Friday, May 6, 2011

Square Kufic: God's QR Code


So, if you didn't know, the usage of QR codes has rocketed up in the last year. They're those weird squiggly bar-code type things you're starting to see in the corners of magazines and posters:
That said, a word to the wise: should ever you visit the splendidly apportioned Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia, don't try to scan their logo. It's not a QR Code. 

It's actually a really cool form of geometric calligraphy: square kufic
From Kufic.info:
"Art in Islam follows the tradition of being non representational, especially in important circumstances such as in the mosque, writing and illumination. The strict style, influenced from the nomadic surroundings when Islam emerged, which restricted the medium of visual decorative art, gives it special appeal, being non-individualistic and not adherent to scale. In writing Square Kufic is the essence of this tradition in its abstract stylized form of the traditional archaic Kufic script."
It gets into a square shape like so:
Totally cool.
All I can say is, the first person to come up with a working QR code that's ALSO a square kufic representation of the link deserves some sort of hash-function prize.

No comments: