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Saturday, November 17, 2007
Friday, November 09, 2007
Mail Art in the Mirror
When one analyzes the word “Mail-Art”, the two components explain a lot of what it is all about.
The art-part means: “the ability to create something new” and the mail-part means “sent from one person to another one”, with all the variations the modern mail offers.
Originally in mail-art, like in the Fluxus-world, the participants knew how to produce art. They looked for new concepts to produce and show their creations. They made new things and after careful preparation the projects were done and the results were there. In today’s mail-art that still happens, but I notice that sometimes new participants only understand the mail-part, and still have to develop their art-part.
Mail-Art is a learning process and it starts when one gets in contact with “the Network”.
Creating something new is the most difficult part for most artists. If one IS an artist one has this possibility in oneself. If one isn’t an artist, one only can copy concepts and set them through. With a lot of success also, but nothing new is created.
Some contacts I have in the mail-art network have the same ‘drive’ as me and with them the contact has grown over the year. Not because we exchange letters on a frequent basis, but mostly because we understand the ways we both are going. Even when a letter comes after years of silence, one remembers the development of the communication, and new steps are taken (or not) to develop this further. One finds his/her own steps in the evolution of the art one wants to create.
Mail-Art at the mirror. What has one created and how is it seen by others? This is an interesting question.
If mail-art has become an addiction, one reacts to every piece one gets in and divides his/her energy over all the mailings one sends out. The result is there: a growing list of contacts and a decrease of the quality one sends out. Every mail-artist reaches this point; sometimes this even repeats itself over the years.
Making a good piece costs days, and that way one can’t answer all that comes in.
For a few years I’ve even stopped answering all the mail. Only the important things got answered. Also because the Internet has intensified communication in a certain time. How to deal with hundreds of e-mails each day and all those messages in that online groups? Stopping answering all and selecting, brings you back to the basics. Communication is what it is all about. Does the receiver understand the message of the sender or is this not important anymore? Look in the mirror and think of what the receiver will think of what you send out. What is your message? Also look at the message a sender sends to you. What does he want?
Try to answer these questions with each piece you send out and you get in, and try to be honest to yourself.
The best way to understand what you are doing.
The best pieces I send out are the pieces I actually find difficult to send out. I would like to keep them because I value them myself so much. After documenting things I might send it out, but only to someone who I think is worth it. The real mail-art is highly connected to life itself. The Life one has, and what one does with it, is the most interesting artwork one can leave behind for sure.
Ruud Janssen, February 1st 2004.
The art-part means: “the ability to create something new” and the mail-part means “sent from one person to another one”, with all the variations the modern mail offers.
Originally in mail-art, like in the Fluxus-world, the participants knew how to produce art. They looked for new concepts to produce and show their creations. They made new things and after careful preparation the projects were done and the results were there. In today’s mail-art that still happens, but I notice that sometimes new participants only understand the mail-part, and still have to develop their art-part.
Mail-Art is a learning process and it starts when one gets in contact with “the Network”.
Creating something new is the most difficult part for most artists. If one IS an artist one has this possibility in oneself. If one isn’t an artist, one only can copy concepts and set them through. With a lot of success also, but nothing new is created.
Some contacts I have in the mail-art network have the same ‘drive’ as me and with them the contact has grown over the year. Not because we exchange letters on a frequent basis, but mostly because we understand the ways we both are going. Even when a letter comes after years of silence, one remembers the development of the communication, and new steps are taken (or not) to develop this further. One finds his/her own steps in the evolution of the art one wants to create.
Mail-Art at the mirror. What has one created and how is it seen by others? This is an interesting question.
If mail-art has become an addiction, one reacts to every piece one gets in and divides his/her energy over all the mailings one sends out. The result is there: a growing list of contacts and a decrease of the quality one sends out. Every mail-artist reaches this point; sometimes this even repeats itself over the years.
Making a good piece costs days, and that way one can’t answer all that comes in.
For a few years I’ve even stopped answering all the mail. Only the important things got answered. Also because the Internet has intensified communication in a certain time. How to deal with hundreds of e-mails each day and all those messages in that online groups? Stopping answering all and selecting, brings you back to the basics. Communication is what it is all about. Does the receiver understand the message of the sender or is this not important anymore? Look in the mirror and think of what the receiver will think of what you send out. What is your message? Also look at the message a sender sends to you. What does he want?
Try to answer these questions with each piece you send out and you get in, and try to be honest to yourself.
The best way to understand what you are doing.
The best pieces I send out are the pieces I actually find difficult to send out. I would like to keep them because I value them myself so much. After documenting things I might send it out, but only to someone who I think is worth it. The real mail-art is highly connected to life itself. The Life one has, and what one does with it, is the most interesting artwork one can leave behind for sure.
Ruud Janssen, February 1st 2004.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Digital Publications
More publications are in progress. Just have a look on the many sites I work on to find the links. A lot in the form of .PDF files which are free and available for everybody....
Monday, September 03, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The archive IUOMA Blog
Because the Internet is a changing world I tend to archive also the digital things that I produce. The complete IUOMA blog is now archived at:
http://www.iuoma.org/iuomablogarchive.html
There you will find .PDF files of evey month that I have published. I will try to keep this archive up to date.....
Ruud
http://www.iuoma.org/iuomablogarchive.html
There you will find .PDF files of evey month that I have published. I will try to keep this archive up to date.....
Ruud
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
New Blog
On the new Blog located at http://mailartprojects.blogspot.com/ several mail-artists will enter their projects. It is a self-publishing event there. If you would like to be a contributor there as well, just send an e-mail to info at iuoma.org and I will add you to the BLOG. The complete blog will become a digital publication of a list with mail-at projects. At the moment already 11 contributors. But I am sure it will grow quickly.
Ruud
Ruud
Monday, June 04, 2007
New online publications
Recently I made some brochures about my views concerning mail-art. I also published them online. See www.iuoma.org and go to the section where I mention the UPDATES of just go to the list of TAM-PUBLICATIONS to fins the link. The new files are PDF files which I also circulate in printed format.
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