Reply on: 29-05-1995 (IX)

HM: My wish is to answer every from my point of view intensely asking, inviting, signalizing, in short: sincere incoming mail art. But as I get a big mass of mail, I have to accept that I really have to select more or less what mail I will answer because of the limitations of my resources, especially of my spare time, money and spiritual-physical energy. Consistently this means that I have to develop standards for selection and that from all the incoming mail some I will answer perhaps never. At the last analysis I think your question leads to the well-known quality-mass-resources-problem of mail art that every mail artist has to solve for himself earlier or later.

According to the change of values caused by the paradigmshift the notion of quality has to be defined in a new manner: Networks, like the one of mail art, are more than the sum of their creative elements, like networkers. The more of every network are the relations between their creative elements, here: The relations between the networkers. These relations characterize and determine the quality of the network. In other words: As spontaneous idea of spirit, cognitions and communications, quality doesn't exist in any isolated structure, like for instance in a networkers head or in any isolated mail art work, but within the open reciprocal effective process of perception, thinking and doing, the network's process that organizes itself. Quality procures for the whole and at the same time for its single elements, reciprocal effects, parts: Greatest freedom, intensity, variety and attractivity aiming at the development of new placed above situations, states, of life, survival, surplus, creation, growing, cognitions, communications, sociability, living together. In the last analysis it is highest quality that creates and develops all the variety of structures and relations, complexity's evolution, richness of the system as a flowing balance, unique symmetry in progress. In so far quality is not absolute, but relative. In other words: Decisive for the quality's rank is its practical proof, viability, and not the theoretical absence of contradiction following a teleology.

This knowledge makes responsible the artist for all his doing, all his cognitions and communications, and causes him to develop more and more quality within his structure and his relations.

Therefore my aim is to enrichen the living together - as networker especially in Netland - by creating and strengthening an interconnected sight through improving the artistic communication's process, enrichen the process of mail art, including its products, the mail art works.

The qualified mail art works invite the partners by their attractivity to participate responsibly in the mail art's communication process to help to construct by its means a pattern, model, formula of the in the last analysis incomprehensible reality, always anew. In accordance with the paradigmshift this purpose cannot be gained art-immanently neither by aesthetic self- healing of art nor by negation of art-traditions and perpetual renewal of art's languages, but only from a set over point of view from outside the art-sphere and from the understanding of man as a non reductable social creative unit and uniqueness. Aesthetics, the doctrine of the valuing experiences- orientated senses' perceptions, have to change as well as the strategies to create a qualified art-work. This has to aim at an interconnected sight, so that it primary becomes a social and secondary a visual task and problem. It has to be holistic, comprehensive, co-responsible, co-operative, co-sensible, co-evolutive etc.

At that art-works should not be mere informations' media, because there exist better new informations' media than art today. They should not be mere media of eccentricity too, because then their production would need steadily outbidding that would destroy the producing artist finally. Art-works rather should be works of fiction. Then they have at disposal free capacities of all cognitions from thinking to feeling by which -together with the various communications- the incomprehensive reality, vagueness, openness, freedom of all subjects can be expressed and at the same time the attempt can be made to overcome this situation - fictionally, always anew. Fictional art gets a chance of influence even vis-a-vis mass-media, especially TV, if it doesn't veil its fictional character like the simulating mass-media do, but if it demonstrates openly its fictionality, that it embodies an attempt to construct fictionally reality, or if it is not able to do so, to help to endure the vagueness of reality. The fictional character of artistic reality's construction shows openly what otherwise is veiled: The vagueness of reality, that there exists no certainty. If fictionality in comparison with simulation makes possible distance, critic, fancy, in short: Relativity as "breath for living". And if the construction's process is successful by qualified models, patterns, formulae, in short: Qualified art-works, then the networker masters the unperceivable reality and at the same time becomes himself mastered by the unperceivable reality.

From the mass of mail waiting in my box to be answered I considering my scanty resources (especially time, money and spiritual-physical energy) select those mail-pieces that are qualified for me: Attracting me to participation, interference, because they give me (additional) "breath for living".

