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?

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.

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?

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?

88) Are people who they claim to be

In Mail-Art it is normal to have an alias. Not being the person you realy are. Using a symbolic name for the mail-art you send out. Are the people online and say they are active in mail-art also really the persons they claim to be?

79) So many visitors, so few entries

There are a lot of visitors to this Mail-Art Discussion Blog, but there are so fe entries? What is the reason for this? Is a blog not working. Do some visitors want to have access? (send a request by e-mail to me), or are we all just readers and no writer?

75) Has Mail-Art changed?

The new generation that does "Mail-Art" might have a different perception of this art-movement than the older generation that has participated for decades. Is that true?

71) New Mail-Artists from the Web

The older generation Mail-Artists was sending out traditional mail and integrated the e-mail and Internet with their communication. There is now a new generation out there that discovered mail-art through the Internet and only after that started with the sending and receiving of mail-art. What made you choose for the slow and old-fashioned mail? You could send a digital images instead? What made you send out mail the old-fashioned way?

62) Mail Art Censhorship

Folgende Information habe ich über http://www.01pla.net von Philippe Pissier erhalten:

September 24, 2008 French Postcards
A blogger on Libération’s Web site, Agnès Viard, reports that, in June, in Cahors, in the southwest of France, the mail artist Philippe Pissier (pronounced piece-Y¥) was being subjected to criminal investigation for having mailed a postcard of a bare-breasted woman, a nipple pierced with a safety pin, to a German exhibit of erotic mail art that had invited him to participate. After the assistant prosecutor Isabelle Ardeef began the investigation, Pissier was informed that he risked three years in prison and a fine of 175,000 euros for the crime of “disturbing public order and mentally endangering children by means of a pornographic work.” The following month, his computer and many of his works were confiscated, but the artist has remained without official word since then. As Pissier remarked, I am an adult, the mail sorters are adults, the mailman is an adult, and the addressee is an adult. I don’t see what the problem is. The local press has weighed in, heaping scorn on Ardeef for the inquiry. Giard reminds readers that such paintings as “Gabrielle d’Estrées,” by an anonymous French artist of the sixteenth century, is on open display at the Louvre, including to minors. “Le ridicule ne tue pas” (“You can’t be killed by ridicule”), the French say; but officials there would do well to remember that, in 1966, Charles de Gaulle’s regime was shaken by its (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to ban Jacques Rivette’s movie “La Religieuse,” a misstep that definitively revealed the aged President’s incommensurable distance from modern life.

More Info:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/goingson/2008/09/french-postcard.html

56) Mail-Art Discussions

As I have noticed only few discussions take place here. It seems most mail-artists are busy with sending out and receiving mail-art and don't like to discuss the subject. No problem. The blog will stay online just to demonstrate that.

37) Addicted to Mail-Art?

I know that some people stumble onto mail-Art, explore it. Play the game, and after a while (sometimes a few years) stop and leave. Some stay, and have become addicted to the exhange of art, ideas and the community involved.

Why does one get addicted?

(the images below I got by mail as a reaction to this question.)

28) Mail-Art and language

　リトアニア出身のマチューナスは年当時，ニューヨーク大学で美術史を学び ，古楽器の儲からないディーラーをしていた。彼は建築，Mail-Artグラフィック・アート，音楽学も学んでいたが，特に美術史家として有望であり，芸術の形式，芸術運動，芸術の学派について研究し，全世界の芸術史を時間的・空間的に網羅した表を作ろうと試みていた。年の秋，ニューヨークのニュー・スクール・フォー・ソーシャル・リサーチでＲ．マックスフィールドによる電子音楽の講座を受けた彼は，L．ヤングと出会い，翌年にヤングの書籍『アンソロジー』という当時の前衛的な作品を集めた書籍の編集

Does language influence the mail-art network you have build up arround you?

23) What isn't Mail-Art

Seems like a lot of contributors want to show us what IS mail-art. Nothing wrong with that. I am currious to what we consider NOT mail-art? A nice example can be the project where mail-artists are called to send in works that is goijng to be sold for a good cause. A mail-art project where one can buy the catalogue, a mail-art project that askes an entrance fee. That is where the borders come closer to what we call mail-art or not. It has to do with the global intension I guess as well.

19) Why all the fuss about what IS or ISN'T mail art?

I am fairly new to the genre *and some would say there IS no genre officially* of mail art, and think that waaay too much discussion has been exhausted on what is mail art, what ISN'T mail art, what is the importance, why it's NOT important and so on...the whole thing is simply overwhelming. Can't we all just agree that mail art IS anything sent through the postal service to another person containing some form of artistic merit? It can be a stamp, faux postage, drawing, painting, collage, political commentary, social commentary or other societal topic using MAIL as the venue to present the IDEA, if not the art? All of us have a "set" description in our minds as to what we each consider "art" and if not art with a capital A then is it "craft"? Do we really even need a distinction? The high society of art dealers, critics, salespersons and collectors would say YES! But mail art has been an outsider type of art from the start. Right? Well, it's been said that Picasso mailed some small paper collages to his cohorts in his day and is this considered MAIL ART? Hmmm. I say we wrestle ourselves free from debating this whole art vs. non art discussion and just make what ever it is that moves us. What do you think?

6) No Questions? Just start to ask....

Well Mail-Artists. This is a blog where you can too publish your views and thoughts. Since there are now already some contributors who signed up, you will sure get some reactions. This Blog can be used to get the information you want to have. So far I seem to be the only to post here, So who is next? Get answers to the things you always wanted to know (and maybe get answers).

4) Digital contributions for a Mail-Art Project

A lot of Mail-Art projects are being started every month. Some accept also digital contributions, some only want to receive the real mail (snail-mail) as contribution. What is your view about this?

3) Catalogues

Because I am taking part in Mail-Art for a long time I also have quite a collection of catalogues. In the last years the new media also brought me CD-catalogs. The new catalogues are nowadays online websites and BLOGS. I know I still prefer the book-form although it is the most expensive form to publish the results of a project. Is this the way it will go in the future. Will Mail-Art more and more become a digital happening.

2) Doing Mail-Art or Talk about it?

Yes, I know that there are mail-artists who rather just DO mail-art and don't want to discuss the subject. I on the other hand, always have liked to discuss the subject. Mail-art is a bit broader than the regular projects that one sees online. Mail-Art is a conceptual art-form that comes out of the need to communicate. It also originates from the Fluxus Mvement and now stands on its own. Do i see these things right?

1) Mail Art Discussion

What is Mail-Art for you. What happened in the past, What are we doing now. What will mail-Art be like in the future? Lots of questions we could discuss on this blog. If you want to speak out. This one of the places for it....