Very well done, thank you!! --manekineko www.mailart.org
--- In ma-network@yahoogroups.com, "Sztuka Fabryka" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear friends, > Just finished a new item for our Mail-Art Encyclopaedia project. The item is > about Mark Bloch, a Mail-artists who was active till the beginning of the > nineties and who was a pioneer in Mail-Art online. Recently he showed up at > the Dada meeting in New York. The item is also now online at our website: > www.sztuka-fabryka.be > > > Bloch, Mark (U.S.A.): > > Mark Bloch (23 January 1956) - Mail-artist, zine editor, performer, computer > pioneer - used 'PAN' (Postal Art Network) as pseudonym for his networking > activities. Bloch calls himself part of the "Third Generation" of > Mail-artists, who came in around 1977-'78 such as Lon Spiegelman (U.S.A.), > Vittore Baroni (Italy), Cracker Jack Kid (U.S.A.) and hundreds of others. > Beginning in 1980, Bloch edited the Mail-Art zine Panmag and through Carlo > Pittore (U.S.A.) he met Ray Johnson (U.S.A.) and became a chronicler and > archivist of information on Johnson. As a Mail-artist, Bloch questioned the > wisdom of those interested in helping Mail-Art find its way to cultural > institutions or the commercial art world. But at the same time he was > against Mail-Art "rules" to be carved in stone. Bloch was one of the first > Mail-Artists who moved his postal activities towards the electronic networks > of BBS-boards at first and later the internet, under the name of Panscan. > > Bloch took his first steps in Mail-Art as early as 1968. As a twelve year > old child, Bloch was interested in the uniqueness of a kid in his sixth > grade class and he immortalised him with an artistamp. The artistamp was > drawn on an envelope in the upper right hand corner. It was a gift for his > mother who saved it all those years for him. Around 1976-1977 Bloch bought > some used rubberstamps from a little shop in Kent Ohio where he was in > college. He was told the stamps had once belonged to the members of the then > local band 'Devo', who were involved in the fringe art movements of the day. > Bloch used the stamps to embellish postcards on which he also watercoloured > and drew, without knowing what Mail-Art was. After Bloch graduated and moved > to California in 1978, he saw a mention in a newspaper about a rubberstamp > exhibition by Stephen Vincent Benes (U.S.A.) in Santa Monica, California. At > this exhibition he heard about the Rubber Stamp Album in which he found an > article about Mail-Art. He realised that he was not the only one doing it. > In the same publication he also found the address of Ed Higgins (U.S.A.), to > whom he mailed some Mail-Art, and also saw some of the work of Ray Johnson. > He realised that the Mail-Art network would allow him to collaborate with > people he found interesting. Bloch tried to meet them if they were local, > and was very impressed with the spirit of Dada that engulfed the various > events Bloch attended. > > Bloch called his activities 'PAN' which stood for "Postal Art Network", > eventually he shortened it to "Post Art Network" to reflect his belief that > after Mail-Art and other developments of the sixties, art was no longer > necessary, so we are living in a "Post Art era". He began to dress himself > up like Pan, the Greek God of fields, forests and flocks and did > performances as Pan in the U.S.A. and later in two trips to Europe in 1986 > and 1989. In late 1978 Bloch contacted his friend Kim Kristensen (U.S.A.) in > Ohio, where he used to live, and asked him if he wanted to be "PAN Midwest", > he agreed. Michael Heaton (U.S.A.) another contact who moved to New York, > became 'PAN East'. Bloch who was living in Laguna Beach (California), became > 'PAN West'. At that time Bloch was not aware of Fluxus, which also was > geographically notated in this way at one time. However within a year, Bloch > was in touch with people all over the world, including some of the Fluxus > people as well as Shozo Shimamoto (Japan) and Ryosuke Cohen (Japan) who sent > some of their first Mail-Art to him. Bloch also became inspired by the > 'Inter-Dada '80' festival where he met some Mail-artists in person such as > G.A. Cavellini (Italy), Buster Cleveland (U.S.A.), Ed Higgins, Bill Gaglione > (U.S.A.) and others. Meeting the Mail-artists in person helped him to > understand the network. > > In 1982 Bloch moved from Los Angeles to New York, around the same period > others ceased to use 'PAN'. He saw a poster that said the G.A. Cavellini was > going