Mail Art

I've recently discovered the fun of exchanging art through the mail. If this is something you would like to get involved in, join me at International Union of Mail Artists and let's start trading.

The photo above is some postcards I made over the weekend. Just some goofy collage cards made from old ephemera; 1920's Newspapers, 1950's How-To book, 1960's Comic Book, and some 1990's Patriot Militia Newsletters. Quite the odd mix!

I'm working on a post featuring some of the artists who have sent me work. Stay tuned for some unique art features! 

Warsaw Photo Days 2013

Here is a free to enter call for work from the first ever Warsaw Photo Days festival to be held in October 2013 in Warsaw, Poland
Submissions are now being accepted for Warsaw Photo Days 2013 Open Programme based under the theme ‘CLASH’.
Open Programme welcomes entries from visual artists both nationally and internationally, supporting all disciplines of photographic (and photography-based) practice.
Our Jury will select 3-5 projects which will be exhibited during the festival.Our theme - ‘CLASH’ - may be understood and interpreted in a number of ways e.g.: mixed media practices, opposites, meetings, collisions, borders, body / spirituality, male / female, pixel / grain, full / void, culture / nature, passive / active, tradition / modernity, life / death, open / closed, light / dark, synthesis, pop culture / kitsch / high culture, global / local, documentary / fiction and others.
We are looking for both photographic and mixed media projects using photography and/ or video.
Submissions sent by email to open@warsawphotodays.com have to include the following: 
pdf containing a set of photographs from the project (resolution 72 dpi), file size up to 5Mb;
description in pdf - max. 1800 characters, that obligatory includes:
project statement;
information whether or not the project has already been presented (if so, where);
proposed formats and technical description;
brief artist’s bio;
for video work - a link to a web page;
contact information (email, phone, Skype, mailing address).


Our Jury will decline your submission if it does not follow all the guidelines.All applications must be received by September 5, 2013 (23:59 CET).
One artist can submit one project for consideration.
There is no entry fee.
IMPORTANT DATES: 
Application deadline: 5 September 2013 (23:59 CET)
Results: 15 September 2013 - announced on www.warsawphotodays.com
Exhibitions: 4-31 October 2013 Detailed rules of participation can be found in the Terms and conditions of the competition.
Warsaw Photo Days Facebook Group

Free up some art

Designed to be the opposite of copyright, a kopimi notice specifically encourages that the work be copied - for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. Kopimi is similar to the CC0 license created by Creative Commons, although Kopimi adds a positive imperative for others to copy.

Kopimi

"copyright is a barrier to free flow of artistic creation.

remove it.

promote the free exchange of art.

dissolve proprietary art."

Copyleft

Boom

Independence Day, 2008

Here's a great 4th of July exhibit put together by Crista Dix of Wall Space Gallery... Lot's of familiar names. It is fun to see each person's take on this special day.

wall space gallery | the flat file

Bursting With Winners

History of the Pennsylvania Lottery

Thou Shalt...

Rhawn Street, Philadelphia (2013)

Absence of....

"This one will be done the way I want to do it: just me and Mother Nature,"    Nik Wallenda

Photos from ABC13/AP

Tribes Have Mixed Feelings About Tightrope Walker Coming to the Grand Canyon

"Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, said his biggest concern is a cultural one. The Hopi Tribe has identified the Little Colorado River Gorge as a significant clan migration route.

“The Gorge and the Canyon are not about taking lives,” he said. “They’re about life, especially the spiritual lives of our ancestral people.”

Kuwanwisiwma said when a base jumper died in the area last year due to a parachute failure, it presented a cultural burden to the Hopi people—and, he suspects, to the Navajos living nearby."

How Nik Wallenda’s Tightrope Walk Benefits Navajo Nation, Angers Hopi

Let’s set the record straight: Nik Wallenda may have completed a death-defying tightrope walk Sunday night, but it wasn’t at the Grand Canyon, as the buzz may have led you to believe. Wallenda was actually on tribal land -- the Navajo Nation, to be exact -- and the Native American group has a lot invested in his big Discovery Channel-sponsored stunt.

National Park Service officials made it abundantly clear over the past week that such a spectacle would never have been approved at the actual Grand Canyon. Representatives claimed events “must not unreasonably impair the park’s atmosphere of peace and tranquility,” noting that stunts “don’t meet that [criteria].”

Weiwei on Surveillance

Ai  Weiwei  "Surveillance Camera" (2010)

The artist Ai Weiwei knows a thing or two about government surveillance and privacy intrusions, and has recently written an article for The Guardian, "NSA Surveillance: The US is behaving like China".

"I lived in the United States for 12 years. This abuse of state power goes totally against my understanding of what it means to be a civilised society, and it will be shocking for me if American citizens allow this to continue. The US has a great tradition of individualism and privacy and has long been a centre for free thinking and creativity as a result.

In our experience in China, basically there is no privacy at all – that is why China is far behind the world in important respects: even though it has become so rich, it trails behind in terms of passion, imagination and creativity.

The internet and social media give us new possibilities of exploring ourselves.

But we have never exposed ourselves in this way before, and it makes us vulnerable if anyone chooses to use it against us. Any information or communication could put young people under the surveillance of the state. Very often, when oppressive states arrest people, they have that information in their hands. It can be used as a way of controlling you, to tell you: we know exactly what you're thinking or doing. It can drive people to madness".

Read the whole article here