TWO NEW CARDS FOR YOU?

Again I painted two new cards which I have just digitized and therefore you can already see them. If you would like to receive one of them, just leave a comment with the reason why. I will choose out of the reactions and will let you know which way the cards go......

Ruud

new card 2 - who wants it? 

new card 1 - who wants it? 

Two Radisches from Spain - card by Mick Boyle (USA) 

card from Mick Boyle, USA - text side 

Card from Roy Arenella (NY, USA). Memorial tree opposite the W.T.C. unrooted - 9/11/2001 

Card from Roy Arenella (NY, USA)

text-side of card from Roy Arenella (NY. USA). He reacts to the two envelopes documented at: http://iuoma.blogspot.com/2005/03/envelope-to-roy-part-1.html and http://iuoma.blogspot.com/2005/03/envelope-to-roy-part-2.html

"I am in guadeloupe" sends R.F. Cote from Canada. And the postal mark on the other sides proved it. 

new bookletter ready to go out. 

Documenting your mail-art

Yes, documenting the mail-art you send out is something that is important. Also because all you send out normally never gets returned. So from the beginning in the 80-ies I have been documenting all with photos, and I now have albums full with photos. Thousands of photos that illustrate what I have sent out. The last three years I have access to a scanner, so I am now digitizing most of the things that I send out. Also some of the things I get in. The TAM Archive surely has a lot of items in digital form now as well. These BLOGS are also a nice example of how things become accessible in digital format. But remember that Yahoo (they own Blogger) can change the rules when the BLOGGERS need too much space. The same happened with the sites on Geocities. The free sites were completely overtaken with advertisings and that way a lot of older digital published materials are gone now.

So documenting things in a BLOG is just a temporary thing. You need your own Domain and site (and the finances to keep it online) to make all available for others online.

The best documents are the DVD's that I make with the materials that I have in digital format. I have witnessed the changes of digital formats when it comes to storing the data. I started with punchhole cards in the 70-ies, the cassettes, the first harddisk, the 5,25 inch diskettes, then changed to 3,5 inch, the ZIP-disks, the CD's and CD-R's, and now the DVD+R-2L disks. Just read that they are making new disks soon with a capacity of 1,6 TBytes. So documenting things in a digital way will be something worth considering.

Ruud

Typical sample of an envelope I sent out in 1997 to José vanden Broucke. He now stopped with mail-art. Or maybe he just communicates still with a small circle of which I am no part. 

In 1991 this ball was sent to the host of a national TV-programm. It was actually shown on the national TV and there they wondered what to do with this ball. 

Testing the limist of the postal workers: This part oif a telephone was attached to a label and sent to Guy Bleus in 1992. It was also to show the true meaning of datacommunication. Using the telephone and mail in a very special combination.... 

Contribution for Uwe Dressler (Germany)

When you read: http://iuoma.blogspot.com/2005/03/new-mail-art-project-from-old-friend.html you know that Uwe Dressler (Germany) is doing the project CONTRAST. I made this card for him. Especially because we were in contact when there still that wall between East and West Germany, and after 20 years he is re-doing his project. The contrast between then and now is large. Germany has changed into a very tolerant and multicultural country that I visit about 7 times a year.

Mail to Litsa Spathi

One of the persons that gets a lot of my painted envelopes is Litsa Spathi in Heidelberg. Litsa and I founded the Fluxus Heidelberg Center (www.fluxusheidelberg.org) and work a lot together. When we find the time we send eachother mail on a daily basis. That explains the three series that you can see below. An advantage of the exchange is that we both have the collections of our works still available. It will be exhibited somewehere for sure. I know that some mail-artists don't call this mail-art. Maybe they are right.

Ruud

serie D9 part 1 

serie D9 part 2 

serie D8 part 1 

serie D8 part 2 

serie D10 part 1 

serie D10 part 2 

The Artists Org

The official institutes in the art-world are often left aside by the mail-art network. Sometimes a gallery of postal museum or even a real museum exhibits a mail-art show because a mail-artists has the contacts or just needs a good place. The publications from the artworld often speak of the different 'movements' in the artworld. Slowly the movement "mail-art" is being integrated in the overviews. Have a look at:

http://the-artists.org/art-movements.cfm

What to think of this? These kind of lists aren't made by mail-artists, but by the "official art-world". If they include "us" (rather a poor selection they have), what does that mean? Are we considered a 'movement' that is about to die out?

Ruud

Number 2 has arrived at the address of Frips. Nice to see how he documents the mailing: the enclosures spread out of the envelope.....
 

Statistics each week.

The weekly statistical data for this BLOG. Updated till 26-3-2005 (2 more days and week 12 is over). Interesting to see how the visitors come in waves over the weeks.

My card to Mick arrived (front side) 

My card to Mick arrived (backside) 

Surprise that goes out today for Jassy Lupa (USA) 

Ray Johnson is often mentioned as the one who started this mail-art network. So for those who are interested here is one of his works. Michael Lumb mentioned "Mail-Art is becoming a DoDo". Ray already knew this years ago it seems. He made this funny collage. 

Detail of a collage by Ray Johnson.