Miniature Book Library

The Miniature Book Library was started by Etta Cetera, which is an ongoing mail art project, and exchange of miniature books (no larger than one's palm). You send out 5, she sends 4 from others, and one goes into the Library. I love the idea of small books, and exchanging them through the mail, and Cetera's documentation of the library via the web. Although I would have loved an "about" section on how she decided to make the library, and a few antecedents about some of the books. Either way, the virtual tour was an interesting pictorial insight on it's own. I am currently in the process of making a few books to send :)

The Lost Object Project

On Monday I presented to the class about The Lost Object Project.  The project invites anyone who is interested to submit a memorial to an object he or she has lost.  Memorials can be submitted electronically or via snail mail.  The project is framed by the story of a jetisioned briefcase for which the project's found now longs.  

As I read through the posts, I found that the posts that included a drawing or a scan of a handwritten description were more compelling to me than those that were just computer generated text.  Also, I noticed that the posts were divided into lost objects that are missed simply because of attributes of the object itself (for instance an article of clothing that fits particularly well) and objects that are valuable because of external associations (like the useless briefcase that is missed because it was a gift from the founder's late grandfather). 

I chose to submit my story on a handwritten post card with a small drawing of my lost neckless (pictured above). Participating in the project, I was aware that although I have a feeling I have lost a fair number of objects in my 24 years I could not think of very many of them.  Also, I have to question the validity of my contribution because I have since replaced that lost neckless

spring links for web-based mail art-inspired projects

By the end of the weekend, each of you should share with the blog a brief blurb about the project you presented in class last Monday. Include a link to the project's website!

Here are some additional links to a few projects that aren't necessarily interactive but instead use their websites to facilitate their project's network and/or document the work itself:

BOOK: Collaborative exhibition of a sketchbook shared by four artists from both sides of the Atlantic. I like the simplicity of the site, which really just documents the project, but the project definitely depended upon the international postal system to create a small network and communication system between the four artists. It's a great example to think about the transition from art practice (the sketchbook) to the mailbox and back to the white box (check out the exhibition page).

Croatian mail art project - a PDF presentation of a poster/mail art project

Do It With Others (DIWO): E-Mail-Art at NetBehaviour


Jesse Aaron Cohen's email exhibits; this is the index but you can also request to be added to his distribution list if you want to receive the exhibits by email.

Mail Interviews by Rudd Janssen, in blog format.

Veronica Millon's cross-stiched envelopes: These make me so happy...I'm not even completely sure why. I applaud her for taking advantage of a pre-existing format like PictureTrail but I think the project deserves a site re-design! This is a great example of creating envelopes or postcards from unusual materials.

For more resources about Mail Art more generally, check out this post from last semester.

PoetryPostcardProject.com

 Originally a commission by the Tempe Cultural Services Division for their show Textology: The Art of Letters, Matthew Shindell creates a suite of five postcards to be published through Galom Press, then sends them to ten poets with whom he is in contact with. The poets are selected among applicants and friends of his, and the applicants can apply on the site. The backs of the postcards have surveys and prompts to which the poets are to write their poetic response, such as the one in the example to the left by Kirsten Kaschock from the second postcard round. The poets can have an unlimited amount of postcard responses back to Matthew Shindell. Fans of the project can also contribute unsolicited postcards with their own poetry or abstracted text. To remain updated of the project, Matthew Shindell's poetry blog posts fairly regularly and is where the most current information can be found.

BookInscriptions.com

This is a screenshot of www.bookinscriptions.com, a blog started last year by a guy named Shaun.  He collects photos of unique book inscriptions, as he is interested in how these books were at one point gifts with meaningful messages that have now been discarded.  Shaun asks bloggers to send an image of an inscription they have found along with a picture of the book cover and details on how or where it was found.  Pictures, notes, and other items found inside books can also be sent in.  I went to a used bookstore in search of such an inscription, but could only find an old tattered newspaper article. 

Found Magazine.com

I found this while going through my Grandfather's attic. I was surprised to see how good looking men were back then. I slipped in into my purse without telling my grandfather, I'll never know the people and he'll never know I have it.

The picture above is my found object that I submitted to the website,foundmagazine.com. The picture turned out to be a picture of my grandfather's wrestling team in 1939, not knowing that my grandfather was actually present in this picture until my mom brought it to my attention. Previously before speaking with my mother I had taken it upon myself to submit the picture with my small blurb that described what I was posting and a little story behind it. The picture became more personal and extremely creepy that one of the "good looking men" was my 88 year old grandfather. I highly enjoyed partaking in the website and found the site extremely user friendly.

spring cleaning

The second round of this course will begin a bit later this month. The class has been revised slightly, based on my experiences with and feedback from a really stellar first batch of contributors, which will hopefully only improve this here blog component. The revised syllabus has been added (look to the right and down a bit), but it's subject to change before January 23rd.