| Bibliozine, Part II Bibliozine #5 (October 1992) John Held Jr., Editor Modern Realism Archive and Gallery Bibliozine is an irregular periodical that is published in connection with research the editor is conducting for a new book, International Networker Culture: An Annotated Bibliography. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for articles on networking and it's various aspects (cassette culture, zines, mail art, telecommunications, computer bulletin boards, fax, photocopy, collaborative performances, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, etc.) In return you will receive acknowledgment of your contribution in the forthcoming book and an author's discount. Congratulations to Mike Gunderloy and Cari Goldberg Janice on the publication of their book: The World of Zines: A Guide to the Independent Magazine Revolution (Penquin Books, New York, November 10, 1992, 158 pp, $4.00, ISBN 0-14-016720-X, Illustrated) Hot on the heels of Robin James' book, Cassette Mythos (Autonomedia, New York. 1992. 196 pp, $13.50), published this past Spring (see Bibliozine #2 for a review), comes this blockbuster from Factsheet Five editors Gunderloy and Janice. Just as James gave voice to cassette culture, the editors of The World of Zines bring the long festering zine explosion before the eyes of a wider mainstream audience. As I am currently researching international networker culture, of which cassettes and zines are important components, the appearance of these books signal wider appreciation of the contributions these alternative medium are making. Gunderloy published the first issue of his late lamented Factsheet Five on May 4th, 1982. It was two pages long and was produced in an edition of fifty copies with eight reviews. The title was taken from a short story by English science fiction writer John Brunner. The zine gradually expanded until it's demise in August 1991 at issue number 44, and was venerated everywhere as either the Zine of Zines, or the Bible of Zines. There have been various attempts to revive the Factsheet Five. The latest effort is being made by R. Seth Friedman (900 Oak Street #11, San Francisco, CA 94117). The book is laid out for easy use reminding one of High Weirdness by Mail, by the Rev. Ivan Stang. After a short introduction, the book is broken up into two main sections: reviews and resources. Reviews are broken into various interest groups: fringe culture, comics and assorted humor, sports, personal zines, science fiction, hobbies and collecting, music, science and beyond, reviews, politics, hip whatnot, literary, people, love sex and relationships, travel, spirituality, moves and television, splatter death and other good news. A potpourri section is scattered throughout to catch all the misfits and cross-pollinators. The Resource Section is composed of advice to encourage future zine publishers and current practitioners who wish to spruce up their design and expand their audience. Sections include: getting started, production, printing, bindery, mailing promotion and financing, and taxes. The World of Zines reviews such networker stalwarts as ND, Scrap, Mallife, Sensoria from Censorium, Electronic Cottage, Forced Exposure, Lost and Found Times, The Letter Exchange, and FaGaGaGa (among many others), as well as Baby Split Bowling News, which caters to fans of the quintessential American sport, and On Our Backs, which bills itself as "entertainment for the adventurous lesbian." Each review covers interest and format in the concise way that Gunderloy has employed for nearly a decade. Contact information and price is also given. A very nice feature is that certain zines are quoted from to give a better understanding of the particular style of the publication. For instance, after ND is described this excerpt from an interview between editor Daniel Plunkett and artist Lon Spiegelman is reprinted: ND: Do you think the term "mailart" is too confined to describe what is all involved? Lon Spiegelman: That's a very timely question, because there is presently a schizophrenic debate of sorts transpiring within the eternal mailart network whether to call the lime a lime, or the lime a turkey. Actually, it's more like, "should we refer to all of this mailing that is going on as "mailart" or "networking" or perhaps "networking art," or maybe even "networking correspondence art." The majority of mailers still prefer the time-tested term "mailart" to refer to what they see showing up in their mailboxes every day. However, the term networking is appearing more and more to refer to the same thing. Only time will tell which term will survive in eventually describing our activities. Or perhaps something that hasn't been presented yet. It will probably be a consensus derived from general usage, and