to be in New York. He phoned Buster Cleveland and arranged the > possibility to perform. At this meeting and others to follow, he was able to > meet lots of correspondents he was in contact with from California such as > Carlo Pittore (U.S.A.), who introduced him to John Evans (U.S.A.), John > Jacob (U.S.A.), Ray Johnson, Steve Random (U.S.A.), Jean Brown (U.S.A.), > Zona (Bernard Banville) (U.S.A.) and many other Mail-Artists. From this > period on he started to correspondence with Johnson. During the early 1980s > many foreigners came to visit including Arno Arts (the Netherlands), Jürgen > Olbrich (Germany), H.R. Fricker (Switzerland), Henryk Gajewsky (Poland), > Sonja Van Der Burg (the Netherlands) and Günther Ruch (Switzerland). Carlo > Pittore and others hosted performances, parties and events for each of them. > > Bloch valued these collaborative meetings a great deal and continues to feel > that personal contact in the network is very important. It was also an > important time in the network when things heated up to a boil. Bloch did not > always agree with the statement Lon Spiegelman made "Mail-Art and money > don't mix" arguing "Mail-Art and guilt don't mix". Bloch also questioned > whether the artists with most resources and money made the best Mail-Art. He > also reacted on the "unwritten rules" of Mail-Art from Spiegelman. However, > there was a time when he supported them. This came to a climax when he > accused Dr. Ronnie Cohen (U.S..A.) of not following the rules in the > 'Franklin Furnace' Mail-Art show, which she promised to do. > > "A careful reading of the talks' transcripts reveal in retrospect that it > was the costumed and irreverent Bloch that pushed Dr. Cohen (and the > previous week, critic Robert Morgan) over the edge. Cohen abruptly took her > leave from the "Mail-Art melee," (as it was described in the Village Voice) > which exploded into chaos. Bloch still sees Cohen as guilty of violating the > "unwritten rules of Mail-Art" which she volunteered to follow but now > questions those rules himself and regrets the divisive direction his actions > took. He believes they hurt the Mail-Art network at a critical (pun > intended) juncture. "I'm sick of the > mail-art-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-school," he once told Ray Johnson in > reference to another incident. "You didn't learn that in my School," Johnson > appropriately replied. Johnson also told Bloch that it was Marcia Tucker of > the Whitney Museum who created the rules of mail art when she hosted the > first mail art show there at the Whitney via Johnson." Ochone, I. (n.d.). > The Performance Works of Mark Bloch [WWW page]. URL > http://www.panmodern.com/mbloch_performance.html > > Before Bloch came in contact with the Mail-Art network, he was into zine > making and has been always interested in self publishing. Around 1970 he > made one of a kind zines with names like Anthill that were inspired by Mad > magazine. Later he made zines with his friends in college including one they > did on a mimeograph machine. When 'Devo' played once behind the art dorm > Bloch lived in, three people showed up and he reported it in his zine called > The Sprout, which may have been the first ever review of the band in print. > The Sprout was a political and arty zine at a time when the 'Kent State > University' campus was embroiled in a controversy that had evolved from the > 'war in Vietnam'-protests of May 4th, 1970 resulting in the tragic killing > of four students. > > When he came in contact with Mail-Art Bloch, published Panmag which he began > in 1980 in Southern California, to describe his activities and to continue a > flyer-as-art trend he began with Bloch is Here, a guerilla performance > piece. Bloch has been making performance, movies and videotapes since 1977, > many of them are related to Mail-Art. They are now encapsulated in his > weekly New York cable TV show Panscan TV. This show is for several years > (beginning in the late nineties), every week on the Manhattan Cable Network. > Bloch studied TV in college (1974-1978) and later videoart, teached by Joan > Jonas (U.S.A.) and Taka Iimura (Japan) as artists-in-residence at 'Kent > State University' in Ohio. On his TV show he does interviews with artists, > he walks around New York with his camera shooting and talking, from > commercial TV he records images and change them, etc. It is an experiment > with the medium of television, creating TV as art. He uses the TV to > document computer art also, by taking stuff from his computer