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Showing posts from April, 2023

Mail Art News #27: Mailers Want

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  anagrams from Discoflux Discoflux has been mailing out anagrams for thirteen years now! Many of the above anagrams jumped out at me while I was going through my archives earlier this year and I have enjoyed receiving them in the mail, so it's nice to have a list of them for easy reference. Take a look at the Internet Anagram Server  and make your own!  FYI,  mailers want is an anagram of Mail Art News.   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  collage by  David Stafford , documented by Karen Champlin  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  Thank you Mark Johnson for letting us know about the new Roy Lichtenstein stamps from the USPS. The George Morrison stamps also look interesting. And then I was reminded of the Ellsworth Kelly stamps from 2019. 

Mail Art News #26: Journey to the Mail Art Dimension

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  reader mail from Mick Boyle "Long Live Mail Art News!" I can't argue with you there.  I resume my trip into the Mail Art Dimension, that strange and lovely parallel reality, to seek out interesting finds.  What will I find? Will I find myself? Will I find you, mail art friends? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - marbled mail art by Dystatic from Canada posted by Sabela Baña on April 27, 2023 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Whether it's trippy in the psychedelic sense, or a trip from Japan to Serbia, Mail Art News wants to know. Maybe it's a crowdsourced online trip to every post office in the US.  From Kiki in Japan:  "Hello! I travelled to Serbia, Europe, for two weeks in April 2023 and I met a fellow mail artist, Predrag , who is also on IUOMA, in person. We made collage cards and drawings together. Such a fabulous time!! I hope to visit Serbia again :-) If any of you visits Osaka City, Japan, hopefully on the weekends, I would be happy to meet you i

Mail Art News #25: The Water Seems Inviting

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outgoing mail by Steph Dodson , as seen on IUOMA "Recently, we've waded a little way out ... and the water seems inviting."  -Carl Sagan Mail Art News reaches the milestone of twenty-five posts and we're still in the first month of blogging about all things mail art. Readership is pretty good so far, with over one thousand views according to the stats page. Maybe a hundred of those views are from me (haha!) as I make corrections and formatting changes, or to re-visit the posts. They're not bad! Not bad at all, if I do say so myself.  Overall, the strategy of promoting Mail Art News on Facebook, Instagram, and IUOMA is working, though it will be good to get the project energized to the point where others are sharing links to Mail Art News on a regular basis. It's an ongoing project. I should have the time and energy to keep doing it for many years to come. Even with any future employment changes or family demands, there will be room in my life for keeping this

Mail Art News #24: Incoming mail 4-26-2023

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  from nonlocal variable From nonlocal variable: 😎 From Katerina Nikoltsou: From Pier Roberto Bassi:  😎

Mail Art News #23: One Question with Adam Roussopoulos

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new AI artistamps from Adam R. I recently sat down with mail artist Adam Roussopoulos for a one question interview.  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  TB: Why do you like artistamps? AR:   I am drawn to the repetitive nature of them, along with the intimacy of the smaller format. Small little windows, a glimpse into an alternate realty. A reality that can be questioned i.e protest stamps or a reality that can be conjured up. In the latter, I like to lean into an element of comedy. Mostly just to amuse myself, with the hope that it makes others chuckle as well. I also LOVE that they have the ability to interact not only with those that I send them to, but also postal workers. I’ve been making more lately that try to directly interact with the postal carriers. For example I just finished one that says “This was made so that I can say HELLO to whoever delivers this envelope”. And lastly, they are meant to be used and circulated. It’s always fun seeing them used by others.

Mail Art News #22: Saying Yes or Noooo to the Nooscope

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postcards for mailing, T. Brown, 4-22-2023 Things go round on the internet. Around 2004 or 2005, in an online art group called the World Artist Network on Myspace, we somehow got to talking about memetics. The exponential growth of online memes began shortly thereafter. And then somewhere around 2011, I learned of the term "noosphere " which is the sphere of human consciousness and mental activity in regard to its influence on the biosphere . And then I heard nothing more about in my own little corner of the world until April 20, 2023, when it showed up along with a new term -- nooscope, in an article titled  Earth’s Ultimate War: A Battle to Control the Noosphere. Looking further into the topic, I see articles from 2016 talking about this nooscope, a device for monitoring the noosphere. Some of the articles in the corporate media outlets are predictably dismissive, yet other sites approach it with genuine interest. The website  https://nooscope.ai/ discusses the topic from

Mail Art News #21: Fame, Etiquette, and Isolated Places with ChatGPT

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The last time I saw ChatGPT, Carl Chew was using it to learn more about himself . This time, I'm asking it a series of questions about mail art.  Enjoy! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TB: Hi and thank you for agreeing to this interview. ChatGPT: Hello! It's my pleasure to be here. How can I assist you today? TB: I would like you to tell me about mail art. ChatGPT: Mail art is a form of art that involves sending unique and creative pieces of art through the postal service. It emerged in the mid-20th century and gained popularity during the 1960s and 1970s. The idea behind mail art is to create an artwork that can be sent through the postal service, either as a postcard, letter, or package. These artworks can be made from a wide variety of materials, such as paper, fabric, or even found objects, and can be decorated with drawings, collages, stamps, or any other form of creative expression. Mail art is often associated with the idea of a "network" of artists, who