The Postal Collage Project
It’s for anyone, but it’s not for everyone.
Collaborator Experiences
Project Description, Notes, and Schedule
The Project Description enumerates the responsibilities and entitlements of participation. It spells out procedures and points to principles. It includes:
PROJECT DESCRIPTION and PRINCIPLES NEW
The PROCESS IN STAGES
Notes on:
COMMITMENT
AUTHORSHIP and AUTONOMY
SIZE and MATERIALS NEW
POSTAGE TYPE NEW
DOCUMENTATION and COMMUNICATION
OWNERSHIP
The SCHEDULE
EXHIBITION SEASON
Project Description
The Postal Collage Project is an annual, six-month, six-stage, global mail-art collaboration. There is no fee to participate, but collaborators pay their own postage.
Working in groups of five, participants send and receive works-in-progress, and contribute to that progress. The delivery pattern is circular. Everyone starts and sends a collage in September. There are delivery deadlines—for everyone—on the 1st of every month from October through March. Each collage-in-progress returns to its originator for completion after four others have contributed. Each participant is the principal author of one collage (the one they start and finish), and a contributing author of four others.
(NEW) The Postal Collage Project may be considered social practice. The resulting collages and the accumulated documentation are artifacts and histories—material remnants of ephemeral experiences. The experience of participation is the real substance of the project.
Participation explores, among other things, the complex working and social relationships between and among equally free ‘strangers’ in unplanned communities—autonomous individuals linked in chains of mutual reliance. All are equally empowered to take action according to their own creative and social sensibilities—according to their conscience. This radical freedom promotes variety, diversity, surprise, and discovery. Significantly, it also provides clarity of responsibility. If there is no external authority dictating what I must do and what I mustn’t, who is responsible for everything I do and don’t do?
To be sure, individual autonomy does not necessarily mean—everyone for themselves. It can go that way, but nothing about individual freedom precludes any accord or agreement between or among group members. Free individuals may adopt any organizational framework they wish.
Project principles include: Inclusivity (all are welcome to participate); Accessibility (participation is possible for all); Equal Autonomy (conscience-based self-authority for all); Egalitarian Interdependence (mutual reliance); Risk (exposure to unpredictability); and Responsibility (exercising agency; practicing accountability).
The Process in Stages
PREPARATION
Before collage work begins, working groups are formed. Participants are assigned to groups by the project coordinator. Groups may also be self-organized. When a group has been assembled, members introduced to one another, a delivery pattern determined, and necessary mailing addresses exchanged, collage work may begin.
MORE about working groups
STAGE ONE • Initiation and 1st Pass
Each and every participant will start a collage, and will thereafter be called the initiator, or originator, of that work-in-progress.
On a separate piece of paper, each initiator will write their name and the date, plus any expressive, strategic, or documentary information they wish to pass along.
Each initiator will deliver the new work-in-progress (their starter collage) with the accompanying informational sheet to the group member who follows them in the sequence (their send-to person). Thus, each will receive a work-in-progress and info sheet from the group member who precedes them in the sequence (their get-from person).
STAGE TWO • Contribution and 2nd Pass
Each participant will contribute to the collage they’ve received. They will add their name and the date to the accompanying informational sheet, along with any additional information they wish to include.
Each participant will, like before, deliver the work-in-progress and info sheet to their send-to person.
STAGE THREE • Contribution and 3rd Pass
• See Stage Two
STAGE FOUR • Contribution and 4th Pass
• See Stage Two
STAGE FIVE • Contribution and 5th Pass (Full Circle)
• See Stage Two
At this point, when the work is delivered, each participant will receive back the collage they, themselves, initiated, now altered/developed by the group.
STAGE SIX • Completion and Delivery for Exhibition
Each participant will complete the collage they initiated, and thereafter be considered the principal author of that collage. Each principal author will deliver their completed collage for exhibition.