and putting it > directly on TV. He plays videotapes that other people send or give him, such > as the interviews Peter Küstermann (Germany) made with himself, Jacques > Massa (France), Lon Spiegelman and many others. Mail-Art and Mail- Art events > have often been showed and there is an ongoing Ray Johnson tape that Bloch > shows every time he add something to it. > > It was also his teacher and performance artist Jonas, who inspired and > performed with Bloch in his first performance piece on videotape. His > performance art starting in 1977 was inspired by Jonas and later the > do-it-yourself attitude of artists Brian Eno (U.S.A.), Robert Wyatt (U.S.A.) > and 'Devo'. > > "Despite the formal concerns being espoused by his teacher Jonas, Bloch's > first performance was captured on a Sony black and white reel to reel > videotape machine in the form of a Johnny Carson-inspired 'art talk show' > called The Cryptic Pyramid Show that featured Jonas, herself, a hired > magician and various show biz influenced stunts by Bloch that included, > among other things, a vow to quit smoking and a subsequent 'last smoke' that > was 'brought to you by the League of Women Smokers.'" Ochone, I. (n.d.). The > Performance Works of Mark Bloch [WWW page]. URL > http://www.panmodern.com/mbloch_performance.html > > His earlier performances were large events with some interaction with > audience and with a multi-media flavour, such as an event with dancers > moving through the audience, jazz guitarists playing a duet accompanied by > projected laser beams, and a 'Koto' ensemble. In 1978 he made a performance > with a local multi-media artist William Hermann (U.S.A.), drinking coffee > and eating toast at several public places in town became, this piece was > called Breakfast Around Town and was documented on audio and video tape and > photographed. This performance was the start of some more performances > outside art spaces. > > Later when he became active in Mail-Art he began to describe in letters his > daily activities as performances, which he called "AE" or "Actual Events". > And also began largely undocumented but important series of "mailings as > action" in which he speedily and frenetically would prepare mass mailings > and then travel to the post office to disperse them, collaborating with the > US Postal Service as the distributor of his work. The preparation of the > works as well as the interactions with postal employees and even the > subsequent "out of control" reception of the works by the addressees were > part of the work. Eventually this philosophy led to an oft-copied rubber > stamp that Bloch sent around the world "The Address is the Art" meaning that > the long distance interaction with the unseen recipient and all that led to > it was the essence of the work. It was like the mano a mano transference of > a flyer in Bloch Is Here but disembodied, and assisted by the various > institutions that comprise the international postal system. > > Yet another manifestation of Bloch's Mail-Art work in performance, was in > the form of partially or fully staged theatrical pieces that had some > overlap with correspondence or "correspondance" (as Ray Johnson called the > process). East Meats West was an elaborate "meating" between Bloch and two > corespondents known as Reva and Maia in Laguna Beach (California) that > caused a local scandal then led to a long friendship between the > participants. Cat and Mouse was a partially realized cat and mouse game in > the streets of Los Angeles between Bloch and a correspondent called the 'LA > Obscurist Club' that involved maps, large props, found objects and mailed > clues. Bloch have continued with his performances throughout the eighties > and the nineties beside his Mail-Art activities where he made performances > as 'Pan the goat God' or as the 'Panman', a God which is half man and half > animal. These performances he has made for over ten years. He also continued > with many other performances with inter-media, postal experiments, sound > poetry, musical experiments, as well as Mail-Art related, including > performances in Europe. > > Bloch's performance work and other art activities imploded into a > decade-long period of self-reflection from 1990 to 2001, called the "Word > Strike", in this period Bloch ceased producing artwork publicly as a > reaction to what he saw as "art world insanity." He took credit for the > collapse of prices in the art markets, citing his Word Strike as the cause. > He finally called the strike off after ten years when