If there are several mail art pieces of the same rank in quality I select considering the character of the mail art partner, the respective deadline, the needed time, energy and costs:

1. At the first place stand the mail art friends to whom I already have qualified relations.
2. At the second place the mail follows where I have to take into account a deadline.
3. At the third place in the rank stands all the remaining mail.

The order of selection can become altered as to my resources that are available, for instance if a new qualified work has to be developed, but I don't have enough time or energy, or if the costs are too high for me in the respective moment. In these cases the production and sending out of not large-scale mail art can move up in the rank. Not large-scale mail art means that it is easily produced because I can use works already available in my store, or that its cost are lower by comparison.

Quite another thing is the fact of getting out of the communication's process of mail art for a certain time to reflect about one's situation. Here is the place for Teilhard de Chardin's sentence: "To try all and to push forward all till the end in direction to the greatest consciousness: That is in a universe being in the condition of mental changing - as one has recognized - the general, universal and highest moral law; to limit strength (unless this is done to get more strength) is sin".

I already noticed that I don't produce so many mail art pieces as in the beginning of my networking. This has nothing to do with diminishing enthusiasm as it, I think, rather intensifies, but with the fact that my production aiming at expanding my freedom of evolution changes from a quantity's growth to a quality's growth as to organization, i.e. structure and relations, and form, semantics, practice. This corresponds to the natural law: The higher the function, the less the quantity's growth. The interconnection moves its center of gravity more and more from the quantity to quality. It thus meets the cancerous quantity's growth in the whole networker's interest. A more doesn't be a better!

RJ: You are quite optimistic about the potentials of networking. Are there also negative sides to it?

Reply on 21-6-1995 (X)

HM: Dear Ruud, first I want to thank you for your new question and all the patience you take to understand my answers and thoughts as well as to put the texts in the computer. Thanks a lot. And now my answer to your new question.

Certainly my previous answers concerning networking can give the impression that networking itself contains predominantly positive potentials (see especially answers VII and IX). And that is my conviction and intention - from a certain point of view, from the new holistic point of view. And this needs some more explanations as I do see. Here is my new attempt of explaining:

THE NOTION

The notion of networking as well as its principles and mechanisms like all other notions - according to new science and the paradigmshift - are no representation, reflection, of a perceivable separate "objective" thing, actual (partial) reality, but it is respectively they are always a construction of human spiritual networking. If one searches for the meaning of networking one therefore finds different meanings of this notion. But they are standing in close relation:

NEW SCIENCE

According to new science totality of world is a network itself of interconnected and interlocked entities being mostly networks themselves as partial networks of the whole. Networking is working together on a scale as broad and deep as possible, i.e. oriented at the whole, in respect to a certain circle of problems in so far constructing viabilities by trial and error through cognitions (self-determination and -observations) and communication (intersubjective understandings) in the widest sense. Concerned people like mail artists and other creative networkers for instance do concentrate world- wide upon certain problems from the mail-artistic point of view and thus form consciously an own partial network. At that the borders of a partial network can be transgressed and partial networks can cooperate or separate, grow together or differ out new networks. Between the partial networks there exists an overlap taking care that the bigger respectively entire big network has at its disposal a common knowledge, spirit, that is more than the sum of all the partial knowledge.

At that networking at one hand is ruled by the above mentioned (life-) effective principles of creativity (see answer to question VII)

On the other hand networking contains extremely effective methods, techniques, means, mechanisms, in short strategies of creativity, for instance strategies of interaction and of communication aiming at interconnected reciprocal (ex-)changes of perspectives like discoursive learning, social cooperation and coordination, common orientation etc. In so far networking means a rational, partly cybernetic-systematical use of (partial technical) interactive and communicative systems for the very effective transmission of informations. Networking in so far means a very powerful potential to transmit informations and make possible understanding. Examples of technical networks are the various world-wide postal systems.

