as i entered the stream in the early 90's my reason for signing onto this and another mail art list, was to, explore an answer of this question. or my question ( did people allow email to alter postal activity ? )
yet, i think we know these answers, at the end of each month. appreciate your comments Vittore, b saved On Jul 18, 2005, at 9:14 AM, [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. > 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 it has not been replaced by the wisdom and maturity that old age 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. 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?. 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. 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. 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. 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. > > 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 > > > > > > > To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mailinglist from Sztuka Fabryka http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be/ Yahoo! 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