in this, each player has input. Gunderloy and Janice conclude in their Introduction that, "Over the centuries, as we've gone from the hired scribe to the first printing press to the photocopy machine (and now on to the computer networks), the print media have become more democratized. While a few mass media continue to dominate the communication channels, there are plenty of holes between their coverage where the dedicated and passionate small publisher can make a difference. Most zines start out with the realization that one need to longer be merely a passive consumer of media. Everyone can be a producer! That's the underlying message of the zine world, and the great thing about zines. Come join us in this untamed new world." This book is a must for every networkers bookshelf. It makes a substantial contribution toward greater public acceptance of a do-it-yourself culture in opposition to the Society of the Spectacle, in which the consumer lies back and waits for the latest spoon-feed infomercial. If everyone is an artist, and everyone a publisher, then maybe we can do away with these artificial boundaries we place between each other. Bibliozine #6 (November 1992) John Held Jr., Editor Modern Realism Archive Bibliozine is an irregular periodical that is published in connection with research the editor is conducting for a new book, International Networker Culture: An Annotated Bibliography. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for articles on networking and it's various aspects (cassette culture, zines, mail art, telecommunications, computer bulletin boards, fax, photocopy, collaborative performances, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, etc.) MAIL ART AND PRESENT NETWORKS BY GUY BLEUS (WELLEN, BELGUIM) (From the exhibition catalog, Als Kunst Bestempeld: Mail Art International, edited by Ben Koevoets, the Netherlands PTT Museum, Den Haag, Holland, 1992.) Mail Art represents the most extensive movement in the history of art. It concerns a transnational network of hundreds of artists who use every possible means of communication as a form of art in itself. It is not a centralized network but a logical consequence of the electronic spirit of the age: it has no leaders, only members. Networking is a dialectical process, a syncretism of artistic communication. There is no information centre while the location of the networker is of no immediate relevance. As such any political, ideological or religious convictions does not play a crucial role in the process of networking. Mail Art has a pluralist and humanist basis whereby it implicitly accepts the dignity of man, promoting tolerance and equality with regard to sex, race or nationality. Mail Art is flourishing at the moment. This is largely due to three conditions. a. New developments in technology, the emergence of computers, the fax, the modem etc., b. Political changes such as have taken place in Eastern Europe which has meant that artists from those countries can now participate in the network. and c. The fact that there has been an enormous increase in the number of artists from all countries participating in the network which has led to a huge rise in the number of publications, projects and exhibitions. Within the existing Mail Art network several taxonomies are possible, including a classification of disciplines such as Artistamps, Copyart, Fax Art, Rubberstamp Art, artists books, Audio Art. Then there is the classification of collective concepts such as Artstrike, Smile, Archivism, Neo-ism, No-ism, Aggressive Mail Art, Tourism. Each separate class of course knows its mixed forms and varying combinations which may eventually lead to independent form of art and other autonomous networks. With regard to the history of mail Art, the influence of Fluxus should not be overstated, this would lead to the neglect of other important influences such as Nouveau R�alisme, Arte Povera, Concept Art and the New York Correspondance School. In contrast to Fluxus, Mail Art, with its collective consciousness will be able to realize the many innovative possibilities of an artistic global village. The future of Mail Art will depend largely on the accessibility of technological innovations. The fax and the computer will enlarge the network and will influence both the content and the actual shape or design of the communicated works f Mail Art. The philosophy of time and speed have been introduced as new elements which have given greater emphasis to the procedural character of the art-form. As such time has become a conditional element in all temporally determined projects. With regard to the future there are several complementary trends in Mail Art such as special attention to the storing of Mail Art and the building up of archives; the increased use