I have been skeptical of this new frenzy around QR codes.  I am also biased as the place I see them the most is in magazines, and especially trade magazines.  They struck me as a last gasp attempt to create relevance in a dying media--tying an "online" experience to a loose collection of printed pages.  What was this, some half assed attempt at a "digital edition" (which are really abhorrhent--I would rather read the print, thank you)?  Anyhow, I was really not a fan, and I had seen something in the 90's bubble that was similar and required a special "pen"--even met with the company a couple of times and realized quickly nobody was going to use this.  

Skip to last week having lunch with my buddy Tyler (who has started an incredible little service called Skweal).  He was very keen on showing me this video on how TESCO, the #2 shopping market in South Korea drove increased sales through embedding QR codes with pictures of purchasable foot items in subways.  The idea is that consumers could simply scan their purchases via QR code while waiting for their train, say, on the way to work, and how those groceries were delivered later that afternoon, presumably in time to cook for their evening meal!

So, this got me to thinking about how QR codes might have the ability to facilitate immersive experiences where "enlightened canvases" open up around you.  It is somehow turning the digital in to the spectacle (or vice-versa).  Oddly, it took the hum-drum act of buying groceries for me to realize this connection (and maybe it piqued the part of my brain that is is me but in a parallel Snow Crash universe), but this is the inchoate form of something much bigger that will connect our gaze with new possibilities.