QRCoda, takes its name in part from the music notation of a coda. Represented by a set of cross hairs, a coda is used as a navigation marker in modern music. When instructed to go "To Coda" the musician, upon reaching the final repetition of a section of music, jumps immediately to a separate section headed with the coda symbol.

In the instance of the guitar, QR Codes instruct mobile devices to go "To Coda" and jump to content on the internet.

The guitar you see before you was a part of the 2012 pulbic art installation of GuitarMania sponsored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the United Way and Fender guitars.

THE QR CODES

I couldn't help but think that QR codes are kind of cool looking: angular, random looking boxes and lines that aren't random at all. They hold secrets. All you needed is a decoder ring to figure out what they have to say.

Usually QR Codes are "static". That is to say once you create the code it can never be changed. It will direct you to the same web site, email or message, no matter what, until the end of time.

To prevent the guitar from becoming obsolete after one year, the QR codes I create are "dynamic". At any time I can change where the codes take the user. I can update the links each year to reflect new Rock-n-Roll inductees, or change them to something different altogether. What one person encounters one day, may not have been what someone else experiences the next.

Rob Masek is an art director by day and a cartoonist for the Lakewood Observer by night. He is a member of the Northern Ohio Illustrators Society and the Rotten Haggis Football Club.

His other public art piece, The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo, was featured downtown the same year as a part of the St. Clair Superior Development Year of the Dragon public art project.

His wife Sylvia Masek has been part of the Cleveland art scene for many years and has participated in GuitarMania twice, once in it's inaugural year in 2002 with Rock the House that Love Built and again in 2012 with Rusted Roots. Her guidance and support during this project cannot be quantified. (In other words, thanks, babe).

Thanks also to Jim O'Bryan who helped out in a big way at the last minute...oddly discovering his own uncanny QR-Code-reading talent in the process.

Stan and Ruth, your belt-sander saved both the neck of the guitar and the sanity of the artist.

QUICK RESPONSE CODE

ORIGIN
The QR code was born in 1994, created by Toyota to track parts during the manufacturing process. The potential for this new code was realized and was quickly adopted into Japanese smart phone technology. In the beginning it was used primarily to share phone numbers, however, since QR codes can hold up to 7,089 characters (as opposed to the traditional UPC that can store about 20) the technology was eventually adopted to take users to a web sites, write emails, play videos and music, and a host of other uses.

STRUCTURE
QR codes are divided into different zones. You'll notice the three larger boxes (top right, top left and bottom left) that are used for positioning. The smaller inset box on the bottom right hand side is an alignment box, that adjusts for distance and angles. The rest of the positive and negative space store information, and are read in two directions left and right, and up and down.

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