of computerised communication and - despite the anonymous character of Mail Art - an increasing desire for more networking tourism and personal confrontations within the network. The highlight of this trend was the Decentralized World-Wide Mail-Art Congress of 1896 with artists from 25 countries participating. Co-ordinators of the projects were the Swiss artists G�nther Ruch and H. R. Fricker. Whatever its evolution, Mail Art networking represents a fascinating and unique episode in the history of art. Never before was there a direct and global co-operation between so many artists. (Summaries: M. Medik-Kesoemo Joedo. Translation: Jacob Voorthris) The editor of Bibliozine will lecture in England on Mail Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Seminar Room (Exhibition Road Entrance), Saturday, November 28th, at 2:30 PM. The following Monday, Held will address the staff of the National Art Library on collecting fugitive library materials and illustrating the discussion with documentation from the Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress 1992, a successful outgrowth of the 1986 Mail Art Congresses mentioned in the above article. Bibliozine #7 (November 1992) John Held Jr., Editor Modern Realism Archive Bibliozine is an irregular periodical that is published in connection with research the editor is conducting for a new book, International Networker Culture: An Annotated Bibliography. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for articles on networking and it's various aspects (cassette culture, zines, mail art, telecommunications, computer bulletin boards, fax, photocopy, collaborative performances, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, etc.) The following was written for Carol Stetser's Networker Congress affiliated project, One Day in the Life of the Eternal Network, for which she asked contributors to send "a description of your activities during the day and night of November 10, 1992." Woke up at seven o'clock in the morning alone in my bed at 1903 McMillan Avenue in Dallas, Texas. My apartment is one of three others in this small building which used to be a neighborhood grocery store. The other people who live here are a fashion photographer, a university ceramics professor, and a computer programmer. Over the years I've lived in three of the four apartments in the building. There are three rooms in my current apartment. The living room has a large desk made from a door and serves as my studio. It is jammed with rubber stamps, enclosures for my mailings, a phone and answering machine, and a large cactus that I got from my friend Stanley Marsh 3's property in Amarillo, Texas. He owns the Cadillac Ranch. Another room serves as a kitchen and dining room. But I always eat in my bed, so the dining room is given over to my computer and perforator. It is decorated wall to wall with mail art by such artists as Ryosuke Cohen, Guillermo Deisler, Ben, Bill Gaglione, Cavellini, Endre Tot, Geza Pernrczky, Ulises Carrion, Richard C., Robin Crozier, and Keith Bates. I also have a classic Eleanor Antin 100 Boots postcard that buZ blurr gave me. I'm still trying to decide how to pay him back for it. My bedroom is taken over by a large king-size bed. I have a nice painting in there by Al "Blaster" Ackerman. I bought it from him when we were both staying with Lon Spiegelman in Los Angeles, and he was on the skids. I also have some Soviet paraphernalia that I bought while I was in Estonia visiting mail artist Ilmar Kruusamae in 1990. Across the hall from my apartment is Modern Realism Archive. It contains all my correspondence since I started doing mail art in 1976. I have over 1,400 folders for American artists, and about 900 for foreign artists. In addition there are special collections for zines and artist periodicals (about 500 titles housed in file cabinets), artistamps, approximately 3,000 rubber stamps, notes for my book, Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography, mail art exhibition posters, and exhibition catalogs. The hall between my apartment and the Archive is used as a gallery. I've just started exhibiting again, but it's not advertised to the public, and it's meant for people who come to visit. The first show was on the envelopes of Jenny Soup. The current show is work by Stanley Marsh 3. About three years ago I quit my full-time position in the Fine Arts Division of the Dallas Public Library to work part-time. I work on the weekends and two nights a week. The salary I get from the Library covers my rent, bills, and provides some spending money. I live very frugally, but I enjoy having the time to myself. This being Tuesday I don't work at all. After waking up, I fix some coffee, and get a copy of the Dallas Times Herald from the newsbox in front