2010. Lomholt Mail Art Archive, Fotowerke and Video Work

Neils Lomholt is a photographer, video artist, & Mail Artist (amongst other things, of course). He was most active in Mail Art from 1971-1985. Considering how prolific many of the Mail Artists were & how often some of us changed our names, keeping received-mail organized & documented can be quite a huge feat.

I started being active in Mail Art in the fall of 1978. In 1984, I went to London to participate in the 8th International Neoist Apartment Festival. (for the movie, go here: https://youtu.be/fgQzQZNpgTY, for a relevant webpage go here.) Even though I was only gone for 1 month by the time I returned to my HQ in BalTimOre my mail had backed-up to a point that I probably never recovered from. I had been sending out as much as 20 mailings a day & getting back as many as 12.

Mail was cheap in those days. The us@, CacaNada, & Mexico all cost the same to mail to from the us@. A post-card might've cost 10¢ to mail. Now, an international post-card costs over $1.08 (I've lost track) & Canada & Mexico are international.

I've corresponded with over 1,400 people. David Zack once told me that 35 was about all he could manage. Given that people often changed their handles & their addresses & given that I wanted to have quality exchanges rather than to just send off endless variations on the same stupid collage (or whatever), I started a filing system to enable me to keep track of everyone. For each person, I created a 4X6" file card listing everything I sent them & everything they sent me. For people that I exchanged with heavily, as many as 5 file cards have been reached.

This turned into a huge bureaucracy for myself. By the early to mid '90s I started getting too much mail of no interest for the effort that I went through to document it for doing so to be worth it anymore. Some of the more interesting Mail Artists, like "Blaster" Al Ackerman, had cut dramatically back on what they sent out. In general I was too poor to afford to send out the quantity I had before & I was getting very little in of interest. I'll still correspond with people but not with anywhere near the passion I did 30 years ago.

The above are scans of the front & back of my file card for Lomholt.

With this book, Lomholt has accomplished what many of us would like to but may never because the task is just too big (Lomholt had help). I, for example, have at least 15 boxes of mail that're slightly organized but digitizing & further organizing over 10,000 pieces is something too tedious to get into. Lomholt's book is entirely in color & the images of the mail are small but still readable (a magnifying glass would help). Much of it is also online here: http://www.lomholtmailartarchive.dk . The section specifically about what I sent is here: http://www.lomholtmailartarchive.dk/search?utf8=?&q=tENTATIVELY . It's incomplete but I only know that by consulting my own records.

Lomholt dedicates special space to his main correspondents. That includes Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor), the founder of Neoism. The bottom image of the above is of participants in Neoist Apt fests. My picture is this one:

The 2 pictures above top left are of the mansion I lived in in 1981 where I organized the 3rd International Neoist Apartment Festival in BalTimOre. I'm shown in the above top right picture which isn't of APT 5 participants but is of participants from a previous APT Fest.

Getting into the more general Mail Art section, I thought I probably would've sent The Tinklers's "History of the World" chart:

for various reasons - one being that The Tinklers performed that piece in my courtyard during the 7th International Neoist Apartment Festival that I organized in South Baltimore 2 years after APT 3. I DID send Lomholt the Apt 7 booklet but the file card doesn't list the "History of the World". Nonetheless, it's still possible that I sent him this because I might not've started my file card system until after this.

I DID send him the "ROCK AGAINST MEN" flier as part of the 2nd issue of my magazine "DDC#040.002". That's credited below to "Ewey" which I imagine is an unintentional distortion of "Dewey" Since "DDC" stands for "Dewey Decimal Catalog".

It's misunderstandings such as this that lead to the eextreme difficulty of such cataloging.

I didn't send this one but I do have something in it (not shown here).

The difficulties continue: I sent Lomholt 2 of my "Mike Film Form Letters" (abbreviated "MFFL3" & "MFFL5" on my file card). One of them then becomes attributed to "Mike":

Even in a book as massive as this one, printed as expensively as it is, it's hard to present things in a way that makes them easy to look at closely. There's just too much. Here's something from me enlarged enough to make it more comprehensible:

Of course, "Tentative a convenience" is close, but no cigar. In this instance, it should've been: "tentatively, a convenience". Note that I ask Lomholt to destroy my "TESTING" super-8mm film that was the 1st thing I sent him. I wonder if he did?

Here's another publication that I had something in: "End Paper" - produced shortly after the "Public Works" Festival in Toronto in 1981 that was the 1st half of a Neoist double festival that was followed by APT 4 in Montréal.

Finally, the reader reaches the video section & mention of the Falling Annual Livingroom Festspeil, which I participated in, information about the catalog can be seen here.

review of

Neils Peter Lomholt & Lene Aagaard Denhart's

"Lomholt Mail Art Archive, Fotowerke and Video Work"

by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 3-14, 2018

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/629146-lomholt?chapter=1&page=1

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2424073890

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40529729-lomholt-mail-art-archive-fotowerke-and-video-work

I have soooooooooooooo maaaaaaaaaannnnnnnyyyyyyy friends who've written bks & so feeeeeeewwwwwwwww friends who seem to read. This is a lavish, 640pp, full color, hard-cover bk. Will anyone actually read it?! I did. Cover to cover. I even used a magnifying glass to read smaller print in illustrations that wasn't necessarily intended to be read or it might not've been so small. It took awhile. Mnths.

Mail Art is still a strange phenomenon to document. For the people who participated heavily in it in its hey-day, let's say the 1970s & 1980s, it cd be pretty 'all-consuming'. No bk cd ever adequately communicate how intense it was to correspond w/ soooooooooooooo maaaaaaaaaannnnnnnyyyyyyy friends around the world, to spend so much time making things to give away, to spend so much time receiving & contemplating all the input.

I was heavily engaged w/ Mail Art from the fall of 1978 'til the early 1990s. After that I'd moved too much & had too little money. I had a Post Office Box from about 1980 'til about 2001. The PO Box was in BalTimOre. I moved away from there in 1994 but I tried to keep the box. One friend that checked my mail for me immediately caused it to be flooded w/ junk mail from New Agey occult things he connected w/. The last friend to help check the box didn't really do so so when my infrequent rental bill came to it she missed it & I lost the box. People. Friends.

I had over 1,400 correspondents. Even for a Mail Artist I suspect that was an unusually large amt. In order to keep track of the frequently changing handles & addresses I started keeping 4X6" cards for everybody on wch I noted what I sent them & what I rc'vd from them. This enabled me to carry on quality correspondence rather than just send out the same junk to everybody not caring who they were or what they'd sent me. It also created a bureaucracy that got to be oppressively tedious. That contributed to my losing interest. That & the gradually declining quality of what I rc'vd.

Neils Lomholt was one of my correspondents. According to my records, I sent him 22 mailings & rc'vd 8 from him - the last being this bk. He wasn't one of my major correspondents by any means but he was still important to me - partially b/c he'd been a participant in the 1st Neoist Apartment Festival in Montréal in 1980 & partially b/c he's good friends w/ the-person-now-known-as "Monty Cantsin AMEN" (Istvan Kantor) who's also a good friend of mine (sortof).

There was a time when I sent out as much as 20 mailings a day & rc'vd as much as 12 a day. The central Post Office where my box was was open 24 / 7 so I cd check my mail anytime - wch I did frequently, usually rewarded w/ something interesting. Reading this bk & seeing so many images of Mail Art from people that I also exchanged w/ is a very personal experience. It's hard for me to imagine what it wd be like for someone who wasn't directly involved. I don't mean to say that the images aren't interesting in & of themselves - it's more that the personal element was what ultimately made it so stimulating & worthwhile for many or most of us.

The front cover of this, e.g., has a collage that includes an envelope from David Zack. See this review of mine of a bk memorializing him: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9399305-amazing-letters-the-life-and-art-of-david-zack . Zack lived at my house in BalTimOre in the summer of 1981 for a mnth during the 3rd International Neoist Apartment Festival (wch I co-organized). See the movie(s) from that starting here: https://youtu.be/_FfY1dw6RDI . Zack is credited as being one of the 1st people to write about Mail Art for an arts magazine in the 1970s. He features heavily in this bk. He once told me that he cdn't handle more than something like 35 correspondents at a time. Surely he must've exchanged w/ many more than that. It seems like most Mail Artists knew him.

Zack, alas, spent the last years of his life in a Mexican prison, released only when he was close to death from diabetes: "And the postal mind: a letter stamped 1983 from a prison in Mexico arrived in 1994, addressed to "Lomholt, Denmark." The postal journey: magic." (p 6) Zack had probably just moved to Mexico in 1983 but didn't go to prison there until around 1988 so the above reference may not be to him. It probably is though, the date's probably a misreading of "1988".

This bk is lavish. It must've cost a fortune to print. I'm very fortunate to have a copy. It makes me wonder whether the Danish government supported it b/c they want the world to know that Danes aren't hicks. It was "Published with support from STATENS KUNTSRAD Danish Arts Council". It's hard for me to imagine the US supporting such a thing. For one thing, there's sexually explicit material in it. One thing that I loved about Mail Artists was how uncensored the work usually was. If some US grants-giving body ever supports a lavish Mail Art bk it'll probably be by someone that I detest.

"There was a School of Correspondence in New York in the late '50s and early '60s, and other movements were related to Mail Art, but Mail Art, which developed and blossomed in the '70s, had its own distinct characteristics. Over a period of 15 to 20 years, Mail Art developed a large network of artist"[s] "from all over the world. Within this network circulated a large number of unique and interesting artworks and projects.

