freightening that there hasn't been any comment (at least in the group) on the email and its contents, so i'll throw a few typed letters onto the screen
On 7/18/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I recently wrote this short text for a snail-mail mailing cum dodo ATC > attached, > am I just a old embittered snob totally off mark? > VB > > DODO not DADA - summer reflections on a shiny mailbox > > So, is mail art still alive or (almost) extinct? Though I never stopped > swimming in the correspondence flow since I first entered the postal network > way back in the late Seventies, this question is becoming more and more > difficult to answer. The mail art community, if there ever was one, from > my observation point seems to be receding into utter obscurity or melting > into (Inter)net-art, which is a wonderful but rather different kind of > experience. here it seems that you are saying that there is a community, otherwise it could not recede into utter obscurity. you are framing this statement with such a pessimistic tone that it would be hard to want to do anything. starting back at the beginning, (almost) extinct is still alive (tho, a wonderful turn of phrase that (almost) extinct). > Yes, there are still mail art shows and ?festivals? being organized around > the (Western) world, but the medium has become a bit stale and tired, the > original feeling of excitement and discovery is long gone (and this is > understandable > for a phenomenon that spans four decades, no small feat in itself!) but > it has not been replaced by the wisdom and maturity that old age usually > brings forth. I perceive a forced mood of ?eternal youth? for a medium that > has had its days. this mode of 'eternal youth', who is behind it? i make no claims to having been in the mail-art community for a long time, indeed i'm a rube, however i would suggest that those behind the eternal youth message are *probably* people who are, well, older The very symbols of correspondence (artists? postage stamps, > rubber stamps, postcards, envelopes, etc.) are being gradually abandoned, > they are not the main focus of postal activities anymore, or they have become > rare practices pursued by a dwindling number of veterans. Artists? Trading > Cards might be a cute new twist to the old game, but it never really spread > out and conceptually I find it a bit weak, missing a precise link with the > postal medium (and art history). Mail art lost a centre of gravity, its > identity fragmented into a myriad of individual projects, and not many seem > to care much anymore about a communal ?philosophy?. can't an 'individual project' exist within a communal philosophy? can't this be the next possibility to 're-invigorate'? this is, for me, the balancing act and one of the more interesting points raised within the essay Old mail artists die > - too many to mention, r.i.p. - and the newcomers are often unaware of mail > art?s tradition (yet there are books available to be read, just check Google > or Amazon!), so the dream of a global and peaceful community of artists > sharing experiences is fading away into underground myth and urban legends. > Something you will tell to your grandchildren, and they will smile and shake > their heads in disbelief? > > I find rather telling the fact that one of the few ?signs of networking > life? - messages that are not aimed at individuals but rather addressed > to the entire circuit of postal artists - that I noticed in the past few > months is a series of loosely connected mailings (from Lumb, Bates, Brignull > and others) comparing mail art to the Dodo, the notorious exotic bird that > has come to represent the endangered animal species par excellence. a period of pessimism seems expected, that aside, are(n't) messages aimed at the idea of mail-art, the entire community, possibilities for discussion, for dialogue, indeed for community building? So I > am not the only pessimist networker feeling the ground shake under his feet. > Things have changed a great deal in the almost thirty years I spent inside > (and outside) the postal net: riding on the crest of the new wave/punk energy > in the Seventies, but still maintaining the positive ideals of the Hippie > era, resisting the boredom of the Eighties and Nineties clinging to the > collectivist Utopia of a free-for-all and open trading system, entering > the new Millennium to find out that, after all, maybe those cynical punks > were right, this is a ?no future? situation for the planet. Evil forces > prevail, the model for global cooperation that mail art so well exemplified > proved inapplicable to the big numbers. as someone who grew up during the 20 years of great boredom that you mention, it seems to me absolutely foolish that people actually believed that mail-art, or any artistic practice, could prevail over the evil forces (loosely defined) Maybe all the money we dumped in > postage stamps and photocopies would have been better invested in some charity > project, maybe a little voluntary social work would