Networking as complete process, i.e. ruled by the various principles of creativity and using its various most effective strategies - which are both in a process of corresponding reciprocal evolution too - is the creative, namely very special all penetrating and filling mysterious holistic self-similar self- organizing nature of the world. It leads especially to the production and reduction of quantities (reproduction and death), to varieties (variation and selection), to local intensity of variation (aiming aimlessness), to intensity of reciprocal effectiveness (attraction and isolation) etc. Within the network, its partial networks and their networking there are dissymetrical as well as asymmetrical entities of effectiveness and one can notice breakings of entities, symmetries and of partial networks. All this processing, networking, happens - scientifically seen - without a teleology, without determination, without salvation, but breakings, dissymmetries and asymmetries are only comprehensible and effective with a hidden symmetry in the background.

As totality is a network of processing networks every conduct influences one, two, many, eventually all networks and thus the whole. From the human point of view it influences at the same time especially three levels of "reality's" construction:

1. On the FIRST LEVEL, the one of the unperceivable structural coupling order of actual reality every conduct changes actual reality's organization, i.e. its structures and their relations. Coordinated understanding, balanced conduct in so far means new viable structures and structural states of unperceivable reality.

2. On the SECOND LEVEL, the one of the coupling spirit i.e. of cognitions, especially of human cognitions within interconnecting communication(s), every conduct stipulates by a basic order constructing act within the cognitive sphere of the recognizing partner (subjective) cognitions influenced by the individual cognitive structures, experiences and expectations. That means that at the beginning of every communication and understanding stands ambiguity. But reciprocal discoursive learning between the communication's partners in the end creates - "by miracle" - viabilities and understanding and that as result can bring consent, refusal or sometimes the common experience of vagueness.

3. On the THIRD LEVEL, the social one, every conduct is related to the social context. The conduct and its result are commonly discussed, socially structured, prepared, organized, selected, accepted or not and normed; they are rationalized to give orientation for common, social, living together constructing (social) realities, better viabilities, as substitute of unperceivable actual reality. Social reality, viability, slips between the subject and actual - incomprehensible - reality.

Living and living together means to solve existential respectively common existential problems at that inevitably influencing unperceivable actual reality and inevitably constructing perceivable viabilities as social realities.

This means that every single or common conduct, conscious and subconscious cognition and communication, interaction etc. , including the networking of the mail artists and other creative networkers, contributes to the creation of our world; it means that we all together create the world how it is today.

NEW MYTH

According to the basic principle valid for every existing entity, including world's totality and all its partial systems, namely to gain duration and therefore to construct a common horizon of simultaneousness for understanding between the fellow-creatures, especially between men, to enable protected creative living together within a stable milieu, in the end within the stable whole, a new utopia of enlightened-rational creativity arises, a new sense creating myth. Networking so far stands for the efficient guarantee of the new myth, i.e. of the new ecological-ecumenical-economical world view and values' order too.

NEW ETHICS

According to the fact that in respect to human conduct there are no longer limitations within the possibilities of technology in the meantime making possible nearly everything and that the limitations of human conduct are now exclusively in the heads, brains, cognitions and communications, of man, networking is an effective strategy of new ethics too. If the material-ethical principle of totality's keeping is generally guilty, provided, suggested, accepted, then networking becomes a powerful strategy to keep man's milieu, in the end to preserve the whole world, not least to save his survival too. At that seeing the explosions of man-made global catastrophes' productions man's freedom of choice concerning his conduct narrows to life-effective viabilities. Networking thus is a strategy to strengthen the common life- effective, evolutive symmetry-keeping, systemic reciprocal living together of all creatures within the holistic system of totality.

NEW NOTION

The notion networking defined, constructed, corresponding to paradigmshift and to new science, to new myth and to new ethics contains after all prevailingly positive potentials. Networking in the true sense of the word then is the productive ecological-ecumenical-economical process of interconnected self-organization characterizing the world and aiming in tendency at the preserving of the whole, its partial networks and all its entities - as long as possible.

