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Faces As Brands / Data Containers

Consider the placement of sticker graph for call girl ads on the handle of a Perdizes phone booth, in a Tokyo club bathroom, a Soho bench and here in Venice.

For every thing that is placed, the speed at which it is likely to be displaced - for example stickers placed on the hand dryer versus on the wall where it is more likely to be scratched off and painted over.The contexts in which a longer or shorter sticker life cycle is beneficial? And to whom?

The future perfect of stickers will include more digitally readable information - RFID, QR codes, faces, ..., and naturally the tools to read them. Mismatched life cycle expectations + machine readable data = United bankruptcy triggered by proximate interaction.

Faces? When hi-def facial recognition goes mainstream a facial expression becomes another container for data – to be interpreted and acted upon, a macro/script/action if you like. Yeah - with steganography it already is, but think mainstream. In every context where QR codes are viable today replace that ugly pixellated box with a communications channel we've spent an evolution learning – the human face. Adding an extra layer of communication to people as brands. A simple mainstream example of how might work? Where today we swap business cards tomorrow we snap a photo of the other person's face.

And who will be the first to exploit the face as a (data channel) medium for the message? Quite probably the well manicured hands of the sex industry.

Sleep to catch up on, conferences to prepare.

Writing from Santa Monica | October 26, 2008 | Permalink