Poetry + QR Codes

QR codes are boring as hell. Right now, they're glorified spam and mostly added to movie posters and billboards like an afterthought. I'd like to find some way to play with this technology, and have it resolve to something more meaningful than a coupon.

My name is Felix Jung, and I love exploring the intersection of poems and technology. I have a MFA in Poetry, and have been a tech geek for the last ten years. Currently, I'm very interested in creating projects that allow for easy, group participation/collaboration.

My project idea involves the creation of QR codes that randomly load up a YouTube video, featuring someone reading a favorite poem.

On the viewing side - the QR code would resolve to a specific URL on the project website. Code on that page would then randomly select one of the many submitted videos, and display one at random. The hope is that, over time, more and more videos will be created/submitted. The goal would be that no two scans would yield the same poem.

On the creation side - users would be encouraged to record a video of themselves reading a favorite poem, and to upload it to YouTube. From there, they would visit the project's website and submit their video (name, poem title, YouTube link).

As submissions are approved, they appear on the project website and also become available in the larger pool, when someone scans a QR code.

Ultimately, I want to create multiple QR codes for this project.

One basic QR code would randomly select a poem from all poems submitted. Another QR code would only display sonnets, or poems with a given tag.

Inspiration

Swez's QRadio project:
http://sweza.com/2011/07/qradio-my-latest-qrt-project/

You Are Beautiful:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=%22you+are+beautiful%22+project&m=text
http://avoision.com/2003/11/15/pics_from_the_evening.php

Funded by Chicago, IL (November 2011)