16) Old and New Mail-Artists. What Rules and which Network?

Mail-Art means something different to everybody that works in this field. Some have experienced the changes over the decades, were in contact with the first generation who started it all. Some have only discovered Mail-Art a few years or even moths ago and start to discover the many aspects of it. The basic aspect is that people have the need to communicate and to create. The process of sender and receiver, the use of communicationforms. The 'old' generation always communicated with the snail-mail system, mayby integrated with the FAX and telephone. Computers only became available end of the last century, and the experimenting started. The 'new' generation grows up with computers and discover this almost anarchistic art-form called mail-art. The 'unwritten rules' that mail-art follows have been written down many times, but every newcomer can write his own rules. The essence is that he/she will become the center of the new created network of which he/she will be part. When we talk about 'the Network' we sometimes forget that everybody means a different network. My network is limited by the people I know and the information I get. That is a different network compaired to the one my correspondents know.That is probably the charme as well of the Mail-Art network. Through every contact you are able to discover a new aspect of the Network, and follow the path you find. Mail-Art is a discovery-path.