Here's a scene I can see becoming increasingly more common as the decades wear on. After a street mural in Vancouver was defaced by an extremely uncreative would-be anarchist (top), somebody slapped a QR code over the half-assed tag (middle).


The code leads back to a photo of the piece before it was defaced (bottom). Here's the synopsis of the piece by Hi-Fi Murals:

AUDREY - approx. 45' x 14' - Located on First Avenue at Nanaimo Street, Van., BC - painted Oct. 2005

This mural was sponsored by the City of Vancouver as a deterrent to graffiti and as a means of helping to beautify the neighborhood. The subject of this mural is Audrey, my daughter, and the background is in the Vancouver Art Gallery. I was trying to capture a dreamlike setting while keeping the image simple in order not to distract the passing motorists.


If — in the span of a decade or so — we're all plugged to the gills with augmented reality tech (like this video by designer Keiichi Matsuda) I could see urban beautification taking shape as such. Also, the idea of strolling through historically augmented neighborhood has some intriguing possibilities. Imagine walking through Times Square and having the option of flipping on "Porno Theater 1970s" mode to blot out the glare of Red Lobster.

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[Via The Wooster Collective]