Unscannable
A QR code that can be seen but never scanned. Extruded into three dimensions, its raised black modules disrupt machine vision, obscuring just enough of the white background to prevent a phone from parsing it. The data is there, encoded and complete, but remains inaccessible to the machines designed to read it.
This piece plays with expectation, existing in the space between the physical and the digital. It challenges the assumption that visibility guarantees legibility, exposing the fragility of machine perception. The information is present, yet forever out of reach.
I was trying to make a QR code that you could see but not scan. Something about taking a thing meant only for machines and making it completely unreadable to them, yet perfectly visible to the human eye, amused me.
It exists in limbo: visible, yet untouchable. A secret in plain sight.
(Theoretically, you could scan it if you zoom in from really far away and has a very bright light source that doesn’t cast shadows.)
Want to try it yourself? Download the 3D model (impossible-qr-code.obj)