RJ: When you consider I started with
connecting with the network in 1980 and was writing letters as a child in the
70-ies, you will realize that there are a lot of memories. A favourite one is a
difficult selection because The memories of the past are growing with every
year that passes by.
RJ: The
future of ART is always great. New people come every year and are creative
enough to be inspired about what is going on in the world and react to that in
a creative way.
The future of Mail is another matter. The original network started with correspondance of letters, postcards, and even objects sent by mail.
Later on
the FAX arrived, the E-mail, and the HTTP-protocol in 1993 made all these
websites possible. Is it still Mail?
It depends on the definition. When you transform it to Communication Art, it has a bright future. It you are a purist and you insist on a postage stamp being put on the work, well, you have a problem since the postal system is collapsing when it comes to the individual communication. Commercial activities still stimulate the postal services, but the Posta Office if far gone. Only the transport of objects will survive. The communication of letters, words, images and videos, that all has gone digital and you can send it from anywhere to anyone that is connected to the WWW. I tend to be a purist, and only traditional mail is what mattered. We are now in a new millennium where the digital impact will need a reaction from artists in a different way.
Sadly no. Last year the postal office made some changes and moved the location of my P.O. Box 1055 to the outher sides of the city. It means I couldn't just 'walk by', but I hade to travel by bicycle for 15 minutes to collect the mail in the P.O. Box.
I tried that for some months, but then came the next problem. The price to pay for the Postal Office box went up again quite a bit, and more then 300 euro's is way too much to have that service. So I quite the P.O. Box somewhere in February 2025.
Also the Domainname www.iuoma.org got way to expensive, so it is another thing I had to let go, When you get older you realize you don't need to continue all there is, and you are more at ease in taking the right decisions.
