The Poetry Foundation: Chicago
Working closely with the team at Sourcelab, Scine created a beautifully narrated interactive exhibit of early Chicago poets for the Poetry Foundation.
The soon to launch mini-site allows users to navigate a map of downtown Chicago and the surrounding area that has spawned some of America’s greatest poets of the last century. When a user chooses a place of interest the map zooms into view and a narration guides the user through a rich visual experience of photographs, poet biographies, and of course the poetry itself. The music for the narrations was generously provided by Delmark Records which has recorded Chicago blues and jazz for over 50 years and the readings of the poems are wonderful to hear.
The site has a beautifully crafted feel, and the archival material in the narrated tours is outstanding.
Link: coming soon.
Detail showing the entire interactive map
Detail showing rollover animation of the Chicago Arts Center location
Detail: User begins the narrated tour of the Art Institute, each marker on the timeline represents a unique archival asset
Detail of poet Stuart Dybek’s biography. As the user passes each Marker, an icon representing the visual asset appears on the right side media gallery. At any point in the narration the user can click an icon to review the content.
Detail showing Gwendolyn Brooks “Primer for Blacks” poem
Detail showing a set of photographs
When the narration is over for each location the user can review media assets or continue to the next location in the tour or return to the main interactive map screen.
User has chosen to re-read Lisel Meuller’s biography by clicking her icon in the media gallery