​The idea was to continue the series of Collective Actions with QR codes in Bochum. So far, within the framework of this series, small and inconspicuous QR code laminates have been made and attached to trees in the forests around Moscow. Here, however, I wanted to find out the perceptual effects of enlarging a QR code.

In a Skype conversation with Andrei, we chose a well-known Bochum action site near the forester's hut on the margins of the Ruhr University grounds, where the action "Tenth Notebook" for Sergei Romashko had been realized more than thirty years ago.

The QR code, printed on cardboard, was to be leaned against one of the outside walls of the hut, no one has ever seen open.

Andrei created the QR code from a recording of John Cage's Train (1978). The sounds of three train rides in Italy are the music of this piece.

Travelling by train also refers to the basic Collective Actions principle of "trips out of town," and the hut, which is itself already out of town, can be reached on foot or by car from the Ruhr University.

I had a company that specializes in the production of billboards and advertising banners print the QR code on a 100 x 100 cm piece of cardboard. The production was delayed for some time, as the printer apparently did not take this order as seriously as those from other clients. In addition, he had to ask the supplier to find cardboard of the proper size. In the end, I was disappointed to learn that only a 80 x 80 cm piece of cardboard could be found. The original plan was that the classic 100 x 100 cm size would also be used as the name of the action. The printer responded to my critical comments as follows:

"It's the only suitable cardboard I could find.

And you artists, you'll just put it on the easel anyway, so the exact size doesn't matter, 100 x 100 or 80 x 80 cm. AS LONG AS IT'S A SQUARE!"

This remark eventually inspired the naming of the action “QR QUADRAT” (“QR SQUARE”).

On the day of the action, I picked up Gisela and Martin at the Aspei, and they shared the backseat with the cardboard square. Along Hustadtring and Max-Imdahl-Strasse (Max Imdahl was the first professor of art history at the Ruhr-University Bochum) the group of participants made their way to the parking lot of a recently-established medical complex. In the 1990s, there had been a clearing on the site of the parking lot where the action BACH took place. The group took the cardboard square through the parking lot, towards the forest. Along the way, we came across a sign for a homeopathic practice and put the cardboard with the QR code next to it to take a test picture.

Soon a window opened on the top floor of the building. The doctor and her team leaned out and angrily shouted, "What kind of QR code is this? Why are you putting a QR code in front of the entrance to our practice?" The outrage was probably due to the fact that a QR code cannot be directly read by the human eye. This also means that it is not immediately obvious whether the QR code contains information that is harmful to their business.

We explained that it is an art action, that with the QR code you can watch a video of a John Cage piece from the 1970s. The annoyance continued, but no one came down to scan the code. Eventually, we were able continue on our way with the cardboard. Behind the "Think about IT" building, we entered the forest.

Gisela, Martin, and I each came to the hut by our own paths. We decided to put the cardboard with the QR code on the bench in front of the hut. It seemed to us that this would be the easiest way to photograph the QR code. We tried this and the corresponding YouTube video did indeed turn on. However, no one watched the recording for a long time, as more and more dogs and their owners were approaching the hut from a different parking lot, on Max Imdahl Strasse.

In conversation with the dog owners, it became clear that they had not planned to meet. It was a coincidence that they all showed up at the hut at the same time. It was only in passing that they noticed our cardboard QR code and no one had the desire to scan it. A gentleman with a very noble dog told us that his wife had also attached a QR code to a tree near the hut, offering help for dogs. And the parade of the dogs continued on its way past us...

We decided that it was better to take the QR code board with us. We didn't want to leave such a large, conspicuous object in the natural environment. I gave the cardboard to Gisela and Martin for the Aspei collection.

We postponed viewing the video by scanning the QR code for a later time. At the level of documentation, such scanning is possible in principle not only for the participants of the action, but also for viewers who were not present at the action and are just examining the documentation. I tried to scan the QR code from the photos of the action, which were published on the "Collective Actions" website. I found that the QR code in the photos taken during the action is NOT readable by a smartphone, as moving branches of the trees in the woods create "impressionistic" patterns of light and shadow on the code's graphics, rendering the code unreadable. This is quite an interesting discovery, and I think it emphasizes the fleeting nature of the performance act. The QR code can only be scanned on the first photo, from before the action, where the cardboard is at the entrance to the homeopaths’ office, and in the last photo, where it is presented as an abstract picture in the Aspei collection. The effect of abstraction, which is achieved by enlarging the QR code to the size of an easel painting, is further emphasized here by the fact that the picture (according to the Baselitz principle) is shown upside down.