Deliver completed collages to:
Berkeley Commonplace
2571 Shattuck Avenue, 1A
Berkeley, CA, USA 94704
Notes
COMMITMENT
Participation requires a modest, though not insignificant commitment. Before committing, please carefully consider the following:
• Participants can expect to spend a few dollars on postage each month for six months.
• The project timeline must be respected. Consistent, timely deliveries promote a healthy project environment, and ensure on-schedule, full-circle returns of works-in-progress to their originators.
• Each participant accepts responsibility for the completion of the piece they initiate, and agrees to deliver that piece for exhibition.
AUTHORSHIP and AUTONOMY
Each collaborator will be the principal author of one collage (the one they start & finish), and a contributing author of four others.
Each and every collaborator is autonomous at each and every stage. When starting a collage, and when completing the collage they started, an originator has sole authority regarding the development and completion of that piece. Likewise, a contributor, while making their contribution, has sole authority regarding the development of that work-in-progress. When the contribution is made and the work is passed along, authority is relinquished.
SIZE and MATERIALS
(NEW) The size of a typical postal collage corresponds approximately to the size of a typical magazine, open or closed. To preserve space for the greatest number of collages at exhibition, typical-size collages—or smaller—are appreciated; any collage twice the size of an open magazine may be excluded.
Collaborators are encouraged to keep postage low by sending smaller, lighter, flatter, more flexible works-in-progress.
Avoid cumbersome materials. Avoid dangerous and commonly offensive objects and substances (sharp, explosive, toxic, noxious, perishable, etc.).
POSTAGE TYPE
(NEW) Open-postage groups have no explicit packaging guidelines—what you receive is unpredictable; what you send is entirely up to you. Low-postage groups send flat, flexible, paper envelopes only—no boxes, no rigid or padded envelopes.
Review postal categories.
DOCUMENTATION and COMMUNICATION
Participants are strongly encouraged to take process photos and videos, and to write down reflections and experiences.
Each group will have its own (publicly-viewable) webpage for documentation, and for communicating about progress and delays.
When referring to any collage other than your own, it’s most helpful to call it by the name of its originator. For example, the collage started by Askush Nuk would be, Askush Nuk’s collage, or, Askush’s. Simple messages, such as, “I received Askush Nuk’s collage today,” or, “Askush’s was mailed on Monday,” are helpful for keeping track of progress. Knowing who started what becomes increasingly important toward the end of the timeline, when everyone will be anticipating the return of their own original collage.
Over the course of several months, people’s schedules change, sometimes suddenly and in unforeseen ways. Prompt communication, patience, and understanding are very much appreciated.
OWNERSHIP
Collage ownership is determined by a principal author’s ownership decision. Each principal author will make arrangements to retrieve their collage, or allow it to become part of the Berkeley Commonplace Collaborative Collage Collection. The collection is being catalogued and will be maintained for posterity. Selections will be included in ongoing, rotating exhibitions.
Collages retrieved by mail will be subject to postage and handling costs.
If, by the end of the calendar year, no arrangements have been made, an unclaimed collage becomes part of The Collection.
The Schedule
The ‘sent by‘ dates are recommendations aimed at assuring timely deliveries. Actual delivery times will vary. The ‘received by‘ dates are the deadlines.
Collage work begins on September 1
First post sent by September 15–25
First post received by October 1
Second post sent by October 15–25
Second post received by November 1
Third post sent by November 15–25
Third post received by December 1
Fourth post sent by December 15–25
Fourth post received by January 1
Fifth post sent by January 15–25
Fifth post received by February 1 (full circle)
Completed collages sent for exhibition* by February 15–25
Completed collages received in Berkeley by March 1
*Send completed collages to:
Berkeley Commonplace
2571 Shattuck Avenue, 1A
Berkeley, CA, USA 94704
EXHIBITION SEASON
There will be one or more exhibitions during spring and summer, beginning as early as the last weekend in March, continuing as late as the end of August. Details will be announced early in the new calendar year.