"This book's aim is to show some of these artworks and projects." - p 5

The bk's correspondence covers the period of 1971-1985: "The correspondents were a group of mixed background. Ackerman and Zack were both writers with a visual edge, Cavellini was a businessman, Kantor and Larter were social performers, Crozier, Below, Horobin, and Mertens were visual artists." (p 7) I corresponded w/ all but Mertens & spent quality-time in-person w/ Ackerman, Zack, Kantor, & Horobin - all 4 of whom were/are active in the Neoist Network.

Of course, "Lomholt Mail Art Archive, Fotowerke and Video Work" is also about Lomholt's work independent of Mail Art, a subject that I knew little about prior to reading it. One of the things that I took a liking to is his drawing in water:

"In Waterdrawing #1 from 8 November 1970 both preparations for and the actual performance of a drawing in water can be experienced in meticulous perspective drawings, minute mathematical calculations, text and photograph. Together, this scientifically presented material describes that the drawing was made in a stream, accounting for the amount of water and the surrounding vegetation. It reports that sticks were placed in the water to frame the area where the drawing was made and notes the wind and weather conditions. This work, too, includes timetables recording the start time, when the sticks were placed in the water, times for the execution of the drawing, photography and clean-up, plus the end time." - p 12

& on pp 28-30 artifacts from this process are presented: a poster, a "Gelatine silver print on hardboard", Water Drawing #1a, Water Drawing #1b, & 4 photographs each documenting the making of the latter 2. It's all very meticulous & appealing to me as an action that works w/ fluidity w/o damming it.

Charlotte Praestergard Schwartz, whose essay follows Lomholt's introduction, compares one of Lomholt's works to one by Adrian Piper, one of my favorite artists (see my review of Adrian Piper's "Out of Order, Out of Sight" here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/304821-out-of-order-out-of-sight-review ):

"In The Ear #1, he is in Copenhagen's Town Hall Square, moving up the stairs from the public lavatory, waiting for a bus and standing in front of an advertising kiosk. The Ear #2 shows him in the countryside, tilling a garden, standing by a bicycle, parking a car and brushing his teeth - all the while wearing the gigantic ears. It looks like the artist is just clowning around, and indeed he is. Yet there is more to it than that: he is also trying to push the artwork - or rather, the idea of an artwork - beyond how an artwork can be conceived, materialized and received.

"In connection withThe Ear #1, public and The Ear #2, private I would like to draw a parallel to an early work by Adrian Piper, the photo series The Catalysis I shows Piper walking down a crowded street and through various shops, wearing a big sign on her chest with the words "wet paint."" - p 14

"In Ear #1 and Ear #2 Lomholt comments on the concept of the self-important or ostensibly sensitive artist, in that there seems to be a certain embarrassment about the enlarged ears."

[..]

"Lomholt made the Ear #1, public and Ear #2, private 11 years after Waterdrawing and Snow, and the two Ear series seem to comment on his own role and acting in those early works, as well, pointing back ironically to the pretension of his works from the 1970s. Though the acts - turning over snow and drawing in water - are absurd, the performativity of the early works can seem self-absorbed and pretentious in their hermetic and finished structure. The pretension is much leavened by the use of the gigantic papier-maché ears." - p 15

My review note to myself re the above is: "I disagree". I reckon the author of this critique might know Lomholt personally & that her take on things might very well be informed by conversations w/ him, etc. As such, it might be more accurate for me to say that I don't find "turning over snow and drawing in water" "self-absorbed and pretentious", I find them creative ways of interacting w/ natural elements. Some people don't do much w/ their lives while others, like Lomholt, follow their imaginations & do things that other people may or may not be able to relate do.

"We are in a hotel room in Montréal. Lomholt is behind the camera, which is on a tripod, lens pointing down at an open magazine. Two big lights illuminate the magazine, as the Hungarian performance and video artist Istvan Kantor (b. 1949) turns the pages. One photograph shows Lomholt reclining comfortably on a bed, conversing with Kantor." - p 15

This was, presumably, around the same time that Lomholt performed "The Sandwich Lift" on September 17, 1980 as part of Apt 80, the 1st International Neoist Apartment Festival held at Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor)'s apartment. In this, Lomholt gave a lecture of sorts from behind a table on which he has sandwich materials laid out. Behind a curtain was Monty Cantsin (IK) laying on a bed w/ a speech bubble protruding from his mouth that said: "It was very nice to see you and talk about revolution."

"Returning from a longer stay in Canada, from this point on he begins to address more fully the performative aspects of his work. Right from his early pieces, such as Cup, documentation, Snow, and Waterdrawing, Lomholt has merged the conceptual with the performative. While the performative acts in his earlier works takes off from the theatre of the absurd and Structuralism's cultivation of systems, the performativity in his works from 1980 springs from Lomholt's growing political engagement. Throughout the 1980s, his works comment on the social and political reality. By no means sloganeering, they strike a humorous note and the basic mood is absurd with a touch of pessimism." - p 16

An early painting of his, Trap (1966), is shown on p 23. I find it remarkable. A cage of sorts is shown atop a stand in front of a wall. The wall has a painting on it of diagonal stripes inside an "L" shape 'on its back' w/ a gaseous stripe connecting its top to the opening on a cone. Perhaps I'm most reminded of a DeChirico. The vertical of the cage's stand has a shadow that implies a continuation on the wall that doesn't occur.

On p 35 there's a yellowed newspaper clipping of a 1970 installation of his that appears to be a floor of an indoor room covered with growing grass. I'm reminded of Walter de Maria's better-known New York Earth Room: "The first 'Earth Room' was the Munich Earth Room, installed in 1968 by Heiner Friedrich at Galerie Heiner Friedrich in Munich. The work was first installed in New York in 1977 as a 3-month exhibition, at what was then the Heiner Friedrich Gallery. It remained on display long afterward, and when Friedrich helped to establish the Dia Art Foundation in 1980, he supported its permanent sponsorship of the New York Earth Room." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Earth_Room )

As w/ the Mail Art, even these works bring up names that're familiar to me thru personal history. It's interesting for me to see the interconnectedness. On p 67, there's a 1981 photoseries called "Doc's Last Call", the photos were taken by Steen Møller Rasmussen who later included a transformed slide from me in his "The Second Transform Book" (1983). It's a small world when the people involved are all active in seeking out intelligent life.

In an introduction to the "Correspondence A-Z 1971-1985" section that starts on p 93, Peter Laugesen states: "Mail Art does not exist anymore, because mail does not exist. Real mail is no longer." That's rather an exaggerated statement. There are Mail Artists still active using 'Snail Mail' - it's just so expensive now that sending anything much bigger than a post-card is too much for many of us. 35 yrs ago a post-card from the US@ to CacaNada might've cost 10ð, now it might cost $1.08 (or more). That's quite a difference. Mail Art has partially shifted to online where people have blogs where they show scans of mail rc'vd & post notices for Mail Art shows.

Then there are sites like "IUOMA", the International Union of Mail Artists where people can still meet & share addresses, etc, as a way of making connections for Snail Mail exchanges. I have a profile there but I admit to rarely being active on it: http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profile/tENTATIVELYacONVENIENCE . Other people are more active. One can even see Lomholt's Mail Art Archive here: http://www.lomholtmailartarchive.dk - but that, of course, isn't the same as participating in actual mailings.

His intro goes on to explain that when he "was young, mail was still delivered three times a day in larger towns and cities. Letters were constantly popping in. It rained postcards. On Sundays, too. Sunday letters were more expesnive to mail. The front of the envelopes was crossed out as a sign of festivity."

Of course that seems wonderful. He's writing about Demark, I suppose, I don't recall that ever being the case in the US@. I can say that in the 1st yr I lived in Pittsburgh, 1996, the Post Office actually delivered a package to me from an ex-girlfriend on X-Mas. That was impressive & greatly improved an otherwise dreary day. Still, let's not forget the situation we're in now: we can get letters & images & sound files & movie files at any time of the day or night via the internet & while there are expenses associated w/ this it's still possible to send & receive on days when one is flat. Broke. That's a vast improvement - regardless of the nostalgia for receiving more physical objects.

"Mail Art is art, but not high-strung art. In fact, high-strung art is the enemy. Mail Art is not Dada. This perhaps, the low aesthetic intensity, is why Mail Art has left so few traces. It didn't lead to anything. It sought its own disappearance. It's like looking at old photographs in someone else's family album. Like so many things in those years, Mail Art was an experimental democratization of that which can't be democratized. A depolarization of aesthetic intensity and a neutralization of political differences. The role models - Dada, Fluxus, the Situationists - were far more radical in their demands for political and poetic qualities, sometimes seemed rendered absurd by developments in society." - p 94

Oh, Lardy. I find blanket statements by people-who-pretend-to-know to be ssssssssooooooooooo annoying. Are there really "so few traces"? What about the ones that're the ones that I have the most immediate connections to?: the webpage I've already created for one small facet of this bk: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2010Lomholt.html ; my webpage re the dear departed Al Ackerman: "Romancing the Kidney Stone: A Display of Evidence in the Curious Case of "Blaster" Al Ackerman": http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Blaster.html ; my in-progress website re Home Tapers: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/HomeTapers.html ; my in-progress website re Mail Art: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MailArt.html ; my webpage re mailings rc'vd from Vermin Supreme: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/VS.html ?!

