Taking poetry off the page and into the street, Poem Booth resembles a stylized version of a backlit outdoor advertising unit. But instead of flogging products, this display can spin rhymes. Anyone who steps up to its mirrored surface and presses a button is treated to a tailormade poem.
First, Poem Booth takes a photo, capturing the people it sees and the setting they're in. Powered by generative AI, the unit then writes unique verses based on that image. A QR code allows people to save and share their photos and personal poems. Poem Booth can be programmed to improvise around a specific theme, too. For a graduation ceremony, it could focus on growth and perseverance, while on a busy shopping street, it might craft missives on the climate crisis.
After a soft launch at Lowlands music festival in August 2023, Poem Booth officially debuted this month. Anyone in the Netherlands or Belgium can rent the booth for EUR 950 for six hours. Setting it to wax lyrical on a particular theme runs an extra EUR 750. Poem Booth currently composes in Dutch, English, Arabic, French and German, with nearly every other language available on request.
