Posted: February 21st, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Update: I have launched a bare-bones website. Content will be trickling in over the next few days, but there’s enough there to go public. So link it up! www.postcardcollective.org
For the past three years, I have been intermittently thinking about a group collaboration built around the idea of mail art. Last week I decided that I’ve put it off long enough, and it’s time to get this party started.
The mission:
The internet has made it easier than ever before to find and share artwork; anyone and everyone is a curator in their own space. While there are countless benefits to this democratization of art viewing, the power of the viewer’s experience is diluted. There is an emotional spark that is triggered by engaging a work of art in physical space that is virtually nonexistent in the digital realm.
Before the rise of the internet, postcards had long been the de facto means of sharing experience with those who could not be a part of an event, or happening. Made popular in the United States during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the postcard quickly gained traction as a form of souvenir. The cooperation of the Postal Service allowed individuals to send pictures to loved ones from remote, often exotic, locations with scribbled notes of longing for the recipient’s company. It is this intrinsic human desire to share experience that motivates the Postcard Collective.
Inspired by the mail art movement championed by Ray Johnson (among many others) in the 1970s, we seek to bridge the gap between the digital and tangible domains. By crafting and mailing postcards, the artists enter into a collaboration with the Postal Service as well as each other; the magic of the art-making experience is shared simultaneously by all participants. The result is a collection of unique art objects that have been assigned a point of origin in place and time by way of postmarking.
Our mission is to create a network for like-minded individuals to share their art in the form of hand-made postcards. This opens up a direct, unmediated line of communication between artists, promoting a sense of comradery and connectedness throughout the Collective. This can be extremely beneficial for everyone involved, both personally and professionally.
Handwritten messages on the back of the cards are encouraged, but not required. Mailings will happen 3-4 times per year depending on the group’s availability.
There is a website in the works, which will act as a (private) central hub for members as well as a public space to showcase the artists and collection as it grows. There may even be some Google Maps magic in there somewhere.
Any and all artistic disciplines are welcome. The more, the better.
Membership, at least initially, will be granted at the discretion of the group. I’m looking to start with at least 20 seriously committed artists, and hopefully get the first mailing out sometime before April. Obviously, this sort of undertaking rests on the assumption that there are, in fact, “like-minded individuals” who would like to “share their art in the form of hand-made postcards”. So I now pose the question: who wants in?
Please direct all inquiries to me, and by all means, spread the word!
Posted: February 17th, 2010 | No Comments »
A few days ago, I began to notice traffic to the site using some rather strange search queries. I couldn’t find anything suspicious, so I didn’t really think anything of it. I just figured my SEO plugin was acting up.
My suspicions were confirmed when I received an email from a rather thoughtful sysadmin who was on the receiving end of some spam listing several of my pages. My site was hit by a spam-injection attack, which generally exploits vulnerabilities in plugins, and is much more invasive than comment spam. I had two choices: dig through all of the code to find the exploit, or wipe it and start over. After several hours of snooping around, I have inconclusively concluded (that’s right) that the site was compromised by an exploit in my Platinum SEO plugin. The irony has not been lost on me.
Well, I completely reinstalled the WordPress package on my server, restored a backup of the posts and theme, and fought with MySQL for a while. The blog now seems to be up and running again, spam free.
The timing is particularly curious in light of the recent Blogger vs. WordPress discussions I’ve been having with various folks via Twitter (you know who you are). I still stand by my choice, even though it can occasionally be a pain in the ass.
Posted: February 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
I thought I’d post some of the trials and tribulations from my countless hours in the printmaking lab fighting with these presensitized zinc plates. It’s been an uphill battle, to be sure, but I think I’m starting to get things figured out.
I’ve been writing/thinking/sketching a lot in preparation for this book project, and suffice it to say I’m extremely excited about it. More on that later.
Posted: February 5th, 2010 | No Comments »
Adam Ekberg, Arrangement #3
I discovered Adam Ekberg via Daily Serving this morning. Absolutely amazing work.
Posted: January 18th, 2010 | No Comments »
I feel like I’ve reached a new level in terms of how and what I photograph.
Having said that, I thought I’d post a few more images I’ve been working on lately. I will be making intaglio contact prints of them which will be bound into a series of 3 small books (roughly 20-25 prints in each).
I haven’t completely nailed down where I’m going conceptually with this body of work yet, but I have a pretty good idea. It will suffice to say that I’m very excited about it. More on that later.
Posted: January 4th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
N 32.22195, W 110.86723. January 2, 2010.
I’ve been working my way through the last couple boxes of Polaroid Type 55 film, and I’m really happy with the resulting images. Here’s one of them; the rest will be posted once I finish scanning them.
Posted: January 1st, 2010 | No Comments »
I’ve been busy redesigning my website, and it somehow seemed appropriate for the launch to coincide with the new year. So here we are, January 1st. Here’s the new website, complete with a new body of work. Those of you who’ve been incessantly asking to see what I’ve been working on in grad school can finally take a break (you know who you are).
To make this occasion even more spectacular, I have started a tumblr account as a sort of off-shoot of the Daily Polaroid. Now that I have a phone with a decent camera and the ability to be connected to the internet at all times (I’m referring, of course, to my new Droid), I have no choice but to take advantage of this. And so, I present Aggregated Moments.
Posted: December 15th, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Livingston, MT, 8-29-08. I think I need to start using my Holga again…
Posted: December 15th, 2009 | No Comments »
The print club is back in a slightly different format. I’ve decided that forcing myself into periodical updates/offerings through my website is taking away from the magic of image making. Rather than doing away with the print club idea entirely, I’ve decided to offer prints for sale as they become available. And so, I present to you, the Occasional Print Club (see link above or the latest print below).
