FLUXLIST: Re: after mail art and internet comes tourism
Dear H. R. Fricker, Thank you for your most thoughtful email. I have been thinking about Internet and Mail Art for a long time and I have been taking courses at the University of Texas at Austin in communication, new media, open systems thinking, and interaction design to help me understand the vast and powerful systems at work in Mail Art. I have just finished my courses for a Ph.D. and I will now research and write a book on influences of the Internet on the Mail Art Network. I am taking the liberty of sending you my response to a qualifying examination question about Mail Art. The answer was composed quickly and under timeline pressures but it was a joy to open my eyes fully to Mail Art on the Internet and contemplate our future. I wonder what you think about Mail Art/Internet artists and issues of Mail Art and the Internet in addition to the observations you sent to me. Now that I am no longer in structured university classes I am free to do my research and correspond about mail art again. My heart leaps for joy to be able to look back into Mail Art theory, philosophy, products, attitudes, and evolutions! Gratefully and respectfully, honoria Question 5 of honoria's qualifying examinations for Ph.D. How would you expect an Internet-based mail art community to differ from a mail art community that used traditional postal services? ---honoria's answer to question 5 Introduction I am attracted to this question because I have been a mail artist for sixteen years and creatively working online for five years. Because I have both types of networked art in my life, I'm searching the Internet to find ways in which other mail artists are using email and HTML. My long-term interest/joy stemming from my involvement with mail art has lead to my decision to write a book/dissertation about mail art in an electronically networked world. In order to begin dissertation research I am looking for information about ways artists, specifically mail artists, are using the Internet. I'm also interested in the dynamics of international artists groups, such as mail art. Because I am just beginning my research I don't have a huge amount of data gathered and sorted, but I do have some threads I've picked up and followed. The threads are beginning to weave a pattern of how an Internet-based mail art community may differ from the mail art community that has thrived on the paper-based foundation of the international postal systems. Mail art and Mail art projects Over the last few years I've found some Internet -based mail art projects that I've divided into three general categories; first, circulating collaborative projects; second, collections of paper-based mail art that has been scanned and made into World Wide Web pages; and third, message boards where mail art events and discussions are posted. Circulating Collaborative Projects One example of a circulating collaborative project is Guy Bleus' 1997 E-MAIL-ART & INTERNET-ART MANIFESTO. Guy Bleus is a Belgian mail artist with one of the largest archives of mail art in the world. Bleus is interested in the theory and practice of mail art. His 1997 E-MAIL-ART & INTERNET MANIFESTO was a call to all the mail artists whose email addresses he knew to participate in a collaborative manifesto. The manifesto was distributed via email to all participants and was printed as Volume III, number 1, of E-Pele-Mele Electronic Mail Art Netzine. To print the volume is a crossover strategy by Bleus to distribute the online communication about mail art and electronic mail art via both distribution systems. Another example of a circulating collaborative project is Vittore Baroni's INCONGRUOUS MEETINGS of 1998. The Incongruous Meetings were real or virtual meetings of any two or more mail artists during the year of 1998. Documentation of the meetings was sent to Baroni and he sent out periodic reports of the meetings through email and through postal mail. The Incongruous Meetings represented a continuum in the mail art tradition of Years of Congress. During congress years groups of mail artists gathered together to create collaborative mail art, realize performance art projects, discuss theories of mail art, and to party. Incongruous Meetings were Baroni's distributed, rather than concentrated, interpretation of the mail art congress theme. Guy Bleus' E-MAIL-ART & INTERNET-ART MANIFESTO and Vittore Baroni's INCONGRUOUS MEETINGS are two examples of collaborative mail art projects that used the Internet as a means of collection and distribution of hybrids of Internet-based concepts and traditional mail art theory. World Wide Web mail art pages Chuck Welch's ELECTRONIC MUSEUM OF MAIL ART is an example of a paper-based mail art concept that was realized in a digital form. Chuck Welch is known to many mail artists as CrackerJack Kid. Welch was an early proponent of Internet distribution of mail art. He coined the
