121) Remember these Mail-Artists?

 

Intereting set of rubberstamps created by Adam (USA).
You know ome of them?

120) The Mail-Art tradition

 The Mail-Art tradition ha changed.

A lot is happening online, while the postal pieces are more rare.

New Mail-Artists are learning again what Mail-Art is.

One thing we know, it is getting expensive to send out any mail at all.

119) The old generation i leaving

 More and more Mail-Artists from the old generation are leaving the planet. Is Mail-Art still possible without those first generations?

118) Does paper have a future?

With all the digital involvement of artists, you might wonder if there is still a place for paper. I know that for Archiving, the art on paper has a better chance to survive the times. But with all the new generations using digital information without a printed backup you can also imagine these new generation will build tools to access all that digital information too, and the term "Big Data" might also become accesible for the artists and viewers as well. What do you think? Which Direction are we going?

117) Does this blog bring a discussion?

Seems the times of BLOGS is over and everybody is on social media and websites. Do people still post comments on a blog and discuss what they see?

116) ATCs Buddy Jam starters... ?

Should I work more or less for an ATC Buddy Jam starter?

115) Is the Internet still interesting?

Being on Internet a lot of time, also means you have less time for other things.  To test this, I made even a 'boring' group on facebook (see: https://www.facebook.com/groups/borrrring/) where I notice a lot of people actually come, read and post, wiothout the group having a real theme except that it is titled Boring Group.
What will the role of Internet be in a decade. Will it have taken over even more communicationforms?

114) Mail-Art gets in the museums.

Last year the MoMa in New York even did a few exhibitions on the subject of Mail-Art. A special on Edgardo Antonio-Vigo, and a special on the theme "Analog Networks' in which even some works form me (they have a part in their collection) were shown.

Is mail-art gradually dying. Is Internet taking over. Is the traditional mail-art becoming too expensive. Also the old generation slowly is entering the Internet world and start to document their mailings from the past like souvenirs from a time gone by......

What will happen in the coming few years?

113) Current Mail-Art Network

Getting mail-art in the postbox for me still is what mail-art is about, but the new generation is doing online projects, documentation on blogs, digital catalogs, and very little analogue things these days are produced.

That is why I started to write 3D letters with the newest digital tool, a 3D pen. And the envelopes will be sent out as well into the normal mail-art network. And where will they end?

 

Probably they will end up in closed collections and a digital images somewhere on one of the networks and social media.

112) Too much digital information

As it looks now, a lot of mail-artists are sucked into this digital world, and they realize there is just too much digital information to absorb. So they come to a point where they have to decide how to filter that information. Turn away from the digital sources, or just select only what interests you the most.....

As it turns out Google and Facebook are doing the same. They investigate your behavious and show you only what you indicated you liked. It is like a trap. You don't see all anymore, you just see a coloured version.

111) Documentation of a mail-art project

In the óld' days the mail-art projects resulted in printed documentation. In these modern years the documentation more and more turns out to be a blog, website, digital .PDF documentation. Is this o.k. for you and do you like the digitalisation of the documentation?

What are the positive sides of digital documentation. Are there also any negative sides?

110) Facebook or not Facebook?

I have noticed that a lot of mail-artists moved to facebook on a radical way. They post their mailings there, they post what they receive there. They even publish their artworks on all kind of groups even without sending anything out. Is that still mail-art? Do you have to send a physical piece of mail to be called a mail-artists or is sending of digital stuff enough.

In my opinion you need to send out hardcopy stuff to be called a mail-artist. do you agree or not?

109) New developments online

The free websites, like blogs, are more and more taken over with advertisings. That is why I had to remove some links from this blog. Mail-Art is a topic to discuss. Will see if the interest comes back with interesting themes and also with getting rid of the stupid advertisings. Thanks for the comment that pointed me to this.

108) How large is your network?

107) Shozo Shimamoto (1928-2013)

Today news from John Held Jr arrived though the social media to inform us that Shozo Shimamoto died 3 days ago on January 25th, just 3 days after he became 85 years old.  How will Shozo be remembered?

106) Discussing Mail-Art

There are a lot of visitors on this blog, but somehow the reactions come in only rare. Not sure what the reason is. Are blogs not the best places for discussions. Has Facebook taken over. Is the IUOMA network the place for discussions? Or are mail-artists just too self-centered as master of their own network so that they don't need/want to discuss their views of mail-art?

105) Mail-Art online activity Poll

104) Discussing is not favorite in Mail-Art?

Is seems discussing Mail-Art isn't favorite inside the Mail-Art network. Or are there other reasons people don't react?

103) New Poll

102) QUESTION

101) IUOMA Network

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/

100) IUOMA Poll-10

99) What should be the topic of the 100th discussion?

So far the discussions aren't that lively here. What discussion would cause a lot of reactions? What should be the issue to deal with?

98) What do poems by John M. Bennett mean to you?

School

the crippled hanger ∞ flood nod trace
sighing in the water ∞ deep chump scored
blazer in the fog ∞ clasping the rent
my muddy throat ∞ dust fills the can
the pliant gas ∞ beets and spaghetti

frenchfries in the jello ∞ stiffer than rock
the window’s exploding air ∞ your gleaming ankle
dropping the whole ∞ torrent and sun
your day thought lost ∞ giggling under the bed
my cliff dirt found ∞ the running shirt filled

nighT







Torn

strokes of ham H lung pool
the drain of home H slung cheaper
lash drink cheese H foraging tune
my cost thumper H gosh loot
testing the door H mumbles grin

frown speech h clocking the floor
free ,huh? h your debt thighs
cacaphonic pantry h stroke dry milk
pricey wing h the lost flood
cave tooth h the feathered pig

sewN







X Ray

my shirt funnel s course chump
blaze the zoo s plush neck
doubling the corn s mile gnat
pustules and teeth s shining road
my passing blot s gush demon

ehécatl dried S clear and stuck
muddy lot S lips and light
popcorn inch S bury the frijol
butt sack S splash the grave
knight spot S your pants bloom

dresS

97) Do you still send out envelopes and snail-mail?

Are you still sending out postcards, envelopes and the traditional mail-art, or has the online activity taken over your main outlet to communicate with other artists?

96) IUOMA 1988-2010

Now for two years on NING already:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/

95) IUOMA Poll-9

(main link to IUOMA TV is available at the IUOMA platform on NING; see http://iuoma.blip.tv)

94) IUOMA Poll-8

93) IUOMA Poll-7

This is the 7th Poll. The results of all the polls will be published in 2011. The polls are published on several platforms. In the new communications times all the results of these Polls are added together and show significant results. Mostly over 150 people react to a poll and that gives some insight for sure.

92) Digital Database with information on Mail-Art

This blog gradually is growing and contains already quite some information. Most Mail-Artists trust the Internet to archive things, but I am a bit sceptical on that. Archiving is done by mostly by humans, maybe using computers as their tools. Therefore I archive most of the things I publish online also in printed form. Just because that might last longer than digital stuff. Am I old-fashioned or are there others who work like that?