John Giorno's 1969 conceptual artwork "Dial-A-Poem," originally a phone-based poetry service featured in MoMA's landmark 1970 exhibition "Information," has been relaunched as an online platform. The new version, created by Giorno Poetry Systems, presents randomized readings of both historic and contemporary poems, including contributions from Laurie Anderson, William S. Burroughs, and Gary Snyder. International editions have been added for France, Mexico, Thailand, Italy, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Brazil, with poems recited in their native languages.
The relaunch matters because it preserves and extends a pioneering work of conceptual art that merged poetry, technology, and mass communication for a digital age. By adding international editions and making the project accessible online, Giorno Poetry Systems continues the artist's vision of democratizing poetry and reaching diverse global audiences, including remote regions like the Amazon. The project also highlights the enduring relevance of 1970s conceptual art in contemporary digital culture.