Re: FLUXLIST: Re: after mail art and internet comes tourism
Honoria I can see only a couple of minor mistakes in your answers to the question. Only that Chuck Welch DID NOT invent the term "telematic art" (I think, but am not sure that Roy Ascott did). Only other thing: Ruud Janssen is Dutch not Norweigan. That's it for me. Reed [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Dear H. R. Fricker, > > Thank you for your most thoughtful email. I have been thinking about > Internet and Mail Art for a long time and I have been taking courses at the > University of Texas at Austin in communication, new media, open systems > thinking, and interaction design to help me understand the vast and > powerful systems at work in Mail Art. I have just finished my courses for > a Ph.D. and I will now research and write a book on influences of the > Internet on the Mail Art Network. > > I am taking the liberty of sending you my response to a qualifying > examination question about Mail Art. The answer was composed quickly and > under timeline pressures but it was a joy to open my eyes fully to Mail Art > on the Internet and contemplate our future. I wonder what you think about > Mail Art/Internet artists and issues of Mail Art and the Internet in > addition to the observations you sent to me. Now that I am no longer in > structured university classes I am free to do my research and correspond > about mail art again. My heart leaps for joy to be able to look back into > Mail Art theory, philosophy, products, attitudes, and evolutions! > > Gratefully and respectfully, > honoria > > Question 5 of honoria's qualifying examinations for Ph.D. > How would you expect an Internet-based mail art community to differ from a > mail art community that used traditional postal services? > > ---honoria's answer to question 5 > Introduction > I am attracted to this question because I have been a mail artist > for sixteen years and creatively working online for five years. Because I > have both types of networked art in my life, I'm searching the Internet to > find ways in which other mail artists are using email and HTML. My > long-term interest/joy stemming from my involvement with mail art has lead > to my decision to write a book/dissertation about mail art in an > electronically networked world. In order to begin dissertation research I > am looking for information about ways artists, specifically mail artists, > are using the Internet. I'm also interested in the dynamics of > international artists groups, such as mail art. Because I am just > beginning my research I don't have a huge amount of data gathered and > sorted, but I do have some threads I've picked up and followed. The > threads are beginning to weave a pattern of how an Internet-based mail art > community may differ from the mail art community that has thrived on the > paper-based foundation of the international postal systems. > > Mail art and Mail art projects > Over the last few years I've found some Internet -based mail art > projects that I've divided into three general categories; first, > circulating collaborative projects; second, collections of paper-based mail > art that has been scanned and made into World Wide Web pages; and third, > message boards where mail art events and discussions are posted. > > Circulating Collaborative Projects > One example of a circulating collaborative project is Guy Bleus' > 1997 E-MAIL-ART & INTERNET-ART MANIFESTO. Guy Bleus is a Belgian mail > artist with one of the largest archives of mail art in the world. Bleus is > interested in the theory and practice of mail art. His 1997 E-MAIL-ART & > INTERNET MANIFESTO was a call to all the mail artists whose email addresses > he knew to participate in a collaborative manifesto. The manifesto was > distributed via email to all participants and was printed as Volume III, > number 1, of E-Pele-Mele Electronic Mail Art Netzine. To print the volume > is a crossover strategy by Bleus to distribute the online communication > about mail art and electronic mail art via both distribution systems. > Another example of a circulating collaborative project is Vittore > Baroni's INCONGRUOUS MEETINGS of 1998. The Incongruous Meetings were real > or virtual meetings of any two or more mail artists during the year of > 1998. Documentation of the meetings was sent to Baroni and he sent out > periodic reports of the meetings through email and through postal mail. > The Incongruous Meetings represented a continuum in the mail art tradition > of Years of Congress. During congress years groups of mail artists gathered > together to create collaborative mail art, realize performance art > projects, discuss theories of mail art, and to party. Incongruous Meetings > were Baroni's distributed, rather than concentrated, interpretation of the > mail art congress theme. > Guy Bleus' E-MAIL-ART & INTERNET-ART MANIFESTO and Vittore Baroni's > INCONGRUOUS MEETINGS are two examples of collaborative mail art projects > th
