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Conygar Tower - folly ruins with QR code poetry beneath arch.

It takes ages to finally get to the point where a project is complete, and here I am, the last of the QR code poetry is installed in the landscape. So just to get you up to speed about this project, Jenny Mash and myself worked in three schools along the curtilage of the Coleridge Way, we took their pupils out into the landscape, just like Wordsworth and Coleridge liked to do, and wrote poetry inspired by nature and the natural world.

Scanning and reading the poetry,
no mobile reception required.

I then turned this poetry into QR codes, which are square bar codes, then laser etched these onto slate, a strong and resilient material which will stand the weather but also be at home in the landscape, the last thing I wanted was to add more visual litter to the environment. The QR codes are great, you will need a smart phone with a scan app installed (lots of free ones available), and cleverly there is no need for mobile reception as it just reads the picture and translates it back into text.

Porlock School with the Nether Stowey Gaol slate,
their word cloud (right) and also some finger post squares
which are held by the standing pupils.

I have written a few blogs about these before, and talked about Nether Stowey Gaol which had a slate installed by me earlier this year with QR poetry codes on. It also has a word cloud, which is a scattering of the words which the children harvested form their walks, then wrote poetry from. I then squeezed this through a cloud mangle, which counts the times a word turns up and makes it bigger or smaller depending upon frequency. There is a little more to it than this but you get the idea I hope, and you can see Porlock St Dubricius School with them above.

Here is a close up. 

Word cloud of St Dubricius School, Porlock

So the last piece in the puzzle was Conygar Tower in Dunster, a little off the path of the Coleridge way but somehow it captures the romanticism of decaying splendor. Andy Player of The Crown Estate, Dunster has been fabulous support, and he is keen to involve the village in Crown Estate projects so was happy to assist when I approached him. A week to two back I finally fitted the dressed up slates to the posts, we had intended to use split chestnut from Conygar Tower but these were too short and I was worried as the seasons changed they would move too much and crack the slate. So tanalised posts were chosen and I left the final finished pieces with Andy to install.

Conygar Tower

Scanning the poetry

So on Monday I ventured up the tower with No 2 son with Fable the dog leading the way, and discover if the posts had been installed. 

All I can say is wow. 

The siting of the posts was the Estates choice and I am very pleased indeed, a true finale to the project, sensitively done and I hope appreciated by all who visit.  I do have some extra slates etched for exhibition during Somerset Art Week Venue No 23 in Dulverton, along with the Story Boxes and a few other pieces of my works. Plus Jenny and I hope to be working with another three schools during the Spring term of 2014 and completing the Coleridge Way poetry path. So if you are walking around Somerset and happen across these curious codes, etched on slate and glued to finger posts (with full permission I will add) then scan them and enjoy the poetry, the pupils wrote those words whilst walking in these places. 

Enjoy, and thanks to all who have been apart of it, but especially to the little poets themselves.

QR Codes on The Jubilee Hut, Webbers Post, Dunkery
with story box in the background