My first blog post about mail-art
clerical work was meant more as a rant. I wrote it out of mild frustration with
how my time was being spent. Somewhere along the way the focus of many of my
mail-art related activates become documentation. Rarely do I get comments about
my blogs when I put them out into the world but my initial post garnered some
attention. It seems that many folks are a little bothered by the imbalance of
creating mail-art versus documenting mail-art.
Amy Irwen wrote about
this issue by adding, “sometimes I spend a complete day just taking photos and
posting...but I also feel that need.” I think Amy is right, it’s that “feeling
of the need” that causes this anxiety. If I didn’t feel like I needed to keep
things organized then I wouldn’t worry about it, I’d just make and then move
on.
DeVillo Sloan wrote, “Do
you consider scanning clerical? Because for me it's the equivalent to a heavy
part-time job.” Considering the quality and quantity of Sloan’s words on
mail-art, I can understand his frustration. Maybe not frustration…that’s the
wrong word, but commitment. Maybe mail-art documentation is something we feel
committed so we feel the need to constantly post, write, scan, and document all
that’s going on around it?
I think Tiina in Finland
addressed something that I didn’t initially think about when she wrote, “there
is absolutely no hard feelings if you do not send back as much as I send to you.”
Which, considering the volume and frequency of our correspondence I don’t worry
too much about an imbalance of quantity. Mailing to folks I’ve sent to for
years and years does not come with any anxiety. They’ll get to it when they get
to it. I’ll get to it when I get to it. I learned this lesson at the very start
of my mail-art tenure when Richard C. sent card after card only to stop for
months after the initial flurry. When a new person, someone I’ve never sent to
before, doesn’t get back something from me in a timely fashion, I worry.
Much of the discussion
focused on the documentation process, exactly what each person did with the
work and how they responded to a high volume of mail. Here’s my process.
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Once I collect the
mail-art and then throwaway all of the junk mail, the mail-art goes into this
basket. It’s a staging area. As soon as I get the mail I open it up and examine
the work and then put it back in the basket. Sometimes the mail sits in this
basket for as many as two weeks before moving upstairs, it really depends on
the volume and how much time I have to work on projects. If the package is too
big it sits on top of the basket.
After sitting in the
waiting room it moves upstairs to be sorted.
I started off sorting the
work by making how many pieces I received. This goes into a large tally for
each year. I also collect information about how many pieces I send in a year,
even though it’s not that accurate of a tally. Sometimes I send a lot of copies
of one card so I only mark one “sent” item for that bunch. After marking how
many I received, to each person’s name. If they do not have an entry I write
one in for them. I put a mark by each piece of mail that I receive from each
artist as well as the amount I’ve sent out. I try and keep a one to one ratio
but some mail-artists are too prolific and I start to fall behind. If they fall
behind what I’ve sent them, then I’ll wait on them to catch up. Sometimes
people completely disappear so our correspondence goes away. Since I mark every
in and out piece I can somewhat tell when people are active and inactive and
respond accordingly.
The scanner is directly
to the left of me at my “making” desk. Here is where I feel like I have to
start editing myself. I do not scan every piece of mail-art I receive. I cannot
do this. I do not have the time. I scan pieces that I find interesting,
strange, or from mail-artists I haven’t received things from before. I always scan
finished add and returns / add and passes that I started. The same thing goes
for other projects I have initiated like the Trump project, the Misty and Jon
Getting Married Project, and each block of my 9 x 9 project. If they’re willing
to help me create one of these things then I feel I owe it to them to scan and
post the image.
PS – Not pictured in this
where I post the images. Sometimes I post them to specific groups like the
Trump group or in the 9 x 9 group, but I’ll also post them to IUOMA Facebook
page as well as other mail-art centered pages. Periodically I’ll go back and
forth with other mail-artists about the image on whatever particular platform I
initially posted on. This is also how I get out the word about my projects.
This is a new step. Recently
I’ve realized that the amount of plastic bins containing all of my mail-art is
getting out of hand. In seven or eight years of making mail-art consistently,
I’ve filled up about ten of those bins. I cannot keep going at that pace of
putting everything in a bin after I have sorted it. Now, if I only get one
thing in an envelope like an add and pass or a submission to a particular
project, I will put the envelope in this plastic container. Individual cards go
right into the plastic bins. At some point I’m going to make something out of
all of the bits of paper, maybe add and pass books? I hope that doing this
might cut down on some of the pieces that end up in the archives.
The last step on this
somewhat long journey is in the plastic bins. Well, they end up here if they
aren’t a part of an ongoing project. The Trump cards all went into their own
photo album. The add and passes end up in notebooks. All of Richard C’s white
cards end up in their own album but every other piece of artwork ends up here. One
day, I’m sure very far down the road, I’ll come up with a better system. And
that’s the whole process.
