Mail art: you have to have a system

I resolve: more mail art

I have just been looking through Good Mail Day again, and reminding myself of the greatness of the mail art movement. One of my several random resolutions for 2011 is to become a better paper correspondent: a few you have sent me lovely letters and/or mail art pieces to which I am very gradually responding (if you've participated in Silent Type, you know that I don't work fast). I love those letters and I am working on responses, even if it is at a slug's pace. Tonight I worked on a few envelopes and mini-books, and hope to get some things to you soon.

To those of you currently writing to pen pals and/or sending typewritten mail and mail art, you're doing an important thing. I once dabbled in the hobby of card making, in which one aspires to make color-coordinated, well-designed cards from new and matching materials, and failed utterly. Here's why. Making cards in this way is not about communication. It's merely about visual design (at which I am abysmal). Mail art and letters are working on a different level. They are about remixing and re-use. They are about tactile and visual information. They say something much more compelling and complex than "You're invited" or "Congratulations." They make unique human statements entirely impossible to express with zeros and ones.

More mail art in 2011.

A former post about mail art...
And another...

Cowcast: Trespassing

Only in the typosphere would someone start a cowcasting meme, and that person is Clickthing. If you poke around the typosphere, you will find others. Here's mine.



Oh, I realize brussels sprouts is spelled with an s on the end of brussels. But it just sounds wrong that way.

First glass of wine in 12 months: a typecast

Silent Type #1 and #2 both available from Microcosm Publishing. Also! Silent Type #1 reviewed by One Minute Zine Review

For those who have asked, both issues of Silent Type are now available for sale from Microcosm Publishing.

Purchase issue #1
Purchase issue #2

They were printed in limited quantities, so if you are interested, act now.

More about Silent Type

Check out this link I just found, in which Silent Type #1 is reviewed by DJ Frederick in his One Minute Zine Review series.