& there're bks, many bks, such as "Artpool - The Experimental Art Archive of East-Central Europe" ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2013Artpool.html ) & "Amazing Letters - The Life and Art of David Zack" ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2010Zack.html ) & "Sentieri Interrotti (Vanished Paths) - Crisi della rappresentazione e iconoclastia nelle arti dagli anni Cinquanta alla fine del secolo (Crisis of Representation and Destruction in the Arts from the 1950s to the End of the Century)" ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2000Vanished.html ) & "High Weirdness by Mail" ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1988HighW.html ) & catalogs such as "Mail Art The Scroll Unrolls" ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1985Scroll.html ) & Lomholt's "Falling Annual Livingroom Video Festspiel 83 catalog" ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1983Falling.html ).. Or what about Ginny Lloyd's "Blitzkunst" or Monty Cantsin (IK)'s "Brain in the Mail" or "The Irene Dogmatic Paper Doll Book"?! Or what about things like FILE, VILE, BILE, Lightworks, & SMILE ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/SMILEs.html )? There's ssssssssooooooooo muuuucccccccchhhhhhhhh out there - but it's not using cleavage to sell itself on the supermarket magazine rack so one might have to be a little scholarly to look for it. Still, it's there.

As for "its own disappearance"?: Really? I exchanged w/ over 1,400 people over large parts of the world to seek the work's disappearance?! Nah, I was sowing seeds. Many, MANY seeds. "It's like looking at old photographs in someone else's family album.": If your family has thousands of members that you're friends w/, if your family albums have porn & politics & art & manifestos.. In other words, naaaahhhh, not really. I doubt that there's ever been a family album that looks anything like any collection of Mail Art images - including the collection that Laugesen is writing the intro to.

"Mail Art was an experimental democratization of that which can't be democratized.": Really? Cd you be more specific? Maybe nothing can be democratized - but Mail Art was & is far more democratic in its openness to participation than any museum ever will be - wch is part of its appeal to people who just want to make their work w/o worrying about whether it passes critical muster by people who can only tell the difference between their ass & a hole in the ground b/c they're being pd to shit out of it.

"The role models - Dada, Fluxus, the Situationists - were far more radical in their demands for political and poetic qualities": who says these were "role models"? All 3 of those mvmts didn't have much to do w/ exchanging mail that I know of. How can he accurately generalize about the relatively small number of people connected to those 3 groupings in relation to the thousands of Mail Artists? The sheer quantity of people involved makes a huge difference.

The 1st Mail Artist to be singled out is "Al Blaster Ackerman. 1940. USA". Lomholt has work from Blaster from 1975 to 1983 - w/ the heaviest concentration of it being in 1981 & 1982. I think Blaster's actual dates of birth to death are: November 27, 1939 - March 17, 2013. Blaster gets an entire 20pp. Anyone who ever corresponded w/ him probably remembers what a pleasure it was to get one of his mailings. My website for him has scans of everything I ever got from him that I cd still find: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Blaster.html . He was hilarious in a way that was almost guaranteed to make a person feel less depressed. There was a philosophical approach to life that enabled a fresh absurd perspective on the vicissitudes of daily life that few people can offer w/ such imagination. Some of the mailings that Lomholt shows are ones I got too:

Lomholt reproduces a Blaster drawing of his "imperfect memory" of a cover of a magazine called "Astounding Science Fiction". Coupled w/ that is another Blaster image of Spiderman reading a 1944 issue of the same. ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Blaster003.html ) Blaster's fictional world grew out of his deep love of pulp writing, esp SF, & his Mail Art work was full of references to SF that worked like in-jokes for SF geeks like myself.

The "Lou Costello Fan Club post-card": http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Blaster065.html is an image I won't forget soon. It shows Blaster sitting shirtless in a wooden crate w/ a hand-lettered sign atop its entrance saying: "KEEP OUT LOU COSTELLO FANCLUB". Given the apparent size of the fan club crate & Blaster's bulk filling it it's not very likely that anyone wd be joining him inside.

A January 1979 letter shown on page 97 says:

"O.K. here's my companion piece (to the INTERFEARANCE) for Zack when he arrives have him catch distant glimpses of the mask-in "lurking" situations. Also try to arrange for mask to appear unbeknownst to Dave in any group photos....if possible, one who wears this should be my size: 5'8", 180 lbs....don't use this for the INTERFEARANCE piece that should be leopard towel mask and cape with clothes pins between the fingers to simulate claws. This of course is the ARTHUR TURNER POWER MASK. . I.e., when you don it nothing can harm you. Try it-go into any unsavory situation wearing the mask , and they won't bother you! Naturally, with so much memories and nostalgia attached to this mask,we need to have it returned to us after the piece . Will look forward to reports on how these 2 pieces went with Dave. Around here we all call him Dave Oz. With the purple carpet shoes. With the laughing face (to greet him at a distance pedro infante everywhere he goes ok? More later, best,"

This is 'classic' Blaster prankish humor. See his "Homage to Kantor & Lugosi" performance instruction made for APT 7, the 7th International Neoist Apartment Festival in Baltimore in September, 1983: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Blaster073.html . Blaster used the kind of props that a child might make out of available household materials & elevates them thru fantasy to power objects. Of course, as an experienced adult, he doesn't believe in their power, instead he believes in the power of 'I don't get even I get odd.' Imagining going into "any unsavory situation wearing the" "ARTHUR TURNER POWER MASK" & not being bothered is imagining being so crazy-looking that people are afraid to go near you. Alas, even that doesn't always work, eh?!

Or take Blaster's "Letter to Lon Spiegelman" from "1980/12/25" on page 103. Handwritten at the top of a primarily typewritten page it says: "This will explain", something Blaster often wrote on his mailings, usually to contextualize something designed more to confuse than to explicate. I named my feature about Blaster w/ this expression.

""We are as old wined-up bums, and had better get good at it--" (Ackerman)

""Mail Art is access. That's my definition--Access to people, systems," "ideas, growth, etc.

""It is also, at its best, a grand symposium of nitwits, which, being a reclusive nitwit of long standing myself, is something I can relate to, thrive on and treasure.

""In my foolishness, then, I often like to imagine that our mail scene today is about where science fiction was in the early '40s: this is to say, fairly wide open. I mean back when Heinlein and Sturgeon and the immortal A. E. Van Vogt were just starting out--before the professors and critics got hold of it....

""I don't think we quite realize how much is lost when a field becomes safe + self-conscious to the point of academic (or commercial) respectability; so, where mail is concerned, I am absolutely in no hurry to "acieve credability"," [sic] "or even "think about our network", any of these sleek favorite phrases. And even less anxious to see the critics take over, or the museum people, the rational and practical and balanced ones, the professional vultures and undertakers....on the contrary. Right now, this moment, seems, in many ways, like the "best time"--because this this is when we're all still free to peck around out in the yard and "do" "the" "thing" "itself"."

Blaster is followed by 16pp of German Peter Below. Below was someone I corresponded w/. Here's a sample of one epistolary publication of his that I participated in: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/SM1984.12.OpPop.html . On page 121 of Lomholt's Below section there's a picture showing Jerry Dreva getting tattooed on Valentine's Day 1980. I never corresponded w/ Dreva but I remember reading about him sending his sperm from masturbating out as Mail Art. Maybe I read about it in VILE. You can see some VILE covers here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/SMILEs.html . This was the sort of action that I looked out for, something that went beyond the typical limits of art.

On pages 128-129, there's material related to "The Neoist Network's First Eurpoean Training Camp" hosted in Würzburg in what was then West Germany by Peter Below in 1982. I couldn't afford to go but I participated anyway: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1982Wurzburg.html . There's a color photo of Lomholt, Pete Horobin, Istvan Kantor and "unknown". The "unknown" is Herr Stiletto Studios, more commonly known as "Stiletto". I don't recall Stiletto being much involved w/ Mail Art, wch is probably why he's "unknown" here, but he was involved w/ Neoism. You can witness stiletto's movie of "Monty Cantsin at the 9th international NEOIST Festival" here: https://youtu.be/Gkp0q-OOmfU . You can learn more about a project of his from 9 yrs later that I participated in here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1994X94.html .

Cavellini, another great Mail Artist that many people exchanged w/, myself included, is represented by 6 pages of work from 1976 to 1985. The 1st page of his section shows his "TEN COMMANDMENTS" from 1978 in wch he describes, in a prohibitive sense, what he actually did as his main project that made him so well known:

"I Thou shall not self-historify thyself

II Thou shall not make unto thee Manifestos nor Postage Stamps for they centennial celebrations

III Thou shalt not arrange for living-room exhibitions in the homes of the populace

IV Thou shalt not burn, nor destroy, nor disembowel thy unsuccessful works; nor shalt thy modify, reconsider and re-exhibit them; thou shalt not slice apart the works of famous artists

V Thou shalt not in the course of they life publish the book of thy memoirs and relics

VI Thou shalt not write letters of thanks to the Great Men of all times who have seen fit to dedicate their works to thee

VII Thou shalt not write letters to the famous artists of the past

VIII Thou shalt not compile lists that include thy Movement among those that have contributed to the regeneration of modern art

IX Thou shalt not display standards of thy great retrospective exhitions at the entrances of museums

X Thou shalt not publish the story of thy past, present, and future history: nor shalt thou write it in diverse and sundry places such as thy personal clothing, other human bodies, bolts of cloth, columns, and so forth"

Cavellini lived from 1914 to 1990. He spread stickers far & wide that said "Cavellini 1914-2014" announcing centenerary exhibits of his self-historicization work at museums. At least one such exhibit did happen at the Ludwig Museum in Budapest in 2014 thanks to the organizational abilities of Artpool ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2013Artpool.html ).

On page 133, still in the Cavellini section, there's an authorization of Lomholt by Cavellini "to act as Master of Ceremonies at a centennial celebration that he is to organize in my honor in the year 2014 at an Danish Museum". I don't know if Lomholt actually did that or not.