of the apartment. I live in a predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood in East Dallas. It's urban, but there are trees, and most of the houses in the neighborhood are single family dwellings. After coffee and a bagel I turn on the computer and enter yesterday's journal entry into a application I call, A Diary of Modern Realism. I record whatever I did that pertains to mail art and one or two relevant facts of the day. Then I go to my aerobics class at a local health club. I do an hour and a half of aerobics every weekday, usually from 9:15 to 10:30am. The class is composed of about twenty-five women and two or three men. I'm 44, but probably in the best shape of my life. Class over I go to the grocery store and buy tomatoes, cheese, turkey and cream cheese. I've got $15 dollars in my pocket. I go to my previous Goforth Avenue address to see if I received mail since last Saturday. My ex-wife still lives there. We got divorced in September. It was friendly enough, and no kids to complicate the matter. No mail there today. After washing the car (tomorrow I spend the day taking a friend of my parents, who is visiting from New Mexico, on a tour of the city), I go home and find today's mail delivered. A postcard from Andrej Tisma in Yugoslavia, a package from Miekal And with copies of Molecular Juice Glue, the catalog of the Networker Congress we had in Dreamtime Village, Wisconsin, and a book catalog from Galerie Ronny Van de Velde in Antwerp, Belgium, make up the days catch. Smaller then usual. Then I get down to the main business of the day, which is putting together the slide show I'll give at the Victoria and Albert Museum. As a result of the publication of the Mail Art Bibliography, I've been invited to lecture at the National Art Library of England by Curator Simon Ford on November 28th. Simon has previously curated a show of Smile Magazines, and is organizing a talk by Stewart Home, which will be his coming out party from the Art Strike, 1990-1993. One has to wonder about such an august institution embracing this maverick artform. In fact, when the National Art Library held the Smile exhibit, Joki Mail Art of Minden, Germany, stopped publication on general principle. My feeling is that rather then seeing this development as the establishment embracing mail art, Ford's interest should be seen as a fluke at present, but as a harbinger of the future. There is no way that mail art will not eventually be collected and commodified. This is the way the art machine works and art history marches onward. I believe that even as mail art is beginning to be recognized for the important role that it's played in linking the international cultural community, it is mutating into something else - networking. The Eternal Network is not mail art alone. It rides on a host of alternative mediums including zines, cassettes, computer bulletin boards, fax, rubber stamps and artistamps, and manifests itself in visual poetry, artist books, performance, congresses, touristic actions, and other forms of artistic invention under constant investigation. Bill Gaglione calls from San Francisco to talk about the Congress rubberstamps that I've asked him to donate to the National Art Library. I'll give a talk to the staff on collecting fugitive library materials and use the Decentralized Worldwide Networker Congresses as an example. I'm donating my duplicate materials to their collection. I'm convinced the Congresses have played an important role in introducing the various alternative art circuits to one another. After a dinner of spaghetti I drive to North Dallas to model for a figure drawing class. I've been doing this the past two months to earn some money for the trip to England. I pose from 7 to 10pm and receive a check for thirty dollars. I come home and there is a message on my answering machine telling me that the t-shirts I designed and had produced by my friend in Santa Fe are ready. The shirts have a Congress theme and the graphics are by FaGaGaGa, afungusboy, and myself. I'll give them out as gifts on my trip to London, and try to sell the rest. That's about it for the day. It's not atypical that so much network activity took place. I'm fairly obsessed with the Network. A more normal day sees me working on my new book, International Networker Culture: An Annotated Bibliography. But I've shut down work on it in the past few weeks to concentrate of the upcoming trip to London. God bless the Network. I try to give as much as I get from it, but it seems impossible as it sustains so much of my being. Bibliozine #8 (December 1992) John Held Jr., Editor Modern Realism Archive Bibliozine is an irregular periodical that is published in connection with research the editor is conducting for a new book, International Networker Culture: An Annotated Bibliography. