The At Least They Tried collective will present the results of their hackn3t residency, research they have been conducting from April 8th to 14th. Focusing on demystifying QR codes and providing new perspectives, the collective will share their findings with the public on April 15th at 6:00 PM at the MaMa club and online at hacklab01.org.
Residency Dates : 8 - 14 April
Residency End && Online Event : 15 April (18h)
Yet another awkward QR code is an art+tech research aiming to exhaust the QR both as a subject and an object.
The work presented in this project will take an educational form, explaining first how to read QR codes by hand (without a phone to scan), secondly how to effectively disarm QR's with a black marker pen, and finally how to repurpose them strategically as new tools.
By taking QR codes as a study case, we provide a simple methodology of how people can adopt an active stance towards an everyday technology and avoid being subjugated to its use. The work is a tentative to create new forms of digital literacy in a seemingly complex world.
Disarming & Elevating the QR code to the status of a tactical tool
- April 2024., klub MaMa & online (hacklab01.org)
In 2021, we saw the establishment of QR codes through the use of COVID-19 pandemic sanitary passes. Since then, they have been introduced in many commerces/institutions as socially accepted, and for a few years now, have become a part of our lives both as consumers and citizens of digital-savvy states. Yet on the other hand there is still a wide consensus against them, to put it in kind words : everybody hates QRs.
In this presentation, we will begin by exploring the origins and history of QR codes, addressing the inherent controversies tied to their integration into our daily lives. In a second movement we will present our study on QR disarming; techniques and strategies to make them inefficient. Lastly we will be giving examples of artists, activists and hackers who have used and/or abused QRs to the means of their own agenda. By demystifying the technology through tactical design we hope to provide both awareness and inspiration on how to live in a world with too many QRs.
We are (At Least They Tried) an art collective and an in-dependant print studio who believes that digital data shouldn’t be confined solely to the edges of our screens. We assume that data can be found, read, expropriated and exploited in many ways, both in margin and outside of the internet. Our research embraces counterintuitive practices, such as writing QR codes by hand, hacking thermal printers, or experimenting with low range networks in public space. These few examples hold in common the idea of doing differently. But rather than having the intention of changing the world, these projects should be seen more as poetic and low tech tentatives to regain agency from the hegemony of the GAFA and the empire of big data. As such our goal is to create alternative forms of digital literacy for us and anyone interested. Firstly through print as an artistic practice, and secondly as an educative platform, promoting open-source knowledge and tools, creating spaces for discussions and workshops, ultimately sharing on/offline whatever it is that we managed to hack into or at least tried our best to dismantle. atleasttheytried.org
Queenie F. Charles, also known as Queen Paramount, is an artist and graphic designer. Their practice is a process of experimentation and misuse, which allows them to draw sensitive conclusions about the way they use technology, both on a daily and a global scale. Through their work, they embrace machine misuse, exploring their flaws and creating a back-and-forth relationship between human and software error. In 2022, they founded H2A Collective, of which they are the main curator, and whose main mission is to set up events in underground spaces to encourage the development of the new media arts landscape in the city of Toulouse, while promoting practice through low tech and lack of means to tackle technochauvinist thinking. They are active in Toulouse’s alternative scene as a multimedia artist and DJ. queenparamount.com
Kaspar Ravel is an artist and critical new media theorist, which gives them the opportunity to both create art and teach in schools. As a self-taught coder, DIY hacker and low tech enthusiast they find pleasure in questioning the role of technology but also in finding (poetic | politic) solutions to the complexifications of our world. These tentatives can vary from a personal perspective (such as finding alternatives to google maps) up to broader societal issues (such as research within the semiotics of nuclear waste). During the day they are an artist-researcher affiliated to Sorbonne University in Paris (France) from where they organise exhibitions, workshops and talks on/outside campus. On the offtime they are a DJ and VJ resident at OYÉ label, designing scenography and lights for events, performing live audiovisuals on stage, and more occasionally mixing for radio shows and small events. Kaspar.wtf
Hacklab01 is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the "Kultura Nova" Foundation and the City of Zagreb.
Yet Another Awkward QR Code (tentative to demystify the thing that wants to be scanned)
Kolektiv At Least They Tried predstavlja rezultate svoje hackn3t rezidencije, istraživanja koje provode od 8. do 14. travnja. S fokusom na demisitifikaciju QR kodova i pružanje novih perspektiva, kolektiv će svoje nalaze podijeliti s javnošću 15. travnja u 18:00 sati u klubu MaMa i online na hacklab01.org.