Robin Crozier's up next, he gets 15pp. I corresponded w/ Crozier too but not much: I sent him 4 things, he sent me one. I mainly think of him as the guy whose signs were scattered about the APT 8 HQ in London in 1984, signs that identified objects such as doorknobs. In Lomholt's bk he's listed as "1936-2001", he lived for a mere 65 yrs. I'm a few mnths away from that myself, I wonder if I'll make it. Crozier wrote in 1975:

"8. Post-consumer art is a permanent dialogue within the consciousness of the social group represented by the creator.

"9. Art only then becomes post-consumer art when it has been defined by art." - p 139

In 1982, Crozier proposed getting prisoners involved in Mail Art:

"FREEDOM IN ART PROJECT

"in newspapers and magazines, common law prisoners frequently appeal for letters from outsiders ( in France, for inst., in "Libération" ). HOW ABOUT DRAWING THEM INTO THE MAIL ART NETWORK? MAKING IT AVAILABLE TO THEM?" - p 149

After Crozier, there's 8pp of "PETE HOROBIN. 1949. SCOTLAND". Pete & I have had a long productive collaboration. We 1st met in London for APT 8, the 8th International Neoist Apartment Festival wch he coorganized in 1984. The movie of that festival can be witnessed here: https://youtu.be/fgQzQZNpgTY . Some info about his bk on this fest can be seen here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1984London.html . In a letter to Neils dated "2:8:83" Pete says that "Monty has invited me to participate in Neoist activities during October. So if I have sufficient funds I will take off for Canada." (p 156) Alas, he didn't make it .

In another text shown he states: "MONTY CANTSIN SEEKS TO ACHIEVE TOTAL FREEDOM TOTAL TOLERANCE AND TOTAL CORRESPONDENCE.............." [/] "MONTY CANTSIN IS A DATA CELL....." (p 159) This text is similar to one of his that I excerpted from for the soundtrack of "Transparent SMILE (Monty Cantsin performing with White Colours)": https://youtu.be/yamGE-mVW8A?t=15m1s .

Next is 21pp of "ISTVAN KANTOR. 1949. CANADA" better known, perhaps, as Hungarian expatriate "Monty Cantsin", founder of Neoism. Work of his from 1978-1985 is shown. These were heady times: Neoism was founded in the spring of 1979; from 1980 to 1985 there were 9 Neoist APT Fests, one 'Occupation", & the above-mentioned Training Camp.

The zine "NEO", later the "ORGAN", was started & a spread from issue #2 is shown here. The collaborators on the issue are shown to be: Lomholt, Ceci Rainbow, David Greenberger (later of Duplex Planet renown), Spions Inc, Tom Konyves (a Montréal poet who helped Istvan learn English), Gerald Jupitter-Larsen (well-known noise maker & conceptualist), John M. Bennett (visual poet & publisher of Lost & Found Times), Lion Lazer (Montréal based graffitist & performer very active in the early days of Neoism), Pat Larter (Australian Mail Artist well known for sexually explicit photography), Mike Dyar, & Musicmaster - an incredible selection of people who may've never been united outside of this context.

"this issue is dedicated to Pat Larter and her friends" "we declare that from tonight onwards pornography is the national value" - p 161

For people interested in Neoism, this section of "Lomholt Mail Art Archive" will be fascinating. From what looks like a pre-Neoism business card from 1978 shown on page 161 thru a 1979 letter on Vehicule Art stationery on page 163 to a picture of the Neoist Chair Action that launched Neoism & the "Brain in the Mail" Mail Art show catalog - both from 1979 - on page 164.. to the poster for "Monty Cantsins Latvian Punk Rock Aug 12 Bolinas" from David Zack on page 165, to the declaration of being "not an artist' in a letter to Lomholt on page 167, to the postcard that led to the meeting of Monty Cantsin from Montréal & the Krononautic Organism in BalTimOre in 1980 (page 168), to the "1980/09. Preparation for 1st Apartment Festival, Montreal (See "Video Work" 1980)." (page 169), meaning ""The Sandwich Lift" on September 17, 1980" already mentioned above, to a story about Reinhardt U. Sevöl before he became an Anti-Neoist (page 170), to the poster for "APT 81", the 2nd International Neoist Apartment Festival in Montréal in February, 1981; to the cover of the ORGAN showing the main "Greenway's Folly" house (page 174) where the 3rd APT Fest, the 1st one that I organized, took place in May & June of 1981 (every day of the festival was at least somewhat documented in video, the 1st of these days is here: https://youtu.be/_FfY1dw6RDI , you should be able to find the rest from there w/o my giving you all the URLs); to an early mention of the "6 FINGER PLAN" on page 180. People interested in a few of these visuals & some slight explication can explore here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2010Lomholt.html .

This being alphabetical, & these sections being pictures of work from Lomholt's main correspondents, next are the Larters: "RICHARD LARTER, 1929. PAT LARTER, 1936-1996. AUSTRALIA". The work represented is from 1977-1982. According to my file card for them, I sent 10 mailings to the Larters & rc'vd 6. The Larter's work often involved pictures of Pat exposing her cunt, somewhat akin to 'Swinging Singles' images, but sometimes w/ body painting, such as a lovely full body of zebra stripes, & usually w/in a humorous collage. In one of these, on page 183, Pat & Dick are shown laying on a bed w/ Pat holding Dick's erect cock. Above them is a caption, presumably taken from a sports magazine, that reads: "A new dimension in sports photography!" & to their right are images of a baseball batter holding the bat in readiness.

The Larters seem to represent the philosopical position, wch I share, that hedonism is far preferable to war-mongering. In a letter to Lomholt on page 182 they write:

"Hence our involvement with the U.S. in Vietnam, this has split the country into 2 groups, 1. the soft core fascists who represent the multi-national exploiters and the reactionaries who fear the "yellow peril" i.e. Red China. and 2 the social democrats and the people of goodwill who show concern about social matters. In 1975 a social democrat government ( of 3 years duration after 23 years of ultra right wing governments) was dismissed by the governor general at the behest of the right wing establishment. After this coup d'etat we are at about 10% unemployment, a national health scheme has been wiped out, uranium mining destroying Aboriginal settlements has been encouraged, the workers wages are under attack and our civil liberites are being eroded by atomic energy acts and anti- terrorist activities."

Now that letter was from "8 NOV 1978" . If you want a look at the Australia of 2000, including anti-uranium mining activism, check out my collaborative movie made w/ etta cetera called "Don't Walk Backwards": https://youtu.be/kODzM_2_bRM .

Next is "SABINA MERTENS, 1957. BDR. GöRD KAA, 1953. AUSTRIA". I didn't know them. There's a picture of Mertens w/ zebra-stripe body paint holding her baby close to her breast as if she's about to nurse it. Lovely.

David Zack ends this alphabatized section w/ 28pp. Again, I mention my review of a bk about him by Monty Cantsin AMEN (Istvan Kantor) here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9399305-amazing-letters-the-life-and-art-of-david-zack . Snippets of footage showing Zack can be witnessed as part of the 81 APT documentation here: https://youtu.be/rWi6IbbbV30?t=33s , here: https://youtu.be/UBtxXTud35c , & here: https://youtu.be/mWFqCozelug .

On page 200 is shown a letter that's typical in appearance to the ones I remember getting from Zack: doodles & scribbles surrounding hand-lettering, mostly script (1971). On the facing page, 201, there's a typewritten letter dated "august 9, 1974" wch he signs "Artur CAWS" w/ what appears to be an eraser rubber stamp of a bird w/ its beak open as if singing (or CAWing). I don't reCAWl Zack using this name but this is from 7 yrs before I got to know him.

A letter dated "1978/09/16" (page 203) informs the reader that Zack is at the "School of Applied Research" in Sandia Park, New Mexico. Lo(mholt) & Be(hol)d! the only entry I find online for this school is part of Lomholt's archive, an entry from Zack: http://www.lomholtmailartarchive.dk/networkers/david-zack/1978-12-16-zack . What was this school? Was it just a name that Zack gave to where he was living at the time? Or was there some short-lived loose conglomeration of alternative educators that may've morphed into something else?

A letter dated "2-22-79" (page 208) is about prison & art before Zack went to prison in Mexico:

"So now it has happened, I am in for Life, the Prison is Art, found my heart there and I KNOW there is NO escape."

On page 212 there's a letter dated "1979/09/10" that has the following typewritten:

"Neils, I am very curious about your playing with 140 people. Is it an orchestra, or what? And of course I can see your point about musicians being dull, having grown up playing in my father's orchestra. But music is very satisfying."

Hey! I'd like to know too. Organizing 140 people is a logistical challenge regardless of what the end result aimed for might be. As for "musicians being dull"?!: Speak for yrself there OZzie old boy.

On page 213 there's a post-card post-marked August 4th, 1980, there's a picture of Zack playing what looks like a bouzouki to me in a graveyard. The return address is "c/o Pickman Model Homes", Blaster Al & Patty Blaster's address at the time. There's a picture of what I take to be the same graveyard (probably taken by Patty) on one of my Blaster pages: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Blaster004.0.html dated February, 1981. There's a picture of Blaster in a cemetary dated September 1, 1982 but that was sent from San Antonio, TX, so maybe it's from there & not an old foto from Portland: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Blaster030.0.html . On the backside of Zack's post-card it says: "I'm heading to LA in my bb Epic. Maris Kundzins ( Monty Cantsin #1 ) says he'll come down from Seattle for the event."

