Memory by Ruud Janssen (Netherlands) 20-4-1985 

Memory by Michael Leigh (UK) 11-4-1986 

Memory of Jean Brown (USA) written in 1985 

Memo(random)/Memo(ry) Project of Robin Crozier

Robin Crozier’s project Memo(random) / Memo(ry) is famous. He sent the empty sheets to participants with a memory from somebody else included in the envelope. The whole set went to the Getty in booklets form. All those memories are now in archives. On one of the blogs I saw a memory of 1990. I can go further back in history and found one from 1985. Actually also one from me, and one from Jean Brown. Jean Brown died years ago, and when I went through my collection of Robin’s memories I noticed I hade actually 3 boxes full. Must be over 250 of them which I collected since 1983. Robin told about his memory project in detail in the Interview I did with him. The booklet-version also included several visuals of them as well. I will scan a few and place them here.

I actually collect these memories. If you have any of them in your archive and don't know where to leave them, they are welcome to join my collection. What will happen with my collection: It will join a larger collection. Maybe we will find a way to put all those original memries together again in the Tate Modern Museum? Who knows.

My letter to Michael Lumb in UK. As you can see I play a lot with the number 25 on the lasts envelopes. Also because in about 2 months I will be celebrating my 25th year active in Mail-Art.

My painted envelope to Mark Greenfield, UK, to thank him for sending his latest La Boheme Art. 

The history of Mail-Art?

From Jean Hugues (46 Rue de Gesvres, 60000 Beauvais, France) I received a letter with his project. He writes that “The History of Mail-Art is very well documented”. I wrote him that I don’t agree. All fragments are places in archives of the mail-artists that are active for over decades. But also new archives pop-up, and old ones are closed down.

A sample: On the wikepedia encyclopaedia there is an article about mail-art. The text is written by several mail-artists, but they don’t know everything. They give as an example of the longest run mail-art project Brain Cell. Surely this is a good example, but I know of two project that have run longer. Robin Crozier’s Memory is a nice example. A proof could be that I publish one of the memories that I saw first in 1985. The project run till his death. Also my TAM-Rubberstamp Archive project started in 1985 and still sheets are sent out (see exhibitions in San Francisco and this month in Moscow. The sheets have been sent out almost 20 years. I have in my collection Brain Cell #1, and about 300 more sheets since I sent Ryosuke a lot of mail. But it isn’t the longest run project yet.

Just an example of what sometimes happens in mail-art. One only sees the network that one has build around him/her but doesn’t realize that there are so many different networks. When someone writes a book about mail-art from inside (like the – for insiders famous- books by Vittore Baroni, John Held, Henryk Gajewsky, Geze Perneckzky, ChuckWelsh) they only give a documentation of the mail-art network as they see it. If they don’t know you, you aren’t mentioned. There is hardly done professional research by someone outside the mail-art network. And another sample of where it can go wrong. The best documentation I have seen about mail-art is the “Wold Atlas” by Geza Perneczky in Koln, Germany. Unfortunately it never got published. I have read the concept of the first 500 pages, and was very impressed. So please, don’t claim to know all about mail-art. Even after being part of this network for 25 years I still discover new things and get in contact with people who were active for decades and I never heard of before.

A small and very nice collage that Michael Leigh (UK) made for the IUOMA years ago. 

Mail that came in today

A lot of mail in my P.O. Box today. The big envelope from Clemente Padin: The envelope Gallery” (Casilla C. Central 1211 , Montevideo, Uruguay) with in this his publication “Poems to Eye”. Will send him a nice surprise in return. First surprise is to scan his envelope and I will publish him on this BLOG. Then three letters from Litsa Spathi, one from Buz Blurr (with news on his “Fill the Ford - fully - Folly" project), one from Ficus, and one from Mark Greenfield (including his latest La Boheme Art magazine). No time to document all I get in or send out. I’ll just will let you have a glimpse of what sometimes comes in and goes out.

