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How Much Are You Worth? Barcode Yourself to Find Out

Jul 8, 2011 02:30 PM

How much money do you think you're worth? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? Think again. In the world of shopping centers and barcodes, you may only be worth a few bucks.

Scott Blake is the mastermind behind the website Barcode Yourself, a free and simple tool that shows you just how much money you're worth in the modern world of consumerism. It provides you with a unique barcode by taking personal information from you, including gender, weight, height, age and location. Just head over to Barcode Yourself to get started. You can even play around and see how much your friends are worth.

Barcode identification card with the text "Hello, my barcode is Barcode Yourself [start]."

"The individualized barcode can then be printed, mapped, scanned, even depicted on a t-shirt or coffee mug. Uber-geeks can even test out their barcodes on their next grocery run."

How much do you go for in today's market? My worth? Just under ten bucks. I'm satisfied.

Barcode image.

But this isn't where the barcodes stop for Scott Blake. He's an artist obsessed with barcodes. He's made over 30 large-scale portraits of cultural icons using actual barcodes connected to some aspect of their lives.

"My Barcode Elvis portrait is made with barcodes from his music CDs. Barcode Bruce Lee and Barcode Marilyn Monroe are comprised of barcodes from their movie DVDs. Barcode Oprah is made with the ISBN barcodes from her book club. Interact with my art. Move beyond form to function. Scan the barcodes with your smartphone. Hear, watch and read as my subjects tell their stories."

He's also strayed from the basic barcodes recently, taking on the world of smartphones and QR codes. Scott has compiled a QR code portrait of Amy Goodman using 2,304 unique QR codes that link to nine years of "Democracy Now!" videos. You can scan the QR Codes with a smartphone and it will play a full hour long episode of "Democracy Now!" on your mobile device.

Scott's been conceptualizing barcodes into art since the late-'90s, with his first, somewhat controversial, barcode portrait of none other than Jesus himself. Click here for a larger view and to zoom in to see each of the barcodes used.

To see more, visit Scott Blake's website BarcodeArt.com, and check out his YouTube channel and Flickr stream for more videos and pics of his work.

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