Johnny Boy: anything else you may want to add.

Well, sure. I am currious to what kind of question you really would like to have answered after reading my answers. Just leave a comment and I will answer that as well.

Johnny Boy: has your opinion about the network changed, and if yes, why.

Seems like I already answered that in connection to your previous question. Life is always full of changes. Networks too. They evolve, change, loose members, gain new members, change shape. The digital networks change even faster.

My opinion of the network. Has that changed? Not really. A network is a group of people who work together to reach a certain goal. That goal is mostly not fixed. It might be an idea by some which evolves too. The good neworks start with a good idea and live long. When the goal is reached the network has no function anymore. Maybe look for an unreachable goal, and the network lasts forever.

In digital networks the goal is sometimes hidden. When money gets involved the secret agendas are there. Large networks that are digital costs money which is earned by advertisings. That tends to get commercial also when they say they are not. In Mail-Art Lon Spiegelman claimed "Mail-Art and Money don't mix", and he has a very good point there.

Changes are part of life. So networks change too. The question is simple and always answered by yes.

Johnny Boy: are you still networking, and why.

Yes, otherwise I wouldn't answer such questions. The network has changed. So have the tools. Is your magazine Kairan only a hardcopy version? No, also a digital version exists. The people you reach is a veru broader and different public. Old contacts that were never online suddenly pop up (like e.g. Anna Boschi and more who I discovered on http://www.openfluxus.com/ ). Also I have just finished publishing all text-material of my mail-interview project in bookform. Six books have come out, so everybody has at least acces to this material in a compiled form.


Not many people will order these kind of books. That isn't important. The information was already out there in loose bits and pieces. Now it is collected in thick textbooks. In a way for me also a new phase. I will think of a new larger project to do. I know I like to experiment with the new tools that our world offers. In 1985 the BBS was already doing the same as what LuLu offers now to all. The distribution of digital documents. I now also work in the field where the new ways ar developed. My students build content management systems and know the Internet better then I do. We learn from each other and that is what it is all about.

Johnny Boy: what happened to you as a person and a mail artist in these 10 plus years.

Well, Johnny, a lot happenened. The Mail-Interview project stopped because there was not enought time to do all and some interviews never seem to get finished. You are asking the samen mail-artists some questions 10+ years later. In a way very funny. I always asked the questions one by one. That way the next question is always a reaction to the answer. In a questionaire like you sent the people just tend to sum things up and the results are less revealing. Who would have thought up a question like "Why do you live in a church" which I asked Dick Higgins. Because he revealed this hidden in one of his answers.....

As A Person:

Yes, changes. Moved to another city, got married, changed job, and that are mostly large changes for a person. Getting older means make dessicions before life itself takes over.

In Mail-Art:

Also here a lot changed. Because of the Internet the communication is shifting to electronic forms. Blogs, online shows, digital publications, etc. The old-fashioned mail-art is scarce thing these days. The old generation sometimes really treasures the snail-mail though, and so do I. But sending out a lot isn't that easy anymore. Time in these fast years, the costs of mailing an envelope, the vanished old generation of mail-artists I used to be in contact with. The mail-art network has changed. Newcomers discover mail-art again and start mailing too. That is the most fascinating thing I guess. Mail-Art starts a discovery course for someones life.