PhoneMe Poetry: Mapping Community in the Digital Age
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v6i2.69984Keywords:
community engagement, digital literacy, place-based literacy, mobile poetry, collaborative researchAbstract
In this paper we explore how place-based poetry mediated online enabled community self-representation. Located in the urban core of a large cosmopolitan Canadian city, the PhoneMe project brought together academic researchers and community members into a collaborative educational creative space. Community members created poems about specific places within their neighbourhood, dialed a designated phone number, and recorded the poem by leaving a voice message. Upon receiving the message, the academic team geotagged it on an interactive map, uploaded the poem’s text, featured a Google Streetview image of the location, and shared the post via social media. As the result, a new vision for this distinctive physical space emerged and reached the wider audiences via engagement with the poetic digital media.
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