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The past years internet has slowly entered the Mail-Art Network, even some mail-artists speak about a separate e-mail-art network. Can we point some critical notes about this e-mail-art network?

The basic idea that Internet is a dream of the world-without-boundaries, with no geographic or time distances (cfr. A. Tisma), is exaggerated. It is true that the rate of people who are connected to the Internet is growing every day, but this happens mostly in the industrial western world. In these countries big companies lead the infrastructure for the Internet-network, and this is costing them each day lots of dollars. While at the same time in the rest of the world no investments take place to supply several millions of people with this technology, infect a majority of the world has even no possibility to apply electricity.
Within the western world itself there is a large amount of people that does not have the possibility to use the Internet, or can't use it. Fear for an uncontrolled growing of technology or never have had the chance to grow up with computer-technology are some of the reasons. Worse is that even some people have big difficulties to provide themselves with the basic needs of a good life, in America for example people die from diseases that can be cured with 5 dollar, internet will never reach them.
The computer world is moving fast, philosophically time goes 4 times quicker in the computer world then in human life. The technical improvement and progress in program languages forces people to update their knowledge every day, this is unnatural for every living human being. Once each computer specialist will realize that it is impossible to update his knowledge every day, because next day his knowledge is already old. According to the laws of nature this is "energy=0". There have been many specialists in the early computer systems who realized that they were not able to use new software when they bought a new computer or when their company changed the system in the latest standard.
Even when computer companies wants to believe us that current technology is plug-and-play, we realize that it is nothing else but sales-talk, because always you need the help of friends to solve system problems. By the way how many of the internet users understand what it means "MIME-type: audio/x-aiff"? Excuse me if we say that internet technology is one of the most user unfriendly technologies of the world.
How can e-mail-art be the dream of a world without boundaries when it needs so many energy, time and money to be part of it? When internet will be slowly applied in more of our daily actions and services, it will cause a bigger indifference between several cultures and populations on this world and small communities. Major populations will get excluded while a world without boundaries is the idea to grow nearer to them.

Let us have a look at the idea of e-mail-art, namely e-mail as a way of sending ideas and art. Such as in the Mail-Art Network ideas and art will be spread using the postal system, by means of letters, zines, books, tapes, photocopy-art, rubberstamping, ... E-mail-art is very unpersonal, so it is not useful for any good intimate communication, besides the positive aspect of speed! Communication is one of the most important components in the Mail-Art Network that makes Mail-Art so interesting for hundreds of its contributors. It is the expression of a persons individuality towards an other person. And how this expression looks, is different for every person and makes communication unique. Each person has his specific voice, body language, handwriting, the placement of words on the paper, ... Each specific expression that makes a person an important part of individuality within communication. While e-mail technology does not give us the possibility to express our ideas and art on our own specific individual creative way, without adapting ourselves to the technology. E-mail only gives us the possibility to send plain text that does not highlight the individuality of the sender.
Besides this you can attach artwork images. I must say a very useful form of distributing information. It is only a pitty that these images will never reach the beauty that a dimensional version has, an attachment has lost his dimension of space. The speed of e-mail is a positive evolution: you can react on each others ideas in a few moments and spread it towards several other receivers. But speed can be confusing for human mind, our brain needs time to arrange and over think messages, e-mail communication can soon become to complex. This complexity causes problems in keeping up an overview in what a person receives and sends. Ideas can be spread around so quickly and adept so easily that there is no certainty about the source of all this information.

Internet can cause information sickness and can alienate people from the real world, as there is also a world without internet, such as a local neighborhood. Access to worldwide information makes it a material possession, the access to information on the internet is only stressed by amount and time and not by quality.

E-mail-art is to complex, to quick and to much evolving in time and technology that it is unsuitable to be a good instrument for the democratization of art. Art needs slow and steady networks so that ideas can enter and grow slowly into the minds of artists. The postal system is accessible for every citizen on this globe and it needs no other technology as pen and paper, and the knowledge of writing. With the possibility of expressing his individuality in every way. But nothing the less e-mail is also a positive technology to spread around information quickly, only we have got to give all those who have no access to e-mail the possibility to apply this information.

Copyright by Sztuka Fabryka