Some thoughts on Mail-Art - December 2025

 It is funny to see how the current network of mail-artists work. Some still work the old faschioned way and you hardly get to see anything of that on the social media. Some send out mail-art to others where they know the work is shown online, so they can see and check when it arrives.

Some document the work they send out with photo's and document that on all the blogs that are out there connected to mail-art. So actually everybody knows a work has been sent out even before the receiver has gotten it.

It the early days before the internet one should send out a piece of mail-art and started to wait if there would be any reaction at all. There was never an obligation that the receiver should reply. It was his/her choice to reply. Some call that 'guilt-free'. In the modern times the postage costs have gotten so hight the ways of modern mail-artists have changed. Some even dont send out to a person when they don;t know in advance a reply will get back. 

The mystery of the network has changed. The internet has brought many more mysteries and yet mail-artists think they have more control over what they send and receive.

Brings me back to this nice sample of the 90-ies. A camera was sent through the mail and the postal workers were also part of it. people should take pictures and eventually the camera with film was returned and the set of surspise photo's was the endresult of the project.  

Somehow these kind of projects dont work anymore in the modern times. Other projects do work though. Mail-Art is still evolving with the communication tools at hand.  Where it will lead to? We don't know. The Analog pieces decrease reapidly and some mail-artists say they only work digitally nowadays. Is that the future?  If so, a new name for that art-form should be found. That isn't mail-art anymore.