Sunday, November 16, 2008

Address Service Requested

My campaign is aimed at re-establishing the intimate connections people once had with one another through writing. Email, texting, phone calls, instant messengers and other gadgets are far too acceptable these days as a form of communication and drain all emotion and sincerity from people's thoughts. Taking the time to write a letter shows dedication, compassion, love, craft, and wit (there is no spell check with ink).

The following are a few reasons why writing > email and other such techno-communication.
You can't re-read a phone call.
You only have check your mailbox once a day.
Your grandma probably does not have email and can't see the buttons on her phone to text.
When you get money in an envelope it always feels like more than if it was "wired to your account".
Real mail usually calls you Mr.
Writing a letter is a good way to keep from working yet when you finish you feel like you've done something.
There are no hyperlinks in snail mail.
Postal glue tastes great.

I am creating a set of posters to promote tangible, tactile, communication. Here are the ideas so far. The copy is still being tweaked and I am adding some more vintage postal elements to them to relate them to my other piece which is a letter writing kit. (pictures soon to follow). The kit consists of elegant hand-made paper (not by me), a nice pen, and a set of vintage airmail-styled envelopes (hand made by me). The posters are being made using an acrylic transfer technique where I mirror the images, print them on the shittiest paper possible, paste them face-down onto nice printmaking paper, soak the whole poster and rub away the cheap paper to leave the image transplanted onto the nicer stuff. The technique adds a texture to the image that plain ink on paper can not achieve.

If anyone has any ideas for the fine-print copy on any of these feel free to comment or whatnot.

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