Copyright by Madelyn Kim Starbuck 2003 The Dissertation Committee for Madelyn Kim Starbuck Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Clashing and Converging: Effects of the Internet on the Correspondence Art Network Committee: John Slatin, Supervisor DeLayne Hudspeth Allucquére Rosanne Stone Oscar Mink George Culp Clashing and Converging: Effects of the Internet on the Correspondence Art Network by Madelyn Kim Starbuck, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2003 Dedication To the memory of Ray Johnson and in celebration of the Correspondence Art Network past, present, and future. Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge the many correspondence artists who generously contributed their interviews, their art works, and their review of parts of this study. Warm thanks to Anna Madrona and Knut Graf for critical path direction and to honoria, my artist identity. v Clashing and Converging: Effects of the Internet on the Correspondence Art Network Publication No._____________ Madelyn Kim Starbuck, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2003 Supervisor: John M. Slatin This study examines the effects of the Internet on an international community of artists who have exchanged art through postal systems for 40 years. The methods of grounded theory are employed to collect and analyze three types of data. The sources of data are: literature collected from Internet communities where the artists converse and publish artworks, interviews with artists who have experience in both electronic and traditional network environments, and artworks made by artists to express their visual and poetic responses to the Internet. The collected data reveal three clusters of artists' concerns: social, artistic, and related to art history. With global electronic networks contributing toward technological change and aesthetic shifts in their art, artists express concerns about shifting structures in their social networks, as well as threats to their traditions and to the vi relics of their own history. Artists identify complex interrelationships and strategies that emerged during the 40-year history of the Correspondence Art Network that are in jeopardy of being replaced by new technologies and new forms of networking. The conclusions suggest future research in the fields of aesthetics, women artists, the archives of the correspondence art movement, and emerging networked art. Continued research into creative networked systems may help to protect the correspondence art archives, increase our understanding of a long-lived art movement, and highlight strategies for successful implementation of distributed communities across disciplines. vii Table of Contents List of Tables..........................................................................................................xv List of Illustrations ................................................................................................xvi Chapter 1: Introduction to mail art networking...................................................... 1 Pushed Envelope ............................................................................................ 1 Tensions and fragments.................................................................................. 4 Clive Phillpot: simple definition.................................................................... 6 Dick Higgins: mail art as intermedia.............................................................. 6 Ken Miller: multi-definitions ......................................................................... 7 Craig Saper: intimate bureaucracies............................................................... 8 William S. Wilson: Systems and gifts of mail art.......................................... 9 Gianni Broi: gifts of mail art........................................................................ 10 Ryosuke Cohen: mail art as a brain made of nerve cells ............................. 10 honoria’s definition: mail art as a dramatic event........................................ 11 arto posto: box-of-mail-art as teacher .......................................................... 11 Sounds like "male"....................................................................................... 12 Purpose......................................................................................................... 14 Significance.................................................................................................. 14 Limits of this study....................................................................................... 15 Importance.................................................................................................... 15 Dissertation layout........................................................................................ 16 Chapter 2: Methods of collage of data using grounded theory............................. 17 Futurism and collage (1909-1915)............................................................... 17 Dada and collage (1915-1923) ..................................................................... 17 Ray Johnson and moticos (1927-1995)........................................................ 17 honoria’s research and collage (1999 – 2001) ............................................. 18 Grounded theory and collage ....................................................................... 20 viii Chapter 3: Correspondence art message boards online......................................... 27 Message board options for mail artists......................................................... 29 Message board mourning ............................................................................. 33 Message board as art supply......................................................................... 34 Message boards as literature review............................................................. 34 Chapter 4: Ruud Janssen and the TAM Web Site................................................. 35 Introduction to Ruud Janssen....................................................................... 36 The combination of mail art and computers: the TAM Web site................. 37 Janssen's thoughts on mail art...................................................................... 44 Interview Project.......................................................................................... 47 Interview project: the search for the whole story......................................... 50 Recurring themes in the 1995-1998 TAM interviews.................................. 51 Mail art culture: Networking as the overarching theme of mail art............. 52 Costs of postage compared to computers..................................................... 54 Speed of communication.............................................................................. 55 Physicality of the art works.......................................................................... 56 Danger .......................................................................................................... 58 Expanding electronic contacts...................................................................... 59 Networking cultures and their branches....................................................... 60 Internet as context ........................................................................................ 61 Impermanence .............................................................................................. 62 Correspondence art, the Internet, and artists with physical disabilities ....... 63 Criticism of Janssen's project ....................................................................... 65 Implications .................................................................................................. 67 Chapter 5: Contemporary correspondence artists and the Internet....................... 69 Interviews with Artists................................................................................. 69 Early Adopters.............................................................................................. 70 Artist Essays ................................................................................................. 77 ix Trends in the interview data....................................................................... 118 Summary.................................................................................................... 128 Chapter 6 Non-traditional data --the art works tell their story............................ 129 Auntie Frieze, USA.................................................................................... 131 Luis Athouguia, Portugal........................................................................... 134 John M. Bennett, USA ............................................................................... 136 Keiichi Nakamura, Japan........................................................................... 138 Kamen Nedev, Spain.................................................................................. 140 Elke Grundmann, Germany........................................................................ 142 Yolanda Perez Herreras, Spain................................................................... 145 Shmuel, USA.............................................................................................