Besides all that mail there is always the job that makes it possible to finance it all. Just back from Nijmegen where I visited a firm where one of my students if working. So I will now see how much time the day still carries to answer some of the mail I got in today.

Ruud

The Envelope Gallery envelope I received from Clemente Padin (Uruguay) today 

If you want to become a member of the IUOMA (or already are one), it is quite easy to get your memberschip card. Just open this image, print it, sign it, send it to me, and I will sign it and return it to you. Probably with some of those golden IUOMA-stickers included as well. 

Envelope from Michael Lumb - Energyman, UK. In this he sent the CD with images of my 134 envelopes in his archive. 

An envelope I sent out in 1998 (or was it 1996) to Pierpaolo in Italy. 

New envelopes or old envelopes?

From: Pierpaolo Limongelli (c/o La Bottega di Sghino , Via Calatafimi, 38 , 70043 Monopoli (Ba) , ITALY) I got two e-mails today. He scanned two of my envelopes ans e-mailed them to me. Had forgotten these. I will add one to this BLOG so you can have a look as well. It is something confronting to see back your old work. Normally it is put in some archive, far away, and you never get to see it again.

Ruud

The front side of Roy Arenella's Photocard 

Roy Arenella's newest Photocard

Roy Arenella sent me another of his photocards. A photo of his altered Japanese seal stamp. It seems he visits this blog frequently (as he writes). He also received the poster of the exhibition in Moscow. Yes, he missed the opportunity to exhibit a print there. Maybe for the next one in Belgium? Roy’s photocards also frequently are published on the qbdp-blog (see the link list beside this blog).

backside of card received from Roy Arenella 

The artistamp sheet that John Held Jr. included in his envelope. Must have hundreds of his works in my archives now, since he has sent me these since 1983 

Mail from John Held Jr.today

John held sent me one of his typical envelopes. Also a sheet of artistamps in the envelope. I must have hundreds of him in my large artistamps collection. He writes about several items. One of them is real news: the Lon Spiegelman’s archive made it into the Getty Research Center. Only a week ago I received a mailing from Lon Spiegelman’s son (Lee Spiegelman, 6542 Ocean Crest Drive c.113/ Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275, USA) with colour prints of his fathers work. How the whole network is interlinked nowadays.

Letter I received today from John Held Jr. 

Envelope I sent in the 90-ies to Michael Lumb and now came back in digital form. Silkscreen print by me of Ray Johnson, with stamps of his bunny.....

Michael Lumb

Three letters in my P.O. Box today. All from mail-artists I interviewed in the 90-ies. The first letter was from Michael Lumb. He sent me a CD with scans of 134 envelopes he has in his archives. Also envelopes I sent to Robin Crozier, Patricia Collins and Michael Leigh. Seems these envelopes ended there. Michael writes: “I hope there are some nice memories and surprises for you”. Well, the biggest surprise was to see the older envelopes. I always used to integrate several techniques on the envelopes, paint, rubberstamps and stickers. Typical mail-art as well. Nowadays I spend a lot more time on single envelopes. Also a reason why only few see those envelopes. I am confirmed in my view it is better to send out less with better quality rather than send out mass-mailings with just a few stamps. Some envelopes are surpises though. I will include one on this blog.

A letter I made today for Lancilotto Bellini (Via Brigata Robilant nr. 14 , I-37139 VERONA, Italy) today. It contains a colour-print with portraits that is being gathered for a project. The original came from Vittore Baroni, also from Italy. 

This portrait I made out of two recent selfportraits. It is meant for the collection Mick Boyle is placing online. It will go by snail-mail to the USA today. 

Phosgenia - Vittore Baroni

Vittore Baroni sent me his magazine "Phosgenia" (c/o Via Battisti 339 , 55049 Viareggio Italy). Issue # 2 and 3 contains lots of information about the Obscure Actions (OA04) that are taking place this year. As a reaction I sent Vittore 2 Obscure envelopes (see images below) of which the content will only be seen by Vittore himself. Deadline for your contributions is end of december 2004!