"I did meet Istvan Kantor in Budapest, and helped him escape, and become an exile in the streets and subways of Paris, and eventually a postcard from me and Maris Kundzins inspired Kantor to develop the character of Monty Cantsin, the open popstar, in Montreal." - p 222

Zack always claimed that he designated Kundzins Monty Cantsin before he designated Istvan Kantor as such. But, as I recall, Blaster Al told me that Kundzins didn't really know what Zack was talking about & never took on the identity whereas Kantor took it on BIG TIME. Having never had any communication w/ Kundzins & not having the impression that he was ever a Mail Artist, I tend towards Blaster's version of the story.

As of January 1, 1981, Zack had been visiting his parents in Mexico, where he eventually went to live, & he told Lomholt that "they look younger. They seem pretty good at walking and gardening and my father does play his cello every day and it sounds OK." (p 217) In the same letter, he mentions the founder of the Krononauts: "Sometimes I go out on my balcony, which overlooks the famous MacArthur Park--you probably know the song about it. X Richard sang it on the phone earlier this evening". It's worth noting that Richard eliminated his middle & last names for awhile to be more casual & friendly w/ people & was thus called "Richard" - but since he signed his letters "X Richard", as in "hugs, Richard" people misunderstood & called him 1st "X Richard" & 2nd, b/c of the popularity of Malcolm X, "Richard X". Richard, too, can be witnessed in the 81 APT movies as well as in our collaboration on visiting Three Mile Island during its nuclear crisis on April 9, 1979 ( https://youtu.be/WFnEj9c35fE ) & in 2 movies relevant to the phone stn we had called "TESTES-3": https://youtu.be/0toRU7wYDvQ & https://youtu.be/EFAjQlGPF04 . The same letter ends w/ "He has six fingers on each hand. OZ" (p 218) thusly referring once again to the 6 Fingered Club.

Zack's envelope from "1981/09/01" is from after he lived in BalTimOre w/ the Krononauts for a mnth during 81 APT & it shows 3 impressions of a rubber stamp he wd've gotten from Richard that say: "KRONONAUTS 9 MAR 1982" announcing the big Krononaut event in honor of a partial alignment of the planets. Richard's idea was to advertise a big party for People from the Future for that date in media that might be long-lasting such as an issue of Art Forum in the hope that People from the Future might read the ad & be capable of traveling back in time to attend it. I was there &, given how little I seem to have in common w/ my parents, maybe I was one of these visitors from the future. I doubt it.

On pp 222-223 there're scans of 8pp of a piece he wrote called "What is FORMULAR?" for Lomholt. The pages are carbon copied so they're slightly blurry but still readable. Writing about where Lomholt went to the university, Zack wrote:

"This is where they have the famous Menuhin festivals of classical music. I was there, in 1961, and saw Larry Adler play harmonica in a dressing gown. Threw out little harmonicas to the audience, so they could come in on the chorus. Yes, perhaps he was a communist. But not blacklisted in Bath, not in 1961." - p 222

Zack was a world traveler & cd sometimes pull out such factoids that wd've been somewhat obscure to other people. Here's a bit more about Adler:

"Adler was one of the first harmonica players to perform major works written for the instrument, often written for him: these include Jean Berger's Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra "Caribbean" (1941), Cyril Scott's Serenade (harmonica and piano, 1936), Vaughan Williams' Romance in D-flat for harmonica, piano and string orchestra; premiered New York, 1952, Milhaud's Suite Anglais (Paris, May 28, 1947), Arthur Benjamin's Harmonica Concerto (1953), and Malcolm Arnold's Harmonica Concerto, Op. 46 (1954, written for The Proms)."

[..]

"During the McCarthy era he was accused of being a communist and refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). After being blacklisted and an unsuccessful libel suit decided in 1950, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1951 and settled in London, where he remained the rest of his life. Another source indicates he stayed in London from 1949."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Adler

More from Zack:

""Most forms "you" have to fill in. Formulars are the "forms" "that" "fill" "you" "in"."" - p 222

"What is Lomholt's vision, then? After spending five weeks with him (one week short of the time that would have made me part of Denmark's famous welfare state system, under which if you have a job and lose it you get 90% of your salary for four years, so can keep up payments on your house and car and children and such while establishing yourself as a famous artist or musician) I'm still not sure." - p 222

"The Danish approach to government provides whatever a person might need, which in the case of profoundly disabled people might include full-time care for their whole lives, In the school, students eat gourmet fare (all Danes insist on this) and are encouraged to buy the excellent local beer in the school's kitchen and drink it in their rooms, as opposed to spending twice as much in bars, exposed to the hazards this entails." - p 223

Is this for real?! Or is this delusion or fantasy of Zack's?!

"From 1982 to 1993, a decade of tight economic constraints, the Danish welfare state was governed by bourgeois parties. The expectation of the power resources model, the most prevalent theory about the Scandinavian welfare states, was that the Danish welfare state would be turned further in a residual direction. Those expectations were, however, never fulfilled ­ on the contrary, the Danish welfare state was further expanded in a social democratic direction. A focus on how the bourgeois governments, often in a difficult parliamentary situation, tried to adapt the popular Danish welfare state to less favorable economic conditions accounts for important aspects of this development. The bourgeois governments relied on a combination of increased benefits to large groups of voters and well?hidden measures to strengthen public finances." - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9477.00015

"As a rule, employees in Denmark were and are covered by unemployment insurance via membership in arbeidsli_shedskasser, or A-kasser; until 1974 these were wholly independent, but are now part of the public sector, which pays up to 75 percent of the compensation. In the case of sudden unemployment one is entitled to three years of compensation from the A-kasse of about 80 percent of one's former salary. Only those who fail to find more than six months of work within three years lose their rights to this form of compensation, and must apply for welfare." - https://www.nationalaffairs.com/storage/app/uploads/public/58e/1a4/d47/58e1a4d4719c3175109369.pdf

I don't know when this article was written but it says "As recently as March 1982 the Danish Minister for Social Services, Ritt Bjerregaard, well known for her uncompromising egalitarianism" wch means that it was probably written sometime around the "1983/02/26" of Zach's text. Therefore, while Zack's statements may not be entirely accuarte & may represent an exaggeration they're close enough for me to marvel at Denmark. Denmark shows that it's possible. Imagine the USA doing the same. Not bloody likely - after all, the billionaires might not get a chance to be trillionaires before everyone dies of starvation around them. We can't have that now can we?! Denmark's 'Welfare State' might partially explain why Lomholt's bk is so beautifully produced - maybe there's a government attitude that sees artists as worth living. What wd've happened if the jazz musicians had escaped Prison USA in the '60s & gone to Denmark instead of Paris?

Zack's section, & the alphabetized sections of Lomholt's main correspondents, end on page 226. The section on "Lomholt Formular Press 1975-1985" begins on the next page w/ an image of a poster for "The sandwich lift": "A performance/talk on fragments and relations, Earth-Air-Water-Fire." (p 227) On the next page there's a list of 43 "FORMULAE WORKS" that include titles like "Blueish Formulae" (the 1st) & "Sydney Concealed (Vol II, LFP Publication)" (the last). This list precedes an article entitled "The Formulae Event - Lomholt Formular Press 1975-1999" by Peter van der Meijden:

"And the richness displayed by this particular 'formular" is by no means an exception within the body of Lomholt's formular works; on the contrary, most "formulars" are at least equally complex. They manage to address the corporeal, the conceptual and all the levels in between, they manage to be contemplative and performative, they manage to be works of mail art and reflections on the mail art network; there is virtually no end to the tasks that the "formular" can perform." - p 229

"To start with, what is a "formular"?" [this links to a footnote: "Note on terminology: the first time the word "formular" was used was on the Blueish Formular. It is the Danish word for "form", and as the Blueish Formular is a form, it is only natural that he should use it. However, in the subsequent English-language formulars Lomholt continued to use the word, instead of the English "form", thus creating a difference between the normal bureaucratic form and his formulars. However, in later formulars such as Umbrella and Envelope from 1979, he used the word "formula" instead, uniting the bureaucratic form and the scientific formula in the higher-level conceptual notion of "a way of expressing information symbiotically" and "a way of expressing a general relationship between quantities". And finally, in Another Trans/Quiet Dressing Room from 1999, he began spelling the word "formular" as "Form U lar", stressing the fact that the formular is addressed to other human beings ("U", "you"). In the same work, the word "formular" is also occasionally spelled "Form O lar", suggesting various ways of exchanging data (U = once forth and back, O = circular)." "In the thirteenth issue of the Danish art magazine NORTH-information (1977), Lomholt defined it as "the form of ideas". Already on this basic level, a conceptual doubling comes into play: the formula has the form of a form, but the physical formular form defines the form of the ideas expressed in it at the same time. After the short definition, Lomholt gives a series of key words that further elaborate this play of double meanings. He calls the formular a "common language", a "projection field", a "time", a "framework", a "place to move", a "concept", a "number", a "classified name", 'the beginning of something", a "dictionary of choices", an "incomplete end", "self-contained", a "situation", a "condition", a "distant situation, redone, readjusted" and "a piece of paper"."" - p 230

Still confused? At least some of the Formulars were form letters sent out to fellow Mail Artists to be completed & sent back. This relates to the 'add-to-&-send-on' collaborative Mail Art works & is designed to generate a more interactive environment. IMO, the Mail Art that was/is the most interesting is that that engages communication & participation. Many Mail Artists just sent out the same things over & over again just to spread their names & images around. Lomholt's Formulars attempted something more:

"The second series of photographs comes under the heading of "placement". It consists of six portraits, labelled a-f, apparently unrelated to each other but united by their placement on the page in a particular order. In connection with these photographs, the reader is asked to "relate any situation", that is to say, to fill in the blanks between the photographs. On the next page, only the letters remain, so that the reader has to supply the images and that which connects them. And finally, one of the photographs is surrounded by a dotted line, with the instruction to "move [it] to any place"." - p 234

There're lists of participants. How many of these names mean much to how many people? Here're the ones for the 1976 Two-Circle Formular: "Anna Banana, USA; Cabaret Voltaire, USA; Ulises Carrion, Holland; Cavellini, Italy; David Cobb, England; Robin Crozier; England; Irene Dogmatic, USA; Tom Elling, Denmark; Cees Francke, Holland; Klaus Groh, W. Germany; Dick Higgins, USA; Hundertmark, W. Germany; R. Mutt, USA; Mogens Otto Nielsen, Denmark; Soft Art, Switzerland; Bent Vaerge, Denmark; David Zack, USA." (p 239) Maybe not many people wd know who these folks are/were but many of them are important to me personally. E.g.: the 22nd thing I had published was in "The Irene Dogmatic Paper Doll Book" (1980) ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1980Dogmatic.html ), a Mail Art project akin to these Lomholt Formulars in the sense that Dogmatic sent out a picture of herself to be dressed in 'paper dolls' & returned to her.

