[Lab-Systems] Response to Reading – The Mail Art History
Unlike traditional art forms, such as paintings and sculptures, that the media carry the art, mail art and correspondence art celebrated the media as unique qualities, as parts of the artworks. It was critical that Fluxus questioned the inherent nature of art. “What art could be?” “Why not?” “How else?” Fluxus experimented mailing various forms of art, including objects that were almost impossible to mail without damage, in order to challenge the limit of the media. More importantly, the interaction between mailing artworks had profound influences to new media art and interaction design nowadays. Correspondence art or mail art could be considered as an analog predecessor for digital interaction at the present time.
Mail art expands the functions of mails outside of mere communication. It became the art that spread art. After the early time of a closed community of artists, Fluxus unfolded intermedia art to the public, constructing a system of communication among artists and practitioners in the experimental field. The expanding community of Fluxus embraced the sparkling outcome when different art forms collaborated and intersected with other disciplines. The idea of hybrid art permeated in every aspect of Fluxus artworks. For instance, Yoko Ono’s art book Grapefruit had its title because Ono considered a grapefruit as the hybrid of a lemon and an orange, reflecting on the essence of her works across multiple art forms. To some extent, Fluxus was like a 1960s version of DT.
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