This document describes a project called Codepoetry that exhibits poetry in public places using QR codes. It discusses how poetry was traditionally central to public life but has become more private with new media. The project places QR codes with poems around cities so people can scan them with their phones. It provides examples of poetry on public transport and walls in other cities. The document outlines the benefits of using QR codes and the static and dynamic content on the Codepoetry website. It shares results of the initial 300 QR codes placed, which were positively received. It predicts increases in participation as smartphones and QR code scanning grows and proposes new interface ideas for version 2.0.

1. Exhibiting Poetry in Public Places Using a
Network of Scattered QR Codes
Theodoros Papatheodorou Ioannis Dimitriadis
Lecturer - Computational Media Poet / Translator
Athens School of Fine Arts ainigma.net

2. Poetry in the past
● center of public life
● vital in strengthing communal ties
● taught moral values
“if I were Prime Minister for a day I would hang all
the poets... they are to blame for all the wars.”

3. Poetry today
● oral tradition is weaker
● advent of new media
● poetry has been displaced
to a more private sphere

6. Poetry in public
transport
● Poems on the London Underground
– started in 1986
– poems on small panels normally for adverts
– wide selection of material

9. Poetry in public
transport
● Reaction...
– adopted by London buses
– copied by other cities around the world
– best poems published
● 9th ed. sold > 250k
●
now in it's 11th ed.
– poetry competitions in Paris

11. Poetry on the wall (Leiden)

12. Poetry on the wall
(Leiden)
● Reaction:
– has been emulated in other Dutch cities
– in 2004 the Dutch embassy in Sofia launched
a similar project
– Other cities have followed
Cesare Simonetti , Treno In Corsa

13. our approach...

14. QR codes
● by DensoWave in 1994
● today used:
– consumer goods tracking
– ticketing
– marketing
– product labelling
– digital content downloads

15. QRs ideal for our project
1. an ISO standard & Denso does not exercise patent rights
2. easily scanned on all mobile platforms
3. great storage capacity allows for strong error correction
4. contains metadata enabling the phones to respond
according to content type

16. static vs. dynamic content
codepoetry.gr
random poem
QR scanner
App

17. ● Content
– only living poets
● to enhance interactivity
● promote emerging poets
– 20% of poems contributed by
members of the public
● we act as curators

22. Mobile version
QR scanner
App

25. Quantitative results
● 300 surviving stamps
● 100 visitors/day
● avg visit lasts: 1 ½ minutes
● avg number of pages: 2 ½
● 80% of visits are from
scanning the QR

26. Qualitative results
● relatively well known cult urban game
● people react very positively
● smartphones more popular among young
● increasing number of poems from
general audience
● people get in touch with poets
● mainstream press and t.v. has
covered the project

27. Future predictions
● We expect visits to increase:
– smartphones 25-35% penetration in Greece
– pan-european avg of people that have used their phone
to scan a QR is 14%
– expansion of our QR network
– we involve more people

28. v 2.0
● New interface

30. v 2.0
● New interface
● More ways to participate:
– submit poem
– print stencil/stickers and spread the word
– setup a codepoetry chapter in your city/language

32. v 2.0

33. v 2.0

34. info@codepoetry.gr