Pet Shop Boys embed secret codes in new video

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 10 Oct 2007 at 15:37

The Pet Shop Boys have embedded their latest music video with more than 100 "QR codes", that when photographed with a camera phone send viewers to a civil liberties website.

Quick Response (QR) codes are monochromatic grids of pixels encoded with text or links, intended to redirect various print and television media to relevant online content.

The codes have proven popular in Japan, where they were developed, but have yet to take off outside the country, though the reader software does come preinstalled on phones including the Nokia N93 and N80. Those who want to take part but haven't got QR software preinstalled on their mobile phones can download a reader package such as Kawya.

The band have embedded the codes in the video for the song Integral, which is based around topics of privacy and authority, and the embedded links transport the viewer to sites detailing the apparent erosion of civil liberties.

The band's website says the QR codes are intended to amplify the message of the song.

"The idea is that it's sung from the point of view of the authoritarian New Labour-style government," says band member Neil Tennant on the Pet Shop Boys website.

"If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear is always used as a justification for ID cards."

The band are also encouraging viewers to make their own version of the video. The pages from the stop-frame animation in the video have been turned into a 2,408 page PDF which is freely available here.