In Quick Response, Joachim Schmid devotes himself to the ubiquitous QR code, which was developed as a replacement to the barcode by the Japanese company Denso for the Japanese car industry in 1994 and has since found its way from industrial production into everyday life. It links public space with the internet in a unique way and its austere, constructivist look is not infrequently appreciated in aesthetic terms. It is little wonder, then, that it is also well represented in photographs on Flickr.

It is precisely these QR code photos that Schmid refers to in Quick Response: a collection of QR codes, each of which is individually set on a page and turns into an abstract image that can only be “read” with technical support. A smartphone can be used to scan the code and fol- low the inscribed link to one of these QR code photos on Flickr. Thus, “[t]he series of photos demonstrates the variety of modern commercial, artistic and subversive QR code applications. In addition, the book demonstrates a new way of appropriating other people’s photographs” (Joachim Schmid, “Quick Response,” website).

Dissatisfied with Blurb’s quality, customer service, and lack of responsiveness to artists’ specific needs, Schmid moved to Lulu in 2012, from where our copy in the collection originated. The 2010 paginated Blurb edition in the 12.5 × 20.1 cm format was discontinued and scaled for the unpaginated Lulu format.