RUNOJA is a location-based mobile application concept for publishing site-specific poetry. Its first version was designed and developed by Lassi Häkkinen as a part of his Master of Arts thesis in the New Media Design and Production programme at Aalto University.

The core idea of the application is to create a tangential art experience for the user by sending them poems that have a connection to the location they are received in. Runoja wishes to enrich the daily life of people with small art experiences that are spontaneous and easy to consume. The application aims to surprise its user by intertwining art into ordinary moments and places, through people's personal mobile phones, devices they are already very familiar with.

During the spring of 2022, a closed test prototype was built with poetry written by Lassi Häkkinen and Ronya Hirsma.

The project is currently on-going, looking to grow and to be officially published. Runoja is open for collaboration.

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THE THESIS studies the remediation process of site-specific poetry that is being published digitally. It concentrates on the aspects of the content that justify the chosen medium, and how the remediated experience was being created around them. The thesis answers to the research question of how can a location-based mobile platform add to the experience of site-specific poetry and explores the themes of art and daily life and tangentiality.

Through practice-based research, the thesis examines the production of Runoja, a location-based mobile application for site-specific poetry. The examined production included three stages: Developing the initial prototype and conducting the first round of user testing; developing the refined prototype and conducting another round of user testing; and based on the learnings, designing the next steps before publishing.

Runoja: Publishing Site-specific Poetry on a Mobile Application Platform (pdf)