THE ACTUAL INDIVIDUAL CONDUCT: HOLISM AND EGOISM

The individual decision and conduct, for instance to communicate in the form of conscious networking as a mail artist or creative networker, after all can, however, contradict the new order of values and the principles of the new ethics. For instance individual networking can follow only partial egoistic aims and forget the damage it causes for the whole. Then man conducts, networks, malignantly, and if consciously then culpably malignantly. If the conduct corresponds to his liking then he is evil. Here one can think of the abuse of the for instance technical networks and networking (see answer IV). The malignant aims can result of for instance all sorts of ideologies, for example of economical, political, religious character. Naive-rationalistic, "blind" egoistic networking leads to the well- known global catastrophes. Many developments seen for themselves, as end in themselves, seem to be in order, correct, but in the context of the network they disturb the processing balance, symmetry, and thus themselves too, as they as a reciprocal effect of the network by oversteering or elimination of counter-reactions have an uncoupled from the network's process wrong goal- directedness, wrong goal-orientation. Such disturbing and disrupting processes threaten to intensify and lead - if the correction of the wrong goal- directedness fails to come - to the collapse of the network. Here one can find the negative sides of a naive blind (wrong) networking and conduct.

In contrast to this the single man conducts, especially networks, communicates, etc., well, positively, correctly, if he orientates all his conduct, doing, to the new order of values, i.e. after all to the welfare of the whole. And the networker for instance then is a good man if his liking in so far corresponds to his doing. Here one can find the positive sides of the "enlightened seeing", networking and conduct.

In so far all networking, interacting, conduct have to be studied, classified and judged, assessed (see my answer VII). Holistic life-effective - conscious and subconscious - networking, conduct, is the task of man in respect to his responsibility for world's fate and his survival. It is true that all realities, better viabilities, are constructed, created, inter-subjectively, by intersubjective communications, but always, however, by individual cognitions. Thus it becomes clear that misunderstanding and failure are the normal in the process of communication, also in the form of networking, and that understanding and success are miracles.

NEW RESEARCH

Research therefore no longer has to focus on the failure of communication and its strategies like networking, but on the miracle of successful communication, networking, understanding, living together, coexistence. Today at that one has to see that nobody is able to predict if mankind will establish a balance of interests between economics, society and nature as the change will demand highest competence, cause very high costs and will influence deeply everyone's life. Nobody knows if self-control and self- restriction will come before or only after the big catastrophe. The question is: How to manage to persuade mankind to agree to its own survival?

And as a modern optimum strategy to gain viable consistent holistic perspectives of sight and positive common conduct there for me comes into question conscious networking with like-minded, concerned creative people. At that the most effective influence on networks always happens by the change of the own person.

RJ: Since the beginning "the Network" has grown a lot. How many networkers are there nowadays? Is it possible to give an estimation?

Reply on 28-07-1995 (XI)

HM: The notions "network" and "networker" are blurred for me as I mentioned above.

Every effective, creative, i.e. "living" in a wider sense, entity that has "knowledge" and can conduct correspondingly according to the above mentioned basic principles and basic methods of totality's creativity (see answer X), is a reciprocal effect, networker, in totality's network. Every ffective entity gets its right to exist always anew only through its character as reciprocal effect, i.e. through its changing by learning reproduced conduct, like its symmetries, its reproduction, its steering, caused by inner knowledge, conduct's models, leading in practice to survival, viability. The quantity of networkers and their composition within totality steadily change. I think that for instance the number of networkers in totality's "more subtle" spheres, like for instance in the fields of artificial intelligence, increase. Altogether the quantity of effective entities, networkers, within the cosmos is infinite.

Within the network of totality all human beings are networkers too. They cannot stop networking till their end creating altogether their common network called the 'human' world being a partial - at that most effective - network of the whole totality. There are so far billions respectively thousands millions of networkers, i.e. so many networkers as there are human beings on earth in the moment. And their number will grow - unfortunately. Maybe the increasing of human life's quality can stop this growth.