A post-card on page 250 is attributed to Vittore Baroni. This is his participation in the Exchangeable Photo formular. I note that the background image is a collage from "R.U.S.", Reinhardt U. Sevöl. I'd rc'vd a similar image from him. This sort of thing is significant to me partially b/c I've noticed that my memory works best when its sociable cross-referencing is most active. As such, when I went to many parties & knew many people personally I cd remember all sorts of details about them such as who they were fucking, how they made their money, what creative activities they had (if any) etc. It's the same thing when I look thru this bk & see connections between people I know. Seeing the Baroni / R.U.S. connection helps it all click together for me.

SO, I come to a "27 January 1980" "Davi Det Hompson" participation in the same formular. His address here is in Kansas City, Missouri. When I corresponded w/ him he was in Richmond, Virginia. He contributed to my Mike Film Distribution Form #3 in 1981. He told me that he called himself "Dav Det Hompson" b/c he & David Franks were friends & he wanted to differentiate their names more - hence "David E. Thompson" mutated.

David Greenberger appears again. Last I heard he was still alive & kickin' & on Facebook. But what really surprises me is 2 stereo photographs from Jack Nathanson of Montréal. Jack was still alive & kickin' & on Facebook too the last time I checked. He was known as "Frater Neo" amongst Montréal Neoists. That was sortof his "Le Douanier" name. Frater Neo never got around much as I recall so it's nice to see him having a presence here. It makes sense that he might've been introduced to Lomholt when Lomholt was in Montréal for the 1st APT. I have some of Nathanson's stereograms too.

1978's "SYDNEY CONCEALED" formular involved "An exhange of concealed secrets". Paulo Bruscky, from Brazil, included a plea for "FREEDOM FOR THE ARTISTS FROM URUGUAY: CLEMENTE PADIN AND JORGE CARABALO". They were both political prisoners. I remember participating in a letter-writing campaign demanding their release. I quote at length from Geoffrey Cook's report on this:

"In August, 1977 mail artists Clemente Padín and Jorge Caraballo were arrested and "disappeared" within the political prison system of their native Montevideo, Uruguay. It was not until February, 1978 that word reached me of these events.

"Clemente Padín is an important contemporary aesthetician. Jorge Caraballo is an important South American artist. Their loss, in my opinion, could only be compared to the loss of a Lorca or a Walter Benjamin. Uruguay, as documented by Amnesty International, had one of the worst human rights records at the time. Torture and clandestine execution of political dissidents (which these artists were) was an almost daily occurrence.

"I was greatly perturbed at the news and I initiated a mail art project, the immediate goal of which was to help Caraballo and Padín. In the first general letter distributed to my correspondents within the community, I described the project as "life imitating art." Strangely, Clemente Padín had created the structure in his investigation of what he called the "language of action," that is, art that offered direct social/political action.

"At the same time, Julien Blaine in France instituted similar actions to help the South Americans. One of the most demanding challenges of this project was to coordinate the efforts of the Europeans and Americans."

[..]

"This project involved the grime of real politik. As Americans we have to confess to our responsibility in Latin America. The generals and colonels who make life and death decisions in Uruguay are in power because the U.S. government gives them the "toys" that establish this power. The situation that Padín and Caraballo were protesting (in his conviction Padín was specifically cited for writing an anti-American tract) was the force that could exact pressure for their release, namely the U.S. government. Both the American and French (through the efforts of Julien Blaine) governments intervened diplomatically through the Uruguayan military. The artists were formally tried by a military court and convicted under Article 58, section II, of the Uruguayan military code for attacking the morale and reputation of the army!"

[..]

"Shortly after this event, Jorge Caraballo was paroled and is now out of prison. In the spring of 1979, after the American ambassador asked for further clarification, the Uruguayan government told the French and American governments that Clemente Padín would be paroled in the fall of 1979.

"Padín and Caraballo are not communicating, and, as far as we know, are not allowed to produce their art under the terms of their parole. (For that matter, they may have been re-arrested.) What did we accomplish? We did what we could, and it may have convinced the Uruguayan government that whatever they did to the artists would not be done in the dark. We may have convinced them that negative actions would be counterproductive to their own goals. The project has shown us that structures exist within the art world through which we can effect change and influence larger forces. The project represents a small cry in a collapsing universe."

- http://www.artpool.hu/MailArt/chrono/1984/Cook.html

That's from the Artpool website. I applaud Cook & Blaine for their efforts on behalf of the imprisoned artists. Whatever the reality might've been, the story here is that thanks to intense communication amongst Mail Artists the word about the plight of these prisoners reached a large number of people & we wrote letters in protest. Whether our influence on the matter was inconsequential or not the artists were released. These days we have internet-based activism such as that represented by Change.org . Personally, I support such things & praise the work of the caring people who make them happen. Don't underestimate the power of good communication & dissemination.

In the sequel, "Sydney's Concealment", we get a letter from Blaster including a photo that he sent of himself as part of the "Clark Ashton Smith Fellowship Chapter" to an outreach from his high school reunion organizing committee. (p 305) In 1979, "Six artists from the Mail Art network were invited by Lomholt Formular Press for residencies at Egmont." They were Cavellini, Ulises Carrion, Zabala, David Zack, Robin Crozier, & Dav Det Hompson. Amazing. (p 311)

"1979. RAETIO" was about "market value and inserted deviation." & included a check from David B. Greenberger w/ a note written where the recipient & amt usually wd be. In the "MEMO" section on the lower left it says: "NOT A LETTER". (p 317) Nice. Pages 319-320 are from an "Umbrella" show. "Umbrella was a California zine edited by Judith Hoffberg. She organized a Umbrella show in 1979." (p 319) My 57th publication was in Umbrella (Vol. 5, No. 3, May 1982). Thanks, Judith.

One of my favorite parts of "Lomholt Mail Art Archive, Fotowerke and Video Work" is a section called "A CONVERSATION AMONG AMOBAE" by Jergen Michaelsen that kicks off the "LOMHOLT MAIL ART ARCHIVE 1971 - 1985" section:

"This conversation took place not long ago between some amoebae, two or more, one can never tell for sure. The point is that amoebae are a rather unique species, hardly definable as individuals. The word "individual" derives from the Latin individuus, signifying that which is indivisible. This might shed some light on the fact that the amoeba is a one-celled organism, a so-called protozoan, unlike humankind, for instance, which is a metazoan. Though the amoeba is not exactly indivisible, quite the contrary, since it divides itself at regular intervals and, by way of mitosis and cytokinesis, creates exact copies of itself. Furthermore, the amoeba is rather formless, since it is in constant motion, facilitated by certain temporary ramifications of cells, the so-called pseudopdia. It is, rather, this formlessness in itself that has caused the amoeba to be so named." - p 331

"AMOEBA: It seems to me that we now come face to face with the fundamental problem of democracy. In a democratic state, all citizens are equal. We can all agree on that. What, then, to do about deviation? How do we secure respect for those who think differently? When, for example, Joseph Beuys, who as far as I know was part of the Fluxus-hullabaloo, claims that "Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler," what do we do, then, if a certain individual, or perhaps a group of individuals, simply rejects this inclusion and instead says, "Hell no! That's not for him to decide!"? Beuys would have had to accept this, whether he liked it nor not. Likewise, one could imagine what would happen if someone, against his or her will, became the recipient of a Mail Art object." - pp 333-334

Now there's an artist named Lenka Clayton currently based in Pittsburgh who, in collaboration w/ Michael Crowe, sent out "Mysterious Letters" to every household in at least 2 locations: a small town in Ireland, a small neighborhood in Pittsburgh. The letters were probably anonymous (although it was possible to find out who sent them), sometimes nonsensical, sometimes phrased in a way that fictively implied personal knowledge of the recipients. I rc'vd 2 of them. Given my experience w/ Mail Art I perceived them as Mail Art & was moderately amused but not that impressed. As I recall, Lenka told me that when they sent out the Irish mailing they rc'vd at least one death threat from someone who perceived the letter(s) as 'terrorist'.

