hyperdanja

A predecessor of global online social networks

Quoting Wikipedia, Mail Art was :

An amorphous international mail art network, involving thousands of participants in over fifty countries, evolved between the 1950s and the 1990s. It was influenced by other movements, including Dada and Fluxus.

A couple of weeks ago, when my Dad and brother were visiting, our Nigel took us down to Viareggio to meet mail art pioneer and archivist Vittore Baroni (who has minimal online presence so far, alas). Nigel brought along a video camera and taped Vittore showing us around and explaining his remarkable collection (as far as such things can be explained). There are now a few clips over on Nigel’s blog.

Not only was mail art a global social network, it was also something of a precursor of the open source movement, Wikipedia again:

One theme in mail art is that of commerce-free exchange; early mail art was, in part, a snub of gallery art, juried shows, and exclusivity in art. A saying in the mail art movement is “senders receive,” meaning that one must not expect mail art to be sent to them unless they are also actively participating in the movement.

There’s only a small fraction of the material taped online so far, but it does include Whatever happened to Nocturnal Emissions’ old crowbar?

In case this has piqued your interest, there’s a Mail Art Twine (mail me if you need an Twine invite). Or if you happen to be in Italy, you could just go down to the seaside and visit Vittore & co.’s latest exhibition:

La Villa Borbone di Viareggio ospiterà, da Sabato 26 Luglio a Domenica 24 Agosto (18,00-23,00, chiuso lunedì e martedì),