broadway in Manhattan NYC as well. A New York group of architects and artists recently started creating these fences downtown along a stretch of construction site. Carolina Cisneros, Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena and Mateo Pinto are using plastic color blocks for the said fence. 

The downside is that we think it works only with a particular software that needs to be separately downloaded into QR Code-friendly phones in order for us to see what the message is all about. 

The QR Code fence in Houston is apparently a temporary outdoor installation and allows passer-bys to access content on the internet via their cell phones. It’s been said that the QR Code is actually double-sided….which means that the QR Code can be read from either side of the fence. We’re not sure how this is working out but it sounds tremendously ambitious and exciting. 

The Houston project, like the one in Manhattan, is sponsored by the New York City of Design and Construction and they’re already in quite deep into the project since the reconstruction program was first launched late 2007. The group behind this is the Alliance for Downtown New York and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Apparently, a similar project will be launched and their target is Fulton Street. 

At the point of writing this post, my guess is that not many people are accessing the QR Code fences yet because there were several people who tried to read and couldn’t. 

But it’s really neat that Americans are starting to buy into the technology.