Distribution

Originally I intended to send everything to my boyfriend. He and I live together, so I just thought it would be a weird thing to send a letter to someone who is constantly around you, someone who you have no reason to write a letter to. But all personal correspondence is like that, there is no reason to send someone a letter when it is so much easier to call or email them. Letters were once such a banal thing, but they have become precious because they are no longer neccessary.
I did send about half of the postcards to my boyfriend, and we have yet to recieve them. Honestly, I will be shocked if we ever get them back. The mail in our building is so unreliable. But the return address is my parents house, so with some luck they'll get them if I don't. I sent the other half of the envelopes to my siblings (in Maine) just because they will enjoy them.

Godzilla postcards

For the first project I chose to make postcards depicting stills from monster movies (mostly characters from japanese movies such as Godzilla, mechagodzilla, mothra etc.) I began by fiding movie stills on the internet, then manipulated the images in photoshop. After mounting the printed images on sturdier paper, I used text cut from the New York Times and adhered these words or phrases to the postcards.

I chose these images because they make me feel nostalgic. As children, my siblings and I watched these films over and over again. The majority of our childhood toys were from Japan, including a great many monster figurines. I wasn't really trying to make any sort of statement or do anything experimental with my project, I just wanted to make someone laugh or smile when they recieved their monstercard in the mail. Particularly my brother and sister, because they will have a similar reaction to me when seeing the postcards.

17 years late

This is a postcard I found while visiting my parents. My uncle sent this to my dad 17 years ago. The postcard came with gifts for me, I was 3 at the time, and because of how old I was (I guess) my dad never passed the gifts on to me. It was just so strange to be recieving them now, as a 20 year old, when they were supposed to be in the hands of a 3 year old.

Distribution of 1st Project

For the first project, I sent my envelopes out to 20 peopleI had previously lived with. All of the adresses were to people who reside in the state of Massachusetts; including Allston, Mission Hill, Brookline and the farthest, in North Adams and Williamstown, which are about 3 hours west of the Bostone area. I figured this would allow for an interesting response that has endless possibilities.

The Lima Bean Aftermath

I actually just got my postcards into the mail this morning. Very exciting. I'm excited to start getting responses. My audience/recipient list is just a random compilation of people I know. At first I was strategically choosing people who I thought would give the most interesting responses, but then I decided it'd be better to let myself be surprised and also just accept whatever comes back my way as awesome.

class blog assignment #4: distribution

For the fourth blog assignment, share with the group a little information about who you sent your first project pieces to. Don't share actual addresses, of course, but give us some idea of your thoughts about your audience.

mail from a friend

this is a letter from a good friend of mine in Austin, TX.
this piece of mail is the only personal letter i have received in over 2 years.

Community and Steve Irwin

I approached this project with several vague goals. First, to initiate contact with a select group of essentially anonymous people by personally distributing these envelopes to random individuals in various semi-public spaces. Second, not to present myself anonymously (my name and address are hand printed on the envelopes). Third, to make as few direct demands on the recipients as possible through the objects - the envelope and the photo inside it. I do not think that the project requires the interaction of the recipients in order for it to be complete. Fourth, to question an aspect of authenticity by formally blurring what is mass produced and what is handmade.

the postal shooting star project

The aim of the Postal Shooting Star project is to spread surprise and hopefully a modicum of delight around the postal system via the distribution of glitter. I have loosely covered business window-style envelopes stamped with my fake company logo with 1 tablespoon each of glitter and addressed them to my friends in far off places in the US. I have requested that recipients take a picture of the envelope after it reaches them and email it to me, so I would have a documentation of how each envelope's journey begins and ends, and hopefully construct some sort of theory about how much glitter ran amok in post offices across the nation.

Photocopied Images on Envelopes

Back:
Front:

For the first project, I photocopie images of myself and cut the pictures up to fit the envelopes shape. The return address is handwritten in bright colors, and the address of the receiver is typed, printed and put in place with clear tape. The back of the envelope also includes cut upsof the photocopied image. The envelope is sealed shut with handmade stickers I drew and colored. Inside the envelope is the another photocopied picture of the same image used for the envelope. None of the photos used for the project show my face or body in full.These will be sent to people I have lived with.

Lima bean thought

My project is pretty simple. I'm making individual collages all based on and incorporating a bunch of old photographs from the 70's and 80's which I found snooping through other people's trash on garbage week :). I'm sending them out to a list of people in my life and asking for a reponse back. I want to use these collages as a form of communication and see what kinds of nonverbal responses start happening.

show & tell: collage and the hand-made approach

Here goes class blog assignment #3. Scan and upload an image of one postcard/envelope from your first projects. Write a short description of your project to accompany the image.