Snail-Mail

[Ruud Janssen]

Do we need still snail-mail when we have forums like these?

[Reid Wood]

We may not need snail-mail if our only object is networking, but there is something to be said for the object that arrives in the mailbox. I know ... it's object fetishism, but I can't help it.

[Ruud Janssen]

Calling it feteshism is a nice touch. I know I like digital stuff. But the original mail-art is something else. Holding things in your hand, smell of paper, seeing the......

yee, I guess I need that snail-mail too.

[Peter Dowker]

Of course we do! The stamps, the stamping, the glue,the handmade mark, the anticipation, the THRILL!! We need both....these forums and snail mail, they compliment each other. However, if I join many more of these, I may not have any time left for mail art.

[Lancillotto Bellini]

I think we need both the blogs > to show and to discuss on mailart issue < and we need sending snail mailart too. Mailart in not just showing "images" in the little blog windows but is sending out objects,
envelopes with rubberstamp prints and glued artistamps and anything a blog can't contains.

[Adamandia]

I need snail-mail because I too am addicted to receiving wonderous cards and objects in my mailbox. I like having a forum to learn of new projects I can contribute to and view....

In the recent past, I was a member of another networking site like this....but I unsubscribed to it as it seemed more like work than inspiration.

[Jennifer Zoellner]

If i just exist in cyber world i don't REALLY exist...
Life is about the physical living... the breathing, the interacting... hearing a real bird sitting in the real tree that is making O2 for me... the waves crashing into the shore, the fish at the end of my hook, the almost daily delivery from the mail man... hee hee.

[Rain Rien Nevermind]

Jennifer Zoellner said:

If i just exist in cyber world i don't REALLY exist...
Life is about the physical living... the breathing, the interacting... hearing a real bird sitting in the real tree that is making O2 for me... the waves crashing into the shore, the fish at the end of my hook, the almost daily delivery from the mail man... hee hee.

[Rain Rien Nevermind]

Snail Mail involves involvmovement SLIME ON BIG GOOEY STAMP SLIME ON

[Ruud Janssen]

Yes, we need these postage stamps. Whitout them we are lost....

Rain Rien Nevermind said:

Snail Mail involves involvmovement SLIME ON BIG GOOEY STAMP SLIME ON

[Carla Cryptic]

Yes, for so many reasons. One thing I don't like about online networking is that it happens at a certain speed, much faster turn around than snail mail and, therefore, there is not as much time for reflection or living between missives. When all there was consisted of sending things through the mail, there was more time to make art, think about the art received, and let it infuse my mood and thought-process. Also, there was much less of a social mandate to respond quickly. You made something and sent it out when the spirit moved you to, not just because you 'owed' someone a response. If you participated in a mail art call, there was often a deadline but it was not urgent. I might get things in response to a call years after I put it out and those things would be cherished for when they arrived just as much, sometimes more, than the ones which came 'on time'. The online networking has also added a note of realtime contention at times which is hard to take unless one is in the right mood for it. If I got something in the mail which made me angry or which I didn't understand, I could sit with it in the privacy of my own mind for as long as I needed or wanted to. By the time I sent something back, I would know what I wanted to say or whether or not I wanted to respond at all. Online, though, there is a sense of the social contract which keeps us spouting platitudes automatically and/or gets us into pointless arguments sometimes without any real need. I also share the love of objects (fetishism works for me, too :) and paper and things coming in and going out into the postal system. Stamps, the ones I buy and the ones I make, envelopes, surprises which come in person.

In spite of all I just said, I also like some things about online networking very much. It's really interesting to see pictures of people I've known only by name or style of art for years, and to talk to other mail artists in forums. It's also cool to have access to mail art calls more broadly and rapidly. When I first found mail art online, I was overwhelmed by the huge number of calls and the ongoing debates about what mail art is and why we do it and so on. But, now, I know how to limit my involvement to the point where it's fun again. :)

[Reed Altemus]

Forget postal art, Ruud, postal art is history. Snail mail is the wave of the past.

[BRUNO CAPATTI]

BEAUTIFUL QUESTION!_________________________ _@Y