When I rc'vd mine I went outside & talked w/ some of my neighbors about them. They were good as conversation starters. I remember the few people that I talked w/ being bemused. I heard about some fearful & negative reactions later. This made international news. An AP article w/ images can be seen here: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-pittsburgh-mystery-letters-revealed-as-art-project-2009dec02-story.html & Lenka's reduction of it to text on her webpage can be read here: http://www.lenkaclayton.com/associated-press . To quote from the very widely distributed AP article: "One elderly woman was terrified because her letter implied the writers would pay her a visit. Another resident received a letter saying how nice she and her husband were. But the man had died and that made the woman uncomfortable". So there you have it, some instances of "what would happen if someone, against his or her will, became the recipient of a Mail Art object."

As for Bueys's (& others's) 'Everyone is an artist'?: I've written about that before but chances are, YOU, dear reader, haven't read it - SO, I'll quasi-repeat myself (I probably express it somewhat differently every time) & say that if "Everyone's an artist" then the term "artist" doesn't have much value as a distinguishing characteristic. If you, personally, believe that 'everyone's an artist' & you want a mural painted in your bedroom why not just pick the 1st person you run across & offer them a few bucks to paint one? Maybe minimum wage or less per hr w/ a 5 hr limit for the whole job? Then see how happy you are w/ the result. Or paint the mural yourself? Ok, maybe you're more realistic than that & the mural that you imagine is something that you, personally, feel incapable of bringing to fruition. Does that make you NOT an artist? What if you don't have an imagination & you just want something 'cool' for yr bedroom & have money to burn? Does that make you NOT an artist? You decide.

"AMOEBA:" [..] "Whay eventually happened to" [Mail Artist Ray] "Johnson?

"AMOEBA: Your perception is spot on. His dead body was found on January 13, 1995, floating in a small creek not far from the house where the artist had been living an increasingly isolated existence. There is no doubt he committed suicide. Still, many have chosen to interpret the act as Johnson's final artistic gesture, which would be in keeping with the reading I just proposed myself. Incidentally, at the time of his death the artist had 400,000 dollars in his bank account. Which seems rather unusual for a Mail Artist." - p 335

I had a slight exchange w/ Johnson. I'm sorry he committed suicide. Regardless of whether this was a "final artistic gesture" or not I find it hard to believe that committing suicide is something done by someone who isn't deeply unhappy. I prefer that people be happy. If Johnson, w/ all his money & all his Mail Art friends was unhappy, he must've been going thru a particularly bad time. Remember, by 1995, postal prices were escalating into unaffordability for many people & email was starting to replace snail mail. Was this part of the problem?

In this section, examples from Lomholt's Mail Art Archive are presented organized by country of origin. The countires presented are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, West Germany (BRD), Holland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, USA (divided into "BOOKS" & "ENVELOPES" & "POSTCARDS" - that's how much there is!), Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba (!), El Salvador (!), Uruguay, Venezuela, & Japan. That's impressive! Still, note how many countries are missing. Nothing from the whole continent of Africa & only Japan 'representing' Asia. Nothing from Australia or New Zealand (although, in actuality, the Larters were from AUS - they're just not in this section since they'd already appeared before). Probably every Mail Artist had a slightly different set of places where they had corrrespondents. Most or all of us wd've corresponded w/ people in the USA, Italy, & Japan - 3 of the most active places.

In the Denmark section I'm reminded of the existence of Commonpress b/c the reader gets to see a bit from issue 48, 1983, edited &/or sent by Carsten Schmidt-Olson, 198pp. I have a vague memory of that as a Mail Art zine that drifted from one publisher/editor to another from issue to issue. As such, it was somewhat of a precursor to SMILE magazine as a project that had multiple origins.

In the England section, we get to see a small bit of a 1981 issue of Spanner, listed as 80pp & w/ no editor/publisher name given. I have that issue so I know that it was poet Allen Fisher's baby, & a beautiful baby it is. He & cris cheek both had their own offset presses (or shared one?) that used stencils (Gestetners? I had one too) so their publications tended to be slightly blurry (there was a limit to the stencil burners) but had multiple colors. This issue, "JANUARY 1981 : A PAINTING a spanner special" is one of my all-time favorite publications. The cover shown in "Lomholt Mail Art Archive, Fotowerke and Video Work" & the cover of the copy I have are similar but it seems obvious that each cover must've been made uniquely collaged using hot pink paper, newspaper, & brushed-on black ink. I was fortunate to meet Fisher in person in London in 1984 & to get many of his fantastic publications as gifts from him. Thank you, Allen, I still cherish them. This one, as I recall, might've been reject pages from other publications that then had more printed overtop them.

Another one of these 'Look! I'm an ooooolllllllddddd person' moments is that "WEST GERMANY [BRD]" even means anything to me. Germany was split into 2 countries by the USSR & the USA after WWII & not reunited again until 1989 after the fall of the USSR. To someone born in the 1980s or after this might seem bizarre if they even know about it. The similar division of Korea into 2 countries continues to be problematic.

I've mentioned Stiletto before. He appears in the W Germany section as having sent something in 1984. Even Arthur Berkhoff, the Pregroperativist, is in W Germany (1979). I wonder if that's a mistake. He was always in Holland when I knew him. Then there's "1982. Tödliche Doris.": I have a recording by them. "Die Tödliche Doris (Deadly Doris; a pun on tödliche Dosis, meaning lethal dose) was a performance art and music group based in West Berlin from 1980 to 1987. It was founded by band members Wolfgang Müller (1957­ ) and Nikolaus Utermöhlen (1958­1996) and later joined by Käthe Kruse (1958­) Chris Dreier, Dagmar Dimitroff and Tabea Blumenschein." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Tödliche_Doris ) I suspect that the cataloger didn't realize that this was a band name or they wdn't've left the "Die" off of the listing.

From Holland we get a 1977 issue of THE IMPOSSIBILISTS (pp 397-398) from "Spudz (Cees Francke)":

"This inventory is a safe and effective pre-expiration autopsy which will enable us to gauge your neurotic and psychotic nethermind and recommend appropriate therapies, hobbies, and means of restraint."

Musicmaster, in Portland, is listed as one of the return addressees. That ties in people like Zack & Blaster & "Mud Jim" Cobbs. Small world.

"6. Quiet people are up to something.

7. A good salesman won't necessarily sell his mother.

9. I lose sleep over the plankton situation.

10. Whenever I see a book club ad, I pretend I'm going to join and carefully select titles.

11. My shoelaces break on purpose.

12. It's difficult for me to breathe underwater."

On page 400 there's more from Spudz (1978). One of the things is a picture of a woman w/ an exposed crotch that constitutes the left side of Spudz's stationery. The last paragraph of a handwritten letter on the right says "Meanwhile Clemente Padin is still in prison in Uruguay. Let's get him out of there!" Some might find the juxtaposition 'politically incorrect'. To many a Mail Artist, myself among them, such a combination is a natural.

On page 403, Ulises Carrion has more including this statement: "Mail Art uses as support the Postal System - a complex, international system of transport, including thousands of people, buildings, machinery, world treaties, and God knows what." Carrion was an ex-patriate Mexican living in Holland. I know I have a fabulous publication of his here but I can't put my finger on it right now.

Still under Holland there're 2 pages shown of a Tinklers bk (p 406). Chris Mason, one half of the Tinklers, moved from BalTimOre to Amsterdam in mid 1981. The Tinklers were a BalTimOre based project. I reckon Chris sent or gave Lomholt this publication when he was in Amsterdam. As such, it's funny to see him end up in the Holland section. People dooooooooo get around. The "Tinklers Book" shown is another very special artists bk replete w/ transparencies, color printing, & even a pop-up page - wch is one of things shown. I published the Tinklers's 1st tape, still available (but soon to be OP): http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/WdmUCatalog.html .

On to Italy where there are pages from something by Geiger (1967): "Finally something positive from Italy. Between the 8th and 18th of August a meeting of young artists of the Italian and European avant garde, who transform the streets of Fiumalbo, a small village near Florence into a temporary exhibition. Fiumalbo is a very conservative and religious village high on the mountains between Florence and Modena (whose mayor however, Mr. M Molinari, is an intellectual friend of poets and artists. This happened because at the last local election the right party split into two groups, losing the majority which went to the left. This one didn't have a man who wanted to become mayor of a village which actually is against the left, and therefore had to find in the nearby town of Modena a man who was ready to run the adventure. Mr. Molinari accepted the job and played the game very correctly but, wanting also to get something out of it, decided with a few friends (the Italians C. Parmegiani, C. Costa, A. Spatola and the well known French H. Chopin) to organize a meeting of the avant garde which would have certainly shocked the people. On the 6th and 7th August most of the roughly 100 artists who partecipated arrived in the village and started to exhibit their works: posters of all kinds, concrete poetry, op and pop and kinetic art. In the meantime from the balcony of the Town Hall a loudspeaker shouted phonetic poetry and electronic sounds (H. Chopin, Lora Totino) in a village actually used only to the bells of the church, and whose streets now were packed with young artists (one - Spatola was walking around as a sandwichman written on both sides of him "I am a poem", while another had put a chair in a circle drawn on the street, and was releasing a certificate to anybody ready to sit for a moment - so that he had become a permanent work of art). A tree of the village had been painted red, and cement and electrical poles were designated as trees." (p 410) I think that's a lovely story.

