O. Jason (Jason Skeet)

Not sure who O.Jason was or if it was his real name. Just one of many mail art contacts through the 80's who came and went. Lived up in Staffordshire I think? An art student maybe? Anyway, here's a snippet of a long rambling tape of conversations and sound bites.

Did some trawling and found this -

"There is no established principle of methods for exhibiting mailart and the nature of display is frequently dictated by budget. English networker, O. Jason (Jason Skeet) has used the interesting strategy of retaining all the works unopened until the aptly named 'opening' of the show at which he invited the public to open the contributions.42 The involvement of the public turns the 'exhibition' into an 'event' and can be seen as being in the spirit of mailart. Although involving the public in opening the 'work' addresses some of the problems surrounding exhibiting MAPs, the very nature of the falseness of the situation of the public opening the mail, as opposed to Skeet sitting at home opening each contribution as it arrived prevents the participators experiencing the thrill of expectation each morning and the exciting thud on the door mat. It is important to note though that in this project, Skeet announced in his fliers that all contributions would be retained unopened until the preview.43 This would in itself have affected the nature of the contents, but does nothing to alter the fact that the viewer still misses-out on the reciprocal aspect of mailart, although in this instance they could have chosen to note down the addresses of the senders of the envelopes that they opened and to reply to them."


O. Jason - Side One

IM 98 Documentation

A tape compiled by Vittore Baroni for the 1998 Incongruous Meetings Mail Art project. Side Two features such people as Roger Radio, Birger Jesch and Charles Francois.

The official IM 98 website says -

"Yes, ANOTHER WORLD-WIDE DECENTRALIZED COMMUNICATION PROJECT has been
unlashed on an unsuspecting planet. You waited enough for it, now here it
is:

1998: A YEAR OF INCONGRUOUS MEETINGS
in-con-gru-ous adj. (L. incongruus) not congruous
a - lacking harmony or agreement; incompatible.
b - having inconsistent or inharmonious parts, elements, etc.
c - not corresponding to what is right, proper or reasonable; unsuitable;
inappropriate.

You have done the hard work already, congressing and lecturing in 1986,
re-congressing and networking in 1992, so relax: NOW YOU CAN HAVE FUN.

Participation in the IM98 is open and free to all: mailartists, netsurfers,
musicians, shopkeepers, shoplifters, aliens, subgenii, rabbits, rabbis,
you-name-it.
There is not a single sound reason to meet again but there are all the
incongruous reasons in the world, IF YOU CAN JUST THINK UP ONE: so keep
working-sleeping-consuming or FIND A THEME, ORGANIZE AN IM IN 1998 and take
part in as many IM proposed by others as you wish/can."



IM 98 DOC. - Side Two

Bill Whorral

One of many tapes from Bill Whorral who sent similar compilations and "radio surfs" where he would twiddle the dial while the tape was recording to catch many snippets from all kinds of weird American stations from his area ( rural Indiana ) which featured ranting bible thumpers, crazy adverts and country music.

"Bill Whorrall teaches art at Precious Blood School and Holy Family School in Jasper, Indiana. He lives in rural Martin County, Indiana and has done two books on Southern Indiana, one on Amish life in neighboring Daviess County and three on Martin County. The Martin County history book and the Amish book have been called the best books ever done on these subjects. His new book entitled: The Amish Community in Davies County, Indiana has been praised by the Amish as the most comprehensive and accurate book on their culture ever printed. Anyone interested in Amish life should see this book. His current project is a book that will document the natural beauty of Martin County."



Bill Whorral - Side Two

Dave Zack/ Snowwhite Jung

No date on this cassette from Snowwhite Jung but imagine it was late 80's sometime when she went to Mexico to stay with Dave Zack. Banter between Zack and Snowwhite. Tape is typical of Zack's ramblings and guitar plucking. I have tapes of ramblings and cello scrapings which are similar. The audio quality hasn't improved over the years so sorry for your ears. Keep that sturdy sack handy!
Zack was one of the first mail artists I contacted when I joined the network in 1980. He was very prolific with his letters which were also long and rambling and sometimes took up several sides of A4 and included photo copies of letters to other people on his network and spidery pen and ink drawings. The tapes arrived at intervals and always on very cheap cassettes like the one depicted. Sonni indeed!

"David was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1938 and received his Canadian landed immigrant status in 1970. He died in Texas, in 1995.

He studied at the University of Chicago and Cambridge University and taught at the University of Puerto Rico, San Francisco State College, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the University of Saskatchewan in Regina.

David is known for initiating the Nut Art movement in the late 60s in San Francisco together with Roy DeForest, Maija Peeples, Clayton Bailey, David Gilhooly and others. He became involved with mail-art in the early 70s and became one of its leading figures. He devoted the rest of his life to 'correspondense-art', and invented the Monty Cantsin Open-Pop-Star project together with Maris Kundzins and Istvan Kantor. David also got involved with Neoism in the early 1980s.

David took part in countless mail-art exhibitions around the world. He was also a professional art writer/critic with articles appearing in many publications in the 1960s and 1970s.

A retrospective of his work entitled: DAVID ZACK: Wizard?! Perturber?! Possessed! Letters and other works of a correspondence artist will open at The New Gallery in Calgary, on October 10, 2008, collected, designed and produced by Istvan Kantor. "




Dave Zack/Snowpes - Add This To Your Lentils