For someone who has always been interested in technological progress I was a bit dismayed when I realized that I have been participating in a gentle movement that is holding on to something which is fast becoming the modern equivalent of buggy whip manufacture!
I speak of what is now quaintly called "Snail Mail".
Rumours of the demise of the penny post abound, notwithstanding the boom the postal services are experiencing from delivering packages from online sales.
Like lone voices in an increasingly digitized world many artists have hung on to the notion of making art and mailing it to other artists. Thus it is with etegami, the discipline I have grown to love and I hope have helped to expand in some non traditional ways.
This brings me to the quote from Marshall McLuhan who also predicted the advances in technology would turn the world into a "Global Village". He said that the medium would be the message and that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. Sometimes we don't see the forest for the trees.
I'm not sure that I follow all of his arguments but it is a good bet that even if the medium (mail) changes we will adapt. Already a large part of the fun of making etegami is sharing it with everyone on Facebook so we are adapting.
I'm glad that's settled, I was worried that I would become a reactionary in my 'older' age!
I speak of what is now quaintly called "Snail Mail".
Rumours of the demise of the penny post abound, notwithstanding the boom the postal services are experiencing from delivering packages from online sales.
Like lone voices in an increasingly digitized world many artists have hung on to the notion of making art and mailing it to other artists. Thus it is with etegami, the discipline I have grown to love and I hope have helped to expand in some non traditional ways.
This brings me to the quote from Marshall McLuhan who also predicted the advances in technology would turn the world into a "Global Village". He said that the medium would be the message and that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. Sometimes we don't see the forest for the trees.
I'm not sure that I follow all of his arguments but it is a good bet that even if the medium (mail) changes we will adapt. Already a large part of the fun of making etegami is sharing it with everyone on Facebook so we are adapting.
I'm glad that's settled, I was worried that I would become a reactionary in my 'older' age!
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