Tag Archives: collaboration

S.A.S.E.

Marijke Appelman, Paul Branca, Jennifer Cane, Travis Hallenbeck and Guthrie Lonergan, Michael Mandiberg, Jennifer Delos Reyes, Gabriel Saloman, Suzie Silver, Lia Trinka-Browner, Jess Wilcox

S.A.S.E. uses the idea of the self addressed stamped envelope as its foundation (a method of distribution within the postal mail system that is always initiated by the one who wants to receive the information).

This method of distribution was (futilely) translated into a digital communication system, e-mail.

Eleven people were asked to organize an exhibition of images that would be contained within the space of an e-mail.

Ten e-mail exhibitions were created (each includes a selection of images, a statement, and a works list).

All the images were found online – either from web-sites or in e-mails.

To receive the e-mail exhibition one would initiate the process by sending a request email.

The exhibition e-mail would then be sent to the requester.

HOW TO RECEIVE AN E-MAIL EXHIBITION:

▸ Each e-mail exhibition must be requested individually
▸ Send an e-mail to sase.asdf@gmail.com
▸ Copy the title of the exhibition you want and paste it into the
e-mail subject

▸ Within 1-7 days your exhibition will arrive in your e-mail box
▸ NOTE: We will not be personally reading these emails
▸ NOTE: You must paste the show title exactly how it appears below
(a program will automatically be replying to the e-mails)

Marijke Appelman
IN CASE IT RAINS, IT MIGHT INVOLVE WATER
edition of 365

Paul Branca
Dont…Where…You…
edition of 5000

Jennifer Cane
Arcadian Arrow
edition of 100

Travis Hallenbeck and Guthrie Lonergan
summer thumbs 09
edition of 1,000,000

Michael Mandiberg
FDIC Insured
edition of 2,500

Jen Delos Reyes
The Sound We Make Together
edition of 250

Gabriel Saloman
Miscalled a Republic
edition of 1684

Suzie Silver
Unusual Animal Friends (aka Interspecies Friendship)
edition of 1,000,001

Lia Trinka-Browner
NO PUSSYFOOTING
edition of 110

Jess Wilcox
The Discovery of Orange
edition of 66

Click here to download PDF of the complete statements and work lists.

One thing lost when communication became digital was the activity of waiting (obviously, it has not disappeared completely, and that is not the point of discussion here). This waiting corresponded with a travel – and the technologies of travel. A travel of an object of communication. A letter sent from one person to another, transported across an ocean on a boat. Or in an airplane across the sky. The receiver, waiting the duration it takes for this boat to sail across the ocean, or for the airplane to fly from one place to the next. The waiting corresponded with movement across a physical distance. It is an absurd gesture to intentionally insert this idea of waiting into e-mail communication (there ceases to be a physical distance traversed, and it is possibly argued there is no object).. But the same can be said of attempting to “translate” the idea of the Self Addressed Stamped Envelope, or S.A.S.E into digital. If anything, what is happening is that an older way is being pointed to. A way, with its own subtleties and distinctions, that has been lost. Yet, this does not become about nostalgia or an embracing of an anachronism. It is simply a reflection (and maybe a rupture). The exhibitions organized for S.A.S.E. tread in different areas. Some can be seen as curated art exhibitions, such as Lia Trinka-Browner’s NO PUSSYFOOTING, which uses the cover of the 1973 Brian Eno and Robert Fripp album of the same title as a central locus to pull together different art-works. Some such as Michael Mandiberg’s FDIC Insured can be seen more as a work-in-itself. Mandiberg used image searches, and The Way Back Machine to group image files of logos of recently failed banks. Miscalled a Republic by Gabriel Saloman comes out of neither a curatorial or art-making position. It can be seen more as a visual presentation of Saloman’s historical research into movements of secession and autonomy in North America. And there is Suzie Silver’s Unusual Animal Friends (aka Interspecies Friendship). I would say that this would be similar to Mandiburg’s (an artist using an e-mail to make a work). Yet there is something more happening here. Silver’s images were collected from emails forwarded to her by her mother. These images, already freely circulating through the meme-pool via the personal communication of e-mail, were pulled out and put back into circulation (or maybe never pulled out, just re-contextualized). The editioning of the e-mail exhibitions was obviously out of humor (who makes something digital an edition?). Yet it also has larger motives. It was not to stop the circulation of these e-mails by closing the door. But to hope that they continue to live by the act of forwarding (and possibly being altered as well). Letting the images continue to traffic by entering new in-boxes, just as Silver’s selected images had done organically. These may be high hopes, to want people share the e-mails once they become unavailable, but there is nothing wrong with that.
11″ x 17″ print outs of each show will be available from Aug 10 – Sept 12 as an open edition. These are available only by a real self addressed stamped envelope. Requests must be post-marked no later then Sept 12, 2009. Only one print out per request. You may request a specific exhibition, or we will send you a random one. The bigger the envelope you send, the less amount of folds the print out will have when you receive it. NOTE: Please make sure you include enough postage.

Send here:

Mylinh Nguyen
165 Park St #6
New Haven, CT 06511

For those who live outside of the United States and cannot purchase US postage stamps, do as follows: Mail in an unstamped envelope. Paypal $5 to asdf.makes@gmail.com. In your paypal payment clearly state your name and address. When your envelope arrives we will buy your shipping. If you mail in a heavy envelope send $10.