CN : For you what is mail art in your thinking? And if today the artists are integrated postaleiro the same network?

RJ : Mail-Art in essence is the need to communicate in a creative way, but also to share what you make with someone you choose. These days the Internet has taken over, but the digital communication is different tp the traditioal one. A letter or an enveloppe last longer, take more time to make and to travel, and might survive decades and centuries. With the digital communication you never know how long the answers and visuals will survive. Do you still have your first e-mails?  Do you still have  access to your first build website?

There is always 'The Network' and 'Your Network' ; they are not the same. When we speak of The Network, we mean the same people, but the perception of your own network is different for everybody him/her-self.  You are the center of your network while the network itself has no center. That is a major difference. Probaly also the reason why some don't like the IUOMA-concept since there I created one network with a sollid basis. But also here it is that everybody perceives the IUOMA in their own view, and that is o.k. and even meant to be so.

CN : What is the importance of Rubberstamp Archive?

RJ : The importance today is that is a collection that has grown over the years. I started sending out the TAM rubberstamp sheets back in 1983, and that is now over 33 years ago. As a mail-art project is the longest run project and it still going on.

The main collection exists of prints by mail-artists that use rubberstamps i their works. So all I asked was an imprint on a piece of paper, and am storing that away for safe keeping.

That is collection is interesting shows the exhibitions so far:

1996 : Stamp Art Gallery in San Francisco

2004 : L-Gallery in Moscow

2010 : Stendhal Gallery in New York

So, in the near future another exhibition will take place soon, but always just with a selection from the archive. There are just too many sheets in the collection to exhibit them all. Although that will be the final goal, and the place where that will be might even get the offer to curate the final collection.

6 kilo's of Mail-Interviews

Today my order of books from LuLu arrived. 6 kilo's of Mail-Interviews. As you can see the books are quite thick. Some are 360+ pages thick. If you are interested, you can order one or all of them yourself at: http://stores.lulu.com/iuoma The copies that arrived in Breda now are for the TAM-Archive itself. The selling of the books goes quite well. About 50 are already sold and are now in some Mail-Art collections for sure. I am working on a new book as well. Details will follow when the time is right.

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.

Tanja Vos: Why do you like to interview people?

Well, that is something that comes from the past I guess. I always have liked to ask questions. Also back when I still was studying I have learned that good questions are always interesting. With the right question at the right moment a world opens for you. The wrong question again won't bring you any further.

Asking questions is also a way to get information. Every person you encounter can teach you something. Sometimes we don't realize that. If you are interested in a very specific subject, the only way to learn more is by asking questions.

The Mail-Interview project I did was in a way a search for more information. I realized I didn't knew all I would like to about the persons that are inside that large mail-art network. So I started to ask questions in a very structured but yet very open way.....