QR Code Culture Jamming

I've always wanted to continue my Culture Jamming project from ART 410: Conceptual Strategies in some form or another, but I couldn't find the right means to do so. Now with the concept and idea of QR codes, I feel that this would be a better way to express my creativity and dissatisfaction over certain corporate entities by making my work more of a mystery to the public eye, without the exact reason as to what the QR code would turn out to be.

Placing QR codes in public space gives me a sense of security, compared to placing an actual logo close by (see blog post), mostly because the public (and probably the authorities) won't get to see me posting questionable logos on the spot. Instead, it gives me more leverage of anonymity to simply places the QR logos or better yet, sneak in the codes around the possible perimeters (stores, etc.). It would be a bit more easier to make multiple copies of the codes and distribute them easily (I won't say how; maybe for morally good reasons).

The question to this is whether the public that have smartphones, who also have barcode scanning apps on their phone, are willing to point their cameras to the code.

I have created a new logo just recently, which is a modified Gamestop logo:

When a video game screenshot was posted, one poster decided to troll and ask "is this Battletoads?"

The game is considered one of the hardest of all time, often causing players to quit within the first three levels. The story concerns a woman dressed in leather known as the "Dark Queen" kidnapping a princess as well as one of the Battletoads known as "Pimple". It is up to Rash and Zitz to save them.

The meme took on a new life in 2007 when /b/ decided to call over 40 Gamestops asking to preorder Battletoads for Wii. Unfortunately for the employees within, there had not been a Battletoads game since the mid 1990's. This caused confusion to employees. This confusion would turn to rage as btards kept calling. Gamestop eventually told employees at a conference to handle the calls politely so as to protect the image of the chain. This came after some employees had yelling fits over the phone. [1]

For years, I've heard about this certain meme around the internet and on cable television, mostly on shows that feature video games (e.g. G4, Spike). It was sort of funny to hear about how people were calling Gamestop to pre-order a game that never existed, or the fact that the meme was mostly done to create self-gratification over oneself, as the origins of the meme came from 4chan, a well-known image chatboard, known for its anonymity, an advantage which internet users use to make deviant attacks online, as well as in real life.

I honestly feel sad that there seems to be less of a political or good purpose to specifically call people endlessly to create misfortunes for others just because it sounds fun. That's probably my inquiry about culture jamming: is the purpose of culture jamming to question our sense of space and mind in today's world, where consumption has been a factor in our lives; that U.S. corporations have dominated our ways of thinking in terms of symbols (McDonald's Arch's), places (DisneyLand), people (Michael Jordan), thing (Paris Hilton), etc.? Do we, as consumers, have to question or just simply be fed, question less and less, and that would be our meaning of life?

Reference

[1] http://ohinternet.com/Is_this_Battletoads%3F

And here are the QR codes from my previous project and current:

Abercrombie & Fitch

A & F Kids

Hollister

Diesel Clothing

Old Navy

Gamestop

UPDATE [10-3-11]:

So I finally got the chance to post some of the QR codes in public. From the first two photos, I posted the 'Diesel' and 'Abercrombie & Fitch' on October 2, 2011.