Within human world, the only world we do have, there are quite a lot of networks. Among them there are more alternative networks coming into existence as I mentioned above. Concerned people interconnect to solve through improved knowledge by interconnected perspectives' changes their problems in tendency by themselves. Artists and artistic-creative people do so by art means of communication, as communicative and medial concept. Nobody can say, I think, how many of these alternative artistic consciously and responsibly interconnecting networkers do exist. Nobody is able to estimate approximately their number. Nobody has a total survey about the steadily changing situation: In some regions on Earth, especially in the "poor" developing countries or the ones, where authoritarian regimes strictly rule among other by controlling communication, one hardly finds networkers, perhaps underground networkers. As to my last project, the Frankfurt-1200- years-project, most contributions came from Germany (75), from the USA (37), from Italy (24), from Belgium (15), from Brasil (15) and from the UK (14). Some new networks differ out, some vanish. Some networkers define themselves as networkers, others deny their character as networkers, for instance the stampers only working with commercial stamps are contested. I would call them networkers too. Some networkers start, others stop (consciously) networking. Then besides every networker can have close and intense contacts, "exchange" his ideas, media, works, only with a few networkers and can participate only in some projects. And his contacts decrease when his working intensifies its quality (see especially answer IX). But that should not lead to working only with oneself and to a stop of communication within Netland and transgressing its borders, always anew, because this would cause narcissism and an inhuman living together without understanding.

Sometimes, for instance when organizing an attractive project, one becomes interconnected with quite a lot of networkers. I have had more than 300 participants from up to 35 countries in my projects on an average. Other organizers have had quite a bigger number of participants. For instance the contact's net of Peter R. Meyer from Sweden consisted of around 4000 artists in 1986 (see the catalogue "Mailed Art in Uppsala - Choosing Your Partner, 1994/5 , page 8). When traveling the networker meets other networkers personally. Personal non-mediated, direct, face-to-face communication intensifies understanding by animation, inspiration. The networkers with the probably most personal, direct, face-to-face contacts, I think, are Angela P„hler and Peter Küstermann, the congress '92 post(wo-)men (personal delivery). But this form of communication is costly, takes more of the resources than indirect forms of communication - especially across large distances. The networkers should know what they do to environment when steadily going by air from continent to continent.

Gianni Broi from Italy estimates that mail art has grown into a network consisting of about 10.000 participants during the past three years (see the book "Creativita Alternativa E Valori Umani - Free Dogs in the Galaxy, 1995, page 47). This can be correct. Perhaps Guy Bleus can tell more about this figure as he has the best organized archive in the network, I think. Or?

Against the background of the human-made catastrophes' productions the network is growing according especially to its uneconomic and radical- democratic character calling on and welcoming every concerned creative human being to interconnect to help strengthening the new utopia, new ecological- ecumenical- economical myth, and to participate creating - directly or indirectly - a human world, our world, according to paradigmshift. But all in all the quantity of networkers is not important. Meaningful rather is their quality, the creative will and conduct of the networkers - within an instable, nearly - by human catastrophes' production - "groggy" whole, like chaos-theory teaches. In such a situation even little causes can have big effects.

RJ: Well, I think it is time now to end this interview. Maybe there is something I forgot to ask you?

Reply on 17-8-1995 (XII)

HM: Dear Ruud, as answering always is blurred and therefore is inclined to cause new questions as expression of living and as asking thus is the more essential part of communication, there will be no end of asking and answering - till death. But one has to interrupt the flow of communication from time to time to think over its results, to learn and to get new experiences to make steps to newland. And therefore interviews must have an end.

As to you as interviewer, I thank you very much for your sympathetic patient questioning. And I can assure you that from time to time during this interview caused by your questions I was occupied personally with special aspects, regions, experiences of Netland first time. And I will have to think them over in the future.

All in all I was glad to have got this opportunity to speak a little about my thoughts concerning artistic networking. In so far I even had fun, sometimes in the sense of "serious fun".

At the interview's end I wish: Keep in touch! - as the networkers say. And as to the future of Netland, yes of world, I want to end with questions of the futurologist Robert Jungk that mankind, networkers, we should take to heart: "Do we truly want these new techniques and media? What are really the contents we do want? Are these new techniques and media qualified for our contents?"

RJ: Dear Henning, thanks for the interview!

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