Trajanje rezidencije: 8. - 14. travnja 2024
Kraj rezidencije i online događanje: 15 travnja (18 h)
Radni jezik: engleski
“Još jedan nezgrapan QR kod” je umjetničko / tehnološko istraživanje s ciljem iscrpljivanja QR koda u ulozi subjekta i objekta.
Istraživanjem QR kodova uspostavit ćemo jednostavnu metodologiju koja će publici pružiti mogućnost zauzimanja aktivnog stava prema svakodnevnoj tehnologiji i onemogućiti podčinjavanje njenim korištenjem. Rad predlaže nove oblike digitalne pismenosti u naizgled kompleksnom svijetu.
Disarming & Elevating the QR code to the status of a tactical tool
U 2021. COVID potvrde su uvedene kao uvjet za ulaz u razne radnje i institucije. Tako su QR kodovi postali dio naše građanske i konzumerističke svakodnevice. Unatoč tome, konsenzus oko QR kodova jest - da ih svi mrze.
Predavanje se bavi podrijetlom i poviješću QR kodova, te adresira kontroverze oko njihove integracije u našu svakodnevicu. Umjetnici će predstaviti studiju o tehnikama i strategijama za razoružavanje QR kodova, i prikazati primjere umjetnika, aktivista i hakera koji koriste QR kodove u svom radu. Demistifikacijom tehnologije kroz taktični dizajn cilj je ovog predavanja pružiti inspiraciju za život u svijetu s previše QR kodova.
At Least They Tried je umjetnički kolektiv i neovisni tiskarski studio. Vjeruju da digitalni podaci ne bi trebali biti ograničeni na rubove ekrana. Podaci se mogu pronaći, pročitati, eksproprirati i iskoristiti na mnoge načine, kako na marginama, tako i izvan interneta. .Njihov je cilj stvaranje alternativnih oblika digitalne pismenosti za sebe i sve zainteresirane. Kroz tisak kao umjetničku praksu i kroz edukativnu platformu, promovirajui znanje i alate otvorenog koda, stvarajući prostor za rasprave i radionice, konačno dijeleći na mreži ili offline sve što su uspjeli hakirati ili barem pokušali najbolje što su mogli demontirati. atleasttheytried.org
Queenie F. Charles, poznata i pod imenom Queen Paramount, bavi se umjetnošću i grafičkim dizajnom. Proces joj se sastoji od eksperimentacije i zlouporabe što joj dozvoljava da dolazi do osjetljivih zaključaka o načinu korištenja tehnologija na svakodnevnoj i globalnoj ljestvici. Radom prigrljiva zlouporabu strojeva i istražuje njihove mane te tako stvara međusobnu povezanost ljudske i softverske greška. 2022, osniva kolektiv H2A, gdje djeluje u ulozi glavne kustosice. Kroz H2A kolektiv organizira događanja u nezavisnim prostorima s ciljem razvoja novomedijske scene u Toulouseu. Promovira low-tech pristup i koristi manjak sredstava za borbu protiv tehnošovinizma. Aktivna je u tuluškoj nezavisnoj sceni kao multimedijalna umjetnica i DJ. queenparamount.com
Kaspar Ravel je umjetnik i teoretičar novih medija što mu omogućava da istovremeno stvara i predaje. Samouki je programer, DIY haker i entuzijast low techa. Uživa u propitkivanju uloge tehnologije i pronalaženju poetskih i političnih rješenja svjetskim kompleksnostima. Istraživanja mu variraju od osobnih problema kao što je pronalazak alternative korištenju google mapa, do istraživanja širih društvenih problema kao što je semiotika radioaktivnog otpada. Preko dana je umjetnik istraživač na Sveučilištu Sorbonne u Parizu (Francuska) gdje organizira izložbe, radionice i razgovore. Preko noći je DJ, VJ i rezident na etiketi OYÉ, dizajnira scenografiju i svjetlo za evente izvodi audiovizualne performanse te povremeno miksa za radio emisije i mala događanja. kaspar.wtf
Hacklab01 financijski je podržan sredstvima Ministarstva kulture i medija RH, Zaklade “Kultura Nova” i Gradskog ureda za kulturu Grada Zagreba.