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for articles on networking and it's various aspects (cassette culture, zines, mail art, telecommunications, computer bulletin boards, fax, photocopy, collaborative performances, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, etc.). This issue features a selection of materials gathered during the editor's recent trip to London, England, during which he presented a lecture on mail art at the Victoria and Albert Museum on November 28, 1992. Crozier, Robin. Portrait of Robin Crozier. Sunderland, Ceolfrith Press. 1975. Many thanks for the Dean of English mail art for sending this book to the V & A as part of a performance piece, in which I was to present a copy to the first person from the audience to ask a question at the conclusion of my lecture. It went to a woman who took me to task for ignoring the feminist contribution in mail art. Ford, Simon. Smile Classified. London, Victoria and Albert Museum. 1992. Booklet which accompanied a display entitled Smile: A Magazine of Multiple Origins at the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum from March 20 to August 10, 1992. Fine introduction to the concepts of multiple names, plagiarism, the Art Strike, Neoism and Praxis. Fuller, Matthew. Flyposter Frenzy: Posters from the Anticopyright Network. London, Working Press. 1992. (ISBN 1 870736 15 X) Fantastic new book detailing the activities of this network of guerrilla posterists. Work included by such active network participants as Fagagaga, Xeroxial Endarchy, Karen Eliot, Clemente Padin, Mark Pawson, and Hakim Bey, as well as many others. Highly recommended. Hedinger, B�rbel and Sabine Blumenr�der. Die K�nstlerpostkarte: Von den Anf�ngen bis zur Gegenwart. M�nchen, Germany, Prestel-Verlag. 1992. (ISBN 3 7913 1197 2) This was the find of my trip. A coffee-table book on artist postcards from Dada to Ray Johnson, Joseph Beuys, and Fluxus (Filliou, Brecht, Knizak, Paik) published in connection with an exhibition at the German Postmuseum. Although it has a essay on mail art it makes no effort to sample this active genre of the postal network. Instead it opts for postcards by such mainstream artists as Jenny Holzer, Cy Twombly, and James Lee Byars. Despite this notable lack it remains a valuable addition to the literature of the artform. 233 pages profusely illustrated in color. Holman, Paul. The Fabulist. London, Leaves/Scales. 1991. (ISBN 0 9518081 0 9) Poems from 1984-1991 by my host (along with hostess Bridget), both flatmates of Mark Pawson who kindly lent me the use of his apartment while he was touring the States. Thanks to the three of them for making my stay so pleasant and convenient. Holman, Paul. Miss Hicksville. London. August 1990. Poetic rumination on the work of Stewart Home on the eve of the Art Strike, 1990-1993. Home, Stewart. The Art Strike Papers/Neoist Manifestos. Stirling, AK Press. 1991 (ISBN 1 873176 15 5) Just had to pick up another copy of this publication featuring back-to-back punch. Home, Stewart. Defiant Pose. London. Peter Owen. 1991. (ISBN 0 7206 0828 7) Novel for those in the button-down shirt, sta-pres and Doctor Marten boot scene. Not for the weak of heart. Jason, O. Fatuous Times. Issues One and Two. Stoke-on-Trent. Play Time For Ever Press (PO Box 406, Stoke-on-Trent. 1992. Issue One features Pleas for Networkery and photocopy art from the Anti-Copyright Network. Issue Two contains an article on the Anti-Copyright Network and a Networker Congress held in March 1992 bringing participants in this flyposter consortium together. Pilcher, Barry Edgar. Deliverance from my Big Toe and River Music. London, Aard Press. September 1992 (order from Aardverx, London, SW16 2NL) Poetry and images from this long-time networker. Rose, Cynthia. "Post Modern: The Postman Always Looks Twice." The Times Saturday Review. London. November 21, 1992. Page 34-35. Article on mail art, rubber stamps, and my appearance at the V & A in the magazine section of this major London newspaper. As a result of it's publication, my lecture was moved from the Seminar Room of the Museum to the Lecture Hall to accommodate the increase in attendance the article generated. Szczelkun, Stefan. Class Myths and Culture. London, Working Press. 1991. (ISBN 1 870736 03 6) The oppression of the artist and the myth of glamour as class separation. Szczelkun, Stefan. UK Artists Books 1992. London, Working Press. 1992. (ISBN 1 870736 39 7) Twenty-two page listing of resources (presses, bookstores, artists). Includes poetry, comixs, and mail art. (Special thanks to Andr� Stitt for presenting me with a selection of mail art catalogs and posters.) Bibliozine #9 (January 1993) John Held Jr., Editor Modern Realism Archive Bibliozine is an irregular periodical that is published in connection with research the editor is conducting for a new book, International Networker Culture: An Annotated Bibliography. