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The world is saturated with digital connections. The contemporary flaneur saunters down city streets with phone in one hand, laptop case in the other, ipod dangling from his ears and a constant connection to the world around him…well almost. The proliferation of accessible digital connectivity may have made it easier for us to stay in touch and feel in touch but the urban dweller of today surely must feel as distanced from the physical world as the 19th century Parisian. With cities full of crackheads on Crackberrys the need to feel connected to the actual physical world around you is becoming more and more necessary. As captivating as the idea of halting our digital obsessions and going back to nature may be to some, realistically its not going to happen, New York isn’t going New Haven.

Luckily, technology has once again come up with an answer; QR codes. QR codes, or quick response codes are two-dimensional barcodes that can be scanned and decoded by camera phones. The QR codes can encode relatively large amounts of data (that means text and images) and automatically direct your phone’s browser to a URL. A Japanese automobile part manufacturer called Denso Wave invented QR codes in 1994. They were initially developed as a more efficient method of keeping track of inventory. So, what does that have to do with rebuilding physical connections? Well, it allows the physical world to be tagged and included into our digital one. Think of it as physical hyperlinking. Imagine a tree tagged with information on the species, its significance to the surrounding area, a link to a site on conservation, whatever you like… It may not be a reversion to our natural states but at least it’s a way of connecting to and interacting with our natural and physical landscapes. QR codes are fast becoming a way for advertisers to interact with their customers and a way for customers to interact with the products they purchase. Armed with just their mobile phone, you can go into a supermarket, scan a QR code on a product and find out all sorts of information. Whether its organic, related to any political or corporate controversy, whatever. People aren’t going to give up on their iphones and blackberry’s anytime soon, so at least we can bring the world we’re forgetting into the one we’re building. If the www won’t go physical we’ll take the physical to the www.

Hafiz Juma