> contents / Guido Vermeulen on Documentations /

"Signs and Stones and Trees" was a Mail-Art project I proposed to the network in 1998. I have been too busy in 1999-2000 (with the "Snake" and the "Children's Mirror" project) to put together a kind of documentation. Also, my ideas about docs are changed profoundly. 

It was K. Frank Jensen who challenged the net with his 'blacklisting' of missing documentations of projects. I could understand why Frank was doing this though I did not participate in his efforts and did not care much either. Why?

Well, most docs are limited to lists of names and addresses anyway. This is perhaps an important tool in the beginning of your Mail-Art activities but after a while you don't care much about receiving 'just another list of names', do you?

To state that people who send these lists are 'good' Mail-artists who fulfilled their commitments and the others are the 'bad' ones, is a very FORMAL approach of Mail-Art & networking. There is a huge difference between the name listings and assemblings like the "Blackbird" project, the docs made by Marilyn Dammann or Jensen, the zines by Alain Valet, the "Renegade" doc, the editions Anna Boschi makes possible, the "El Mail Tao" and box editions, the CD-Roms of our friend Guy Bleus, the kind of work promoted by Anne Nomrowski and Dietmar Vollmer, and so on and on ...

Today I see the documentation as and INDEPENDENT work of art.
For myself I have always refused the mere formal approach. It means I will only produce a documentation when I am ready and found enough energy & resources (also money) to produce something I can be proud of, that matches my standards of quality & engagement.
That means that for me it is alright if there is a time lapse between the actual project, the exhibition and any kind of documentation based on the project.

To avoid misunderstandings I also would like to say that I do not demand or expect that others follow my standards. Everyone has the right to follow a proper path. The process is always more important than the result. We all have very different experiences and different levels of energy to cope with. Give people space to breath their own air.

Copyright © by Guido Vermeulen - guido.vermeulen@easynet.be