Barcode DJs is a live multimedia performance played on barcodes in grocery store or on stage. It’s a contravention of stereotypes in thousands of supermarkets with nonstop beeping barcode readers. The band of experimental musicians create surreal associations between the sounds of cash desks and unique products. They are bringing an environmental context to the chaotic noise background, supported by a strong beat. Barcode DJs makes you think about trash and waste in different ways. When considering the word ‘trash,’ we can mean classic garbage, or bullshit coming out from mainstream culture. Here we think about both meanings in parallel way. Every package of a product found in supermarkets around the globe carries a barcode for identification at cash desk. These IDs are barcodes, connecting the word of trash with the word of capitalism. Each barcode is unique, so each product can have different individuality. Barcode DJs are using these individualities to control custom made software based on open source software model. We use scanners which are used by markets right now, and open software highlighting independence and freedom. We point to the trash overload, a problem of the whole world. We use the terms recycling, reusing, trash handling, junkyards, sustainability to point out one of the important global problems, the trash!