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for articles on networking and it's various aspects (cassette culture, zines, mail art, telecommunications, computer bulletin boards, fax, photocopy, collaborative performances, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, etc.). Concerning the Networker Congresses In the mid-sixties Fluxus artists Robert Filliou and George Brecht conceived the notion of a brotherhood of artists and called it the Eternal Network. Mail Artists rallied to the concept as it accurately described the gathering momentum which had been set in motion a decade earlier by Ray Johnson, who had begun to spin a poetical web of correspondents through the post. By the early seventies the Canadian collaborative and editors of FILE, General Idea, were expanding this network internationally and using Filliou's and Brecht's concept as a metaphor for the increasing cooperation that had been set in motion. Fluxus artists, like the Dada collaborators before them, were engaged in dissolving the borders of art and life. Postal art was not only an art activity, but a life process that brought participants into contact with one another. The performance activities of the Dadaists were expanded by the Fluxus artists to forge a closer tie to everyday living situations. Johnson was also holding meetings of the New York Correspondence School to bring the postal experience into the realm of reality. As Mail Art built momentum during the seventies, correspondents continued to meet in informal situations which forged closer ties and understanding between participants. This culminated in the Decentralized World-Wide Mail Art Congresses of 1986, coordinated by Swiss artists Hans Reudi Fricker and G�nther Ruch, which resulted in eighty meetings in over twenty-five countries. More then five-hundred Mail Artists convened in these meetings, which were designed to discuss the state of the network and it's future. While the Mail Art Congresses were in progress, British writer and network participant Stewart Home was laying the foundation for a three year Art Strike from 1990 to 1993. Home, who had previously instigated such "open" concepts as Smile magazine, Karen Eliot, and the Festival of Plagiarism, had sharpened his organizational skills in putting forth an agenda to challenge the manufacture of art, which he viewed as as a mechanism maintained by the upper classes to keep the workingman in a state of control. The open structure of Home's organizational methods enabled others interested in the Art Strike to add their own twist on the initial concept. While few actually ceased the production of art, many began to think about the reasons they were making art, for whom, and for what purpose. Among those was H. R. Fricker, one of the organizers of the Mail Art Congresses, who published an essay on networking in the Lund Art Press (Autumn/Winter 1990). Fricker called for a communal response to the Art Strike during the year 1992 which explored the gap left by the absence of art and the leap into increased social and political networking activities by cultural workers. It was Fricker's idea to bring together those involved in alternative cultural work to discuss, as Mail Artists had done in 1986, common interests and the possibility of future cooperation. The explosion of alternative cultural activity in the seventies and eighties had fragmented the Eternal Network in practitioners who specialized in various aspects of a previously integrated underground. Now there were those pursuing zine publishing, computer technologies, rubber stamp activity, fax communication, and other technological and social activities independently of each other and yet sharing an oppositional stance to the dominant cultural and social order. Fricker was joined by Swiss networker Peter Kaufmann in the coordination of the Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress 1992. Congress participants were encouraged to meet in large or small groups to discuss cultural interaction between various aspects of the Eternal Network. "The congress will also give the opportunity to spread these ideas through public discussion and possible media coverage." Netlinks were established to document Congress activities and provide information to potential Congress organizers. In this regard, the Aggressive School of Cultural Workers, Iowa Chapter, compiled a booklet of statements on networking, as requested by coordinators Fricker and Kaufmann, from cultural workers in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Uruguay, the United States, and Yugoslavia. Continue to Part III |