Poetic Places: Geo-curating history and literature for mobile with the British Library

Poetic Places poeticplaces.co.uk@poetic_places

www.timeimage.org.uk

@time_image

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/

@BL_DigiSchol

What is Poetic Places?

• A free, native app for Android and iOS devices.

• Bring poetic depictions of places into the physical world, helping people to encounter literature and heritage in relevant locations, accompanied by materials drawn from archive collections.

• Brings literature and heritage into everyday life in unexpected moments. Serendipitous discovery; not tours.

• Browse the poems and places without being in situ.

• A low-cost, low-complexity project to inspire.

Technical Requirements

An app-building platform that:

• allows geofencing/GPS-triggered events

• allows push notifications

• creates Native apps (for iOS and Android)

• is media-friendly

• is affordable

http://blogs.bl.uk/digital-scholarship/2016/01/finding-a-platform-for-poetic-places.html

GoodBarber goodbarber.com

GoodBarber goodbarber.com

GoodBarber goodbarber.com

Content & Curation

Text (poems & prose)• Drew from existing anthologies and resources (i.e. Poetry Atlas, old anthologies).

• ~30 entries; 5 licensed.

Images• An opportunity to highlight open collections and out-of-copyright works.

• Contemporary works: old images for old poems.

• 1–5 images per entry; 5 licensed.

• Copyright clearance time consuming, expensive.

Context• Researched poem, poet, place to find meaningful/unusual/evocative narratives.

• Contextualising, marrying text and images.

• History lessons.

British Library one million images on Flickr - coverage in the media!

Content & Curation

Text (poems & prose)• Drew from existing anthologies and resources (i.e. Poetry Atlas).

• ~30 entries; 5 licensed.

Images• An opportunity to highlight open collections and out-of-copyright works.

• Contemporary works: old images for old poems; Flickr.

• 1–5 images per entry; 5 licensed.

Context• Researched poem, poet, place to find meaningful/unusual/evocative

narratives.

• Contextualising, marrying text and images.

• History lessons.

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

This poem was written by William Wordsworth at around 6am on 31st July 1802 ( contrary to its title) as he travelled to Dover with his sister Dorothy.

The bridge the poem was written upon is not the Westminster Bridge that stands here today, which was opened in 1862.

Palace of Westminster as we know it was built 1840–1870 after a fire destroyed much of its Medieval predecessor.

Parliament, River and Bridge, Jose M. Vazquez, 2012,

Flickr

A View of Westminster Bridge and the Abbey from the South Side,

William Anderson,1818, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon

Collection

https://youtu.be/5cOvsEokRwQ

Points of Interest

• Creative Use of Open Collections

• Cross-Silo

• Permissions-Busting

• Sum of the Parts

• Low Budget

• Quick to Create

• Replicable

• Demystifying

• Low Budget

• Quick to Create

• Replicable

• Demystifying

• Sustainable

• Multimedia

• GPS, Bluetooth Beacons, QR Codes

• Crowdsourced Information

• Context

• Expandable

What next?

Try it out

Stella Wisdomstella.wisdom@bl.uk@BL_DigiScholhttp://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/

Sarah Colesarah@timeimage.org.uk@poetic_places@time_imagewww.timeimage.org.uk