Mail Art Periodicals - MoMA

compute-file. Now I decided to print the whole list of statements as they were
scattered together with the date the statement was written." "DATE: 02/04/1985.
Once you know about mail-art, your life changes. Well, anyway, it did mine. Mailart
is more than art; it is a way of living your life."
Part 11 (June 1996). Computer Print. 11 3/4"x8 1/4". 3 pages. "This
11th article deals with the current status of the Mail Art network, but also with a
bit of history that came before it." "Older Networkers." (Six statements, including,
"Sometimes the mail artists are d(i)vided up into generations. The 'first
generation'; Ray Johnson who started in the NYCS with a selective group he
chose to write to and asked them to play the game with him. Of course there is
also the 'zero generation.' Artists that already used the mail system for
communication, art & play (Marcel Duchamp, Van Gogh maybe?) where
individual artists were in contact with other artists through the mail in a creative
way on a one-to-one basis. the 'second generation' in the 60's-70's when
FLUXUS joined up and a selective group experimented with the mail system, the
'third generation' where mail art rapidly grew in 70's-80's because of the
exhibitions and publications within the mail art network that spread the news to
newcomers (this is where I joined the mail art network for the first time, and lots
of the people I am still in contact with nowadays are from this 3rd generation).
Not a limited group anymore but the concept that anybody could take part and
be a member of the mail art network really took shape. this lead to the congressyear
in 1986, where anybody could organize a congress, as long as two or more
mail artists had a meeting at a certain place. The 'fourth generation,' after the
congress in 1986..., where the mail art population grew into a very large
group...the end of the 80's and the beginning 90's was also the gradual
beginning of the 'fifth generation,' where communication was done with the use
of computers. Mark Bloch (USA), Charles François (Belgium) and me (in
Holland) already were working with BBs's to send out electronic mail..." "New
Networkers." (Four statements). "Computer Networkers." (Five statements
including, "But between computer-networking and mail-art networking there is a
difference. The communication on the internet has little to do with mail art. One
can discuss mail art, publish visuals and articles on web-sites, but the mail art is
when the postal system is used. so e-mail could be seen as mail, but the getting
of data from a server I see more as going to a library. It is not communication as
seen in the way communication is defined."
Part 12 (June 1996). Computer Print. 11 3/4"x8 1/4". 3 pages. "This
11th article deals with the post Ray Johnson Mail School of
Correspondence...On June 1st, I receive(d) a yellow postcard from José van den
Broucke in Belgium of this POST RAY JOHNSON BIKE MAIL SCHOOL OF
CORRESPONDENCE. He sent this card during his bike-tour from Temple in
Deerlijk to Pigdada place in Habay-N where Baudhuis Simon lives. His trip was
dedicated to all mail artists who due to financial, social, political, physical or any
other reason are limited in their possibilities to participate to the network. The
card was also an invitation to react to the text on it, so these thoughts are
dedicated to this card-initiative by José van den Broucke." Includes headings on