Ruud

Vittore Baroni - 1 

Vittore Baroni - 2

Today, after a long time, another Open World magazine came in from Dobrica kamperelic (11050 Beograd, Ustanicka 152/73, Serbia) . As usual filled with fragments of the visuals he received and lots of mail-art calls in it. His magazine is still alive and kicking. Send him your mail-art news so he can include it in his magazine!

Interlinking the BLOGS

As most of you realize, already a lot of digital archives are created by several mail-artists. After filling ones own BLOG the next step is to make the connections. So did I. Beside the archives of all my entries, you will find also a list of the links to other BLOG's I have found. This way you can jump to other lists as well. More mail-artists have done this, and this creates an ever larger net of information. Stumble onto one mail-art related BLOG and you can find many more.

Another way to find those mail-art BLOG's is through the profiles. Every BLOG-owner specifies the themes and interests in his profile. Every visitor could search for BLOG's with the same interests. This is also a wonderful networking tool. Want to find all lists on a specific theme..... No problem. And with the 'comment' option, the dialogues have begun. Yes, a fascinating new medium to play with.

Ruud

Interested in getting this interview-booklet that Joel Cohen, The Sticker-Dude published for TAM some years ago. Just go to the TAM-Publications BLOG (see link-list) 

My reply to Ed Giecek. I cut up one of the stickers he sent and collaged it onto an envelope I painted for Ed. All letters done with acrylic paint, and now it is standing here to be sent out. When will Ed see the content (and the special sticker I put on the back of the enveloppe)?

This is the first DVD I burnbed with the new gadget I bought. Notice tghe extreme capacity of 7,96 Mbyte on one DVD-2L. Enough space for the thousands of scans I already have on my harddisk. Also enough space for the digital scans of envelopes mail-artistrs send me. 

New DVD-Burner with 2 Layers

The techniques available in the computer world keep amazing me. Yesterday I wanted to buy a DVD-burner. I then found out they already had the newest 2-layer DVD-burner, which would give me a capacity of 7.96 Mbyte. The burner also deals with CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R and now DVD-2L. So I bought this new DVD-burner and build it into an aluminium box and am now trying out this new ‘toy’ I will use it to archive the growing amount of digital data that I am facing. Since everybody starts to digitize things, the digital storing of data is a problem on its own.

Ruud

Ah, those Ed Headz. Funny to see the one that Ed Giecek made for me in the middle of so many others. I did start a project for him to document them on stampsheets. How many did Ed get in return? 

Mail from Ed Giecek on its way

Just had a look at: http://edgiecek.blogspot.com/ , the Blog by Ed Giecek, and there I saw the envelope that is on its way to me. It doesn't always happen that often one sees the envelope before it actually gets here. The complete concept of time & sending of mail-art is being re-arranged because of the internet.

Should I start to work on my answer to ed Giecek already. That way I am prepaired to send a prompt reply. Or could I even send the reply now. Oops, forgot. I can't open this digital envelope yet. Will have to wait for the real stuff.

Ruud

This is the cover of the colour-version of the mail-interview I did with Michael Leigh - UK. The text of the interview is also available online at www.iuoma.org , just look for the mail-interview section and find him between the 70 other interviews.

Back in Tilburg

Yes, back again, and started to work for the baronie College again. Yesterday I scanned the new drawing by Litsa Spathi and uploaded it to : http://www.fluxusheidelberg.org/oct2004c.html . There you can see all the latest details of the activities at the Fluxus Heidelberg Center. The drawings are part of the larger Calendar-Performance Litsa & I are doing. Litsa does the graphic work and made the collages and drawings. Each month a new drawing is added while the collages are already there. The total result will be a complete calendar that consists of 26 pages and will be made into a special publication by Litsa (an object-book).

Found out that Gik Juri found my Blog as well and he reports on the exhibition in Moscow. I will be happy to get the latest details from Moscow in digital format since I can then make the documentation final. Besides the booklet (hardcopy) also a CD with all the images and other details that are available.

Ruud