Still in this long Italy section, the reader finds a manifesto (1982) for the "20th anniversary of "The New York Correspondence School of Art" founded by the American artist Ray Johnson.":

"Mail Art is a way of communication, it means conveying information to one or more persons, addressing both the "private" and the "social". Mail Art was born to oppose the boring art schools set up by art merchants, galleries, critics which have always mortified, and are mortifying, repressing, limiting the artist search only to the economic side. Mail Art has been developing and changing itself, this is attained by the work and the cooperation from thousands of "rebel" artist who have made Mail Art, a new artistic, cultural, social world." - pp 423-424

Sweden brings us something labelled as "1981. Mats B." wch is George F. Maciunas's fantastic fold-out chart of the History of Fluxus. I probably got my copy of this from Printed Matter for a mere $6. I never pd much attn to its having an introduction in Swedish on the left & English on the right by Mats B. B.'s intro is titled "Birth of Fluxus ­ the ultimate version". An excerpt: "In the evening of October 8 a group of Lithuanians met in the gallery to discuss the possibility of founding a "Lithuanian Cultural Club", a meeting-ground for recollections, sentiments and debates. Among the enthusiasts were the artist V. K. Jonynas, Salcius and George Maciunas, an artist at large whom Salcius had met through the filmmaker Jonas Mekas." Apparently this is the 3rd issue of a publication called "kalejdoskop". In case you're interested.

Switzerland shows a letter from Ray Johnson to Ben Vautier, whose address is given as in France. That's apparently b/c the letter was reporduced in a Swiss magazine called Soft Art. USA BOOKS follows Yugoslavia despite the dislocation of alphabetical order. I see that Tom Konyves is in one of the publications. Small world. Various publications that I have in my aRCHIVE are shown: "1978 Assembling 8" "Compiled by Richard Kostelanetz and Henry James Korn". An image is shown of the "Abandon Poetry" page on wch there're poems enclosed in the shapes of leaves. Readers are encouraged to cut the leaves out & leave them where leaves wd ordinarily be. I colored the leaf images, cut them out, & left them on a small plot of grass near Mt Royal Ave in Baltimore. I think I even have a lo-def foto of this. This is what I call a "Mystery Catalyst". Below that is John Bennett's "DOG CAKE HAT". I have a copy of that one too, probably gotten directly from John thru ye olde mail.

The same Tinklers bk previously mentioned appears again, this time w/ 3 pictures, a credit to the USA, & a dating of 1980. It sure gets confusing. The Tinklers "History of the World" fold-out chart appears, also dated at 1980 (p 478). At the bottom of this page there's a "ROCK AGAINST MEN" poster, taken out of context from an issue of my DDC #040.002 magazine. This is credited to "Ewey". That's an accidental abbreviation of "Dewey Decimal" b/c the "DDC" of the title refers to "Dewey Decimal Classification". I appear quite a bit in this bk but no-one other than me is ever likely to realize that given that I have a different name in almost every appearance. On the next page thre're some excerpts from Richard Meade's DATA FILE "Animals"-themed issue. I contributed 2 things to that: a. "Metaphorical Crab Feast?" & b. "the Chicken Movement": a. written as: David A. Bannister; b. assembled as: tentatively, a convenience. My pieces aren't shown.

OOhh.. Then there're things shown like the little box catalog, Show for the Eyes (p 481). I have that. The same folks went on to produce Spiral magazine. Lomholt's archive is a treasure trove but it's probably hard for people to understand how wonderful all this STUFF is by just looking at pictures - even full-color ones. On page 494 another of my things shows w/ this attribution: "1980. Mike". It's 2 photos of a partially unfolded Mike Film Distribution Form showing that hand-cut Frame of Reference shaped paper & the special folding. For accuracy, at a minimum it shd've been credited to "Mike Film". Images of my presence in this bk can be found at an URL already given but I'll give it again: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2010Lomholt.html .

Then on page 497 there's my "publicity stunts (my growth as an obscuro)" bklet of scores. The "EG" of the front cover & the "?" of the back (& "ETC" on the inside) are cut out. That's probably hard to understand from the photos. Then again, I might've sent him a photocopy version where that's not the case. That's credited to "1984. Tentative a convenience". That one's so obscure it's not even on my Bibliography ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Bibliography.html ). I'll have to correct that. Other images from it can be seen on yet-another website that I've already given you the URL for but will do again: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1982Wurzburg.html . Those scores were made in 1979. If Lomholt got them in 1984 I'm surprised there were any left by then.

On page 501 there's "1983. Tentative a convenience": a post-card that I call "relaxing after a stiff modeling AFWIRM day in '76" or just "Relaxing" for short. That's a photo of me leaning on air but having my shadow appear to be leaning on something more solid. "AFWIRM" is an acronym of mine meaning "Activity For Which I Receive Money", in this case nude modeling at MICA. Written on the post-card is something brief about APT 6 & a request that he burn a super-8 film of mine that I sent him called "TESTING".

Then we get to Canada. On page 505 there're 3 images from Richard Hambleton. Richard came to BalTimOre for 81 APT, the 3rd Neoist fest & I'm told he was at another Neoist fest in Montréal that I was at. Richard became briefly famous & prosperous in NYC as a painter. Alas, he died recently. On page 506 there're images credited as "1982. Permanent Press". The name of the publication was End Paper, another beauty that I was fortunate enuf to have something in. The people who put this one together went to great lengths to make it special.

Commonpress keeps popping up, in this case issue 6 from Argentina. It's explained:

"Commonpress is an art magazine co-operatively compiled from the mail art of artists around the world. It was started by Pawel Petasz of Poland in December 1977. Each artist who contributes to the magazine is encouraged to edit a future issue. The editor selects the theme, size, deadline and reproduction process for the issue utilizing his/her abilities in a personal and unique way. You are invited to join our alternative art project by sending your contributions to editions announced on the back cover. Further information can be obtained from Pawel Petasz, co-ordinator." - p 510

When I get a chance to see work from countries where I never had correspondents I'm the most impressed. There's work from Cuba & El Salvador from the 1970s & 1980s. It's no surprise that communications between people in those countries & people in the US was limited given that the US boycotted Cuba & suppressed the people of El Salvador w/ covert action. I was a supporter of the Sanctuary movement against US intervention in Latin America but my communication w/ those places was still limited.

The work from Uruguay is from the afore-mentioned political prisoners Clemente Padin & Jorge Caraballo as well as Tehesinka Pereira, who I remember as Teresinka Pereira so I reckon that's a typo, Antonio Ladra, & Wilmar Pereira. Work is shown from before their arrests and after their release. I was pleasantly surprised to see a post-card from Padin from 1985 that says: "The Neoist Uruguayan Section is Against the HUNGER. And you? Smile: the Neoism Love You!" (p 528). I didn't realize that Padin was involved w/ Neoism. On page 530 there's an image from Venezuela from 1978 again about freeing Padin & Caraballo. Power to the Mail Art Network!!

On page 533 there's work from Japan from Ryosuke Cohen & Shozo Shimamoto. I met them both in person in BalTimOre in the mid 1980s. Cohen is still going strong with his Brain Cells project and Shimamoto was connected to the Gutai movement.

On page 537 we reach "VIDEO WORK 1971 - 2006" wch opens w/ an article by Helge Krarup called 'IMAGE FLOW". She says:

"We had both taken part in early experiments with electronic images conducted by the American artist Ron Nameth in 1972-73 at the national Film School of Denmark and later in a studio at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. Among others, Nameth brought Tom Dewitt to Denmark from the US, and Dewitt brought along an image synthesizer. We were primarily focusing on feedback, colour changes, graphics and similar levels in the signal. So the world of video with its numerous imaging processing options was not unfamiliar to me, but to actually bid farewell to 8mm?

"Perhaps as a logical consequence of his parting with the 8mm format, Lomholt, in September 1983, arranged another festival, this time for video: the Falling Annual Livingroom Festspiel [sic] held at his home in the village of Falling. "Livingroom," he wrote in the catalogue, because "we don't believe in living art as a commecial, juried institution ­ Video Art is private working, walking, waiting and eating together ­ the Art of the Livingroom.""

Images from that festival & its catalog can be found on page 551. More can be seen on my webpage here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book1983Falling.html . Everything that Lomholt has done interests me but I've left far more out of this review than I've included. Mainly I've presented my personal journey thru this. This bk is about a community that I dedicated decades of my life too. It's a joy to see even these fragments from the time & the output. You didn't necessarily 'have to be there' to appreciate this but it wd sure give a much more intense slant to yr perception if you had.

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

idioideo at verizon dot net

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Anti-Neoism page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Audiography page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Bibliography page

to my "Blaster" Al Ackerman index

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE BYOC page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Censored or Rejected page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Collaborations page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE (d) compositions page

to Amir-ul Kafirs' Facebook page

to the "FLICKER" home-page for the alternative cinematic experience

to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's GoodReads profile

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Haircuts page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Home Tapers page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE index page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Instagram Poetry page

to a listing of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's manifestations on the Internet Archive

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as Interviewee index

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as Interviewer index

to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE'S Linked-In profile

for A Mere Outline for One Aspect of a Book on Mystery Catalysts, Guerrilla Playfare, booed usic, Mad Scientist Didactions, Acts of As-Beenism, So-Called Whatevers, Psychopathfinding, Uncerts, Air Dressing, Practicing Promotextuality, Imp Activism, etc..

to the mm index

to see an underdeveloped site re the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples)

to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Neoism page

to the DEFINITIVE Neoism/Anti-Neoism website

to the Philosopher's Union website

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE movie-making "Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews" home-page

to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Score Movies

to SMILEs

to find out more about why the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) is so important

to the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - Sprocket Scientist" home-page

to Psychic Weed's Twitter page

to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Vimeo index

to Vine movies relevant to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE made by Ryan Broughman

to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's presence in the Visual Music Village

for info on tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's tape/CD publishing label: WIdémoUTH

to a very small selection of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Writing

to the onesownthoughts YouTube channel