have been less wasted > time. it isn't a waste of time, you did indeed take pleasure from these activities, and clearly you are passionate about it. but, reflecting what i typed above, if one wants to make a truly immediate impact, than yes volunteering is a better way to go. the impact of artisitic and mail-art activities can't be wide-spread, but it is 'more targeted' as an individual opens a package as opposed to, for example, teaching a group of adults literacy. it is unfair to compare charity versus art in this vein. ross priddle brought up a sound point a month or two ago but in a different context, namely that mail-art, or all art requires a degree of leisure time and disposable income--at least in north america, definitely in the united states But just see what millions of people reunited by music with the ?Live8? > event has been able to obtain by the powers that rule the Earth: next to > nothing. Contemporary popular culture has touched an unprecedented low, > the new generations have got used to a diet of heartless blockbusters and > mindless bestsellers. Mail art is not the only endangered Dodo around. true, but the promoters and participants in 'Live8' were a little self-congratulatory about all 'the good work' they were doing by playing pop songs vittore, i appreciate your wisdom (despite what you wrote earlier that mail-art, with age, has gained none!) and for bringing up the points you raise--bill wilson who has grown silent, and probably does not wish for me to circulate his name is another person who has much to offer. everything you two (and guido is very good too) not to mention (fuck, this has turned into an awards banquet, 'and i would like to thank') tamara okay, enough of names--i think my sentiment is clear xoxo kevin > The Dodo was a mild bird with a hooked beak and a gentle spirit. When the > Portuguese sailors first discovered the friendly bird on the shores of the > island of Mauritius in the year 1598, they called it ?dodo? (?simpleton?) > mistaking his child-like innocence and lack of fear as stupidity. Being > also unable to fly, the bird was easily killed by men and by other new animals > introduced in its environment, like dogs and pigs. By the year 1681, the > Dodo had been completely wiped out from the face of the planet. We do not > even have a complete skeleton, so the bird only lives today through the > rare descriptions of the time and the pictures of artists, such as the drawing > made by Sir John Tenniel for Lewis Carroll?s Alice in Wonderland. Maybe > the same will happen to mail art in a near future, when postage rates will > have become even more expensive: artistamps and such ephemera will survive > only in the description and catalogues of a few devoted bibliographers and > scholars. Mail art is not only endangered by sky-rocketing postage rates > though, I think the most perilous risk factors are not those that come from > outside but those that spring from its own ranks. I notice a widespread > lack of interest in mail art history (taking at face value Ray Johnson?s > pun ?mail art has no history, only a present? may have fatal consequences!), > so there is a consequent scarcity of magazines or forums for a collective > debate on the relevant issues related to networking (there are a few > newsgroups > on the Internet, I peeped into them, but it is mostly small talk and unrelated > projects). Ultimately, mail art is folding on itself for the general inability > to come up with new networking concepts, different from the worn-out ?theme > show? format, the ageing ?assembling? zine, the never ending chain-letter-like > add-to-and-pass-on formula. I am not just whining and preaching, I try to > do my bit: with the participation to the Funtastic United Network concept > (SUN of FUN convention organized by Piermario Ciani coming up in early > September), > with the When the Saints show of alternative ?holy images? (the second > ?station? > opening in Pisa at the end of September), with the planned Luther Blissett > multiple name decennial commemoractive dvd, just to mention three recent > projects in progress, I try to take networking tactics into new grounds. > The doomed AAA book on artists? postcards may finally see the light one > of these days, and there are other publications placing mail art in a > historical > perspective bubbling to be published soon (by John Held Jr., Mark Bloch > and others). I may be one of the ?last dodos?, but I will not be crushed > down so easily and without reaction. Wanna join the fight? > > Vittore Baroni @ E.O.N. ? July 2005 > > > > > > > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Mailinglist from Sztuka Fabryka > http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be/ > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > -- SUICIDE, LLC when life just isn't an option To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mailinglist from Sztuka Fabryka http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ma-network/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
