
Mail art - pmoriarty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_art
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js2
A few years back, I'd missed my sister's 30th birthday and wanted to do
something a bit dramatic to make up for it.

I got the idea of sending her the message "Happy Belated Thirtieth Birthday!"
with each character on a separate postcard, all sent via separate post
offices.

So I researched 30 separate interesting towns in the US. Then I ordered 30
postcards, each with a picture of the place on the front, and a single
character of the message on the back in a large block letter. Finally, I wrote
a note on each that said something about the place but started with the big
block letter.

Then, I mailed them all to the postmaster at each location, stamped and inside
an envelope along with this letter to the postmaster: _Dear Postmaster: I am
mailing my sister 30 postcards from 30 towns for her 30th birthday. I have
enclosed a postcard, which I ask be hand-cancelled with a postmark from your
town. To protect the postcard from machine cancels in its journey through the
mail system, I have enclosed a stamped envelope addressed to my sister in
which to seal and mail the postcard. Thank you very much for your time!_

About a week later my sister starts getting the cards, but it doesn't make
sense to her so she calls me after a few. I tell her just wait, there's more,
she'll understand soon enough.

Finally after maybe 2 weeks she had all the cards and was able to decode the
message.

Oh, I also found a 50-state stamp set on eBay so they all had unique stamps.

It was cool. Here's what they all looked like along after she received them
with an closeup of one:

[https://imgur.com/a/wYIKx](https://imgur.com/a/wYIKx)

Barrow, AK and Kealakekua, HI travelled the farthest, from my home in NC to
those cities to my sister in Miami, FL. There didn't seem to be much
correlation between the distance the cards traveled and how soon she got them.

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erk__
This reminds of a differnt type of mail art, in the signature of posts one
usenet, here is an example of one:
[http://archive.birdhouse.org/etc/kibosig.txt](http://archive.birdhouse.org/etc/kibosig.txt)

~~~
marzell
I enjoyed the 'Twin Peeks' chart

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dystq
I was so disappointed when the USPS rejected my postal-stamp-sized envelope.

It would be cool to have a service (maybe one already exists?) that
specializes in the processing/fulfillment of machine-unfriendly mail pieces.

Reminds me of this guide: [https://thepostmansknock.com/how-to-make-
deliverable-mail-ar...](https://thepostmansknock.com/how-to-make-deliverable-
mail-art/)

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bitwize
Back in the 90s, when we got all of our gaming news primarily through print
magazines, the big ones like GamePro and EGM would publish the best envelope
art sent in by readers with their letters. There were often elaborate scenes,
from Mega Man, Chrono Trigger or even DBZ, drawn onto the envelopes
surrounding the address.

~~~
sprokolopolis
Yeah I feel like magazines sort of popularized this in that era. As a kid, I
would send mail art in to some skate and gaming magazines that I read.

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bluetwo
Ken Miller's Mail Art Archive

[http://www.kenbmiller.com/satpostman/index.php](http://www.kenbmiller.com/satpostman/index.php)

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two2two
How valued is micro art today?

Stamps are such that one must have one to mail something, so why not pick one
with a pleasing aesthetic?

I'm working on a side project centered around graphic art containing varying
subject matter aimed to be used in a similarly nuanced way as mail art.

I believe this idea is even more applicable in the digital world as graphics
are more readily available than artistic stamps.

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noufalibrahim
The Washington Calligraphers Guild regularly conducts an event whereby
calligraphers from around the world mail in a decorated envelope. A panel
selects the best and they post it on their site over here
[https://www.calligraphersguild.org/envelope.html](https://www.calligraphersguild.org/envelope.html)

If you're into this, it's fascinating to check out the earlier editions of the
contest and the winners. One of my long term hopes is to actually send in
something which they atleast consider.

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ajankelo
Excellent doc on Ray Johnson- “How To Draw A Bunny”

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Dude2023
Reminded me about keyset art:
[https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=94482.0](https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=94482.0)

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throwawaynplus1
Back in my day user generated content was sent by mail. You would have to mail
in your upvotes and comment sections were published in news papers. The whole
process was very slow and cost money. Glad the internet was invented.