the learned members of > the art community came together in an altruistic gathering of humanistic > support for the ailing art dealer Pat Hearn (U.S.A.). He felt that signalled > a sea change for the cold art market. Hearn died of liver cancer on August > 18th, 2000, at the age of forty five. During his "Art Strike", Bloch > secretly completed hundreds, if not thousands, of projects. These were > unleashed when he came out of his spiritually necessitated isolation in > 2002. > > Bloch, who was a pioneer of the use of computers in Mail-Art, made his first > work of computer art in 1977 around the same time he started with > rubberstamps. It was a collage with a portrait made by a computer done in a > shopping mall, made in a time before he ever heard of Mail-Art. Later his > interest in computers came together with Mail-Art in the early 1980's. In > Panmag number one, (which followed Panmags 451 and 391) he made a sticker > that announced that the next logical step for Mail-Art was computers. It was > around 1987 when he had his first computer. By 1990 he started Panscan on > the billboard system "Echo Teleconferencing BBS", an early text based stage > of the internet. Panscan was intended to be a link between Mail-Art and the > network of computers, only not many Mail-artists had computers. Therefore > Panscan went into another direction away from Mail-Art, such as: a > collaborative poem, discussions about the "Art Strike" and "Word Strike", > talking about Marcel Duchamp (U.S.A.) and Dada, as well as Mail- Art. In 1995 > he created a web tribute and biography about Ray Johnson which is still > online. Bloch believes that it was the earliest such information about Ray > on the World Wide Web and also the longest lasting. > > "I prefer ASCII, very low tech computer communications. Why? Because then we > have to rely on the written word. That requires a person goes into their > INTERNAL network of experiences and feelings and thoughts and COMMUNICATE > through the written word. I like that. . I have never believed that being an > artist meant being a visual artist. Though I also see opportunities for > visual artists in computers." Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Mark > Bloch]. TAM Mail-Interview Project [WWW page]. URL http://www.iuoma.org/ > > Bloch had and still has one long running project which is called 'The Last > Mail-Art Show', which he started around 1983. He solicited texts and > statements about Mail-Art, as he thought it would be interesting to document > what people thought about Mail-Art. At that time it was not common to do so, > from the eighties on Mail-artists started to publish their Mail-Art texts. > Also he interviewed people about Mail-Art as early as 1986. These interviews > have not yet found their way to the public but they are stored in his > archive. The 'Last Mail-Art Show' was supposed to take the form of a project > that showed what was Mail-Art all about in words and in pictures with self > references and self reflection. Bloch actually never finished the project > and the results have never been published. In fact he see the storage of the > show as an art form: storage just like collage, decollage, frottage, and > assemblage. He ironically says he has created an art form of his tendency > to save things for twenty years before even beginning to consider showing > them to the world. Bloch never saw "important" art, including Mail- Art, as > something that would wither away if it were not enjoyed within a week or > even a year or two. "Important" art is art that sticks around for a long > time. He felt like the best art was art that could have longevity. That > could live on for centuries. The best art lasts and so he did spent his > adult life thus far creating his vision for the 'Last Mail-Art Show' and > someday, when it is ready, he hopes he will have a chance to publish it or > share it in some way. The 'Last Mail-Art Show' have been showed several > times in many different ways such as in Carlo Pittore's 'Galleria Del'Occhio > ', in the East Village of New York in the mid eighties. it was also brought > along to meetings, showed to people in their home and parts were carried to > institutions like the United States Post Office and the New York Council on > the Arts. He also photographed huge portions of it on thirty five millimetre > slides and made many videos about it. He has a lot of video documentation of > the show including a beautiful soundtrack audio collage made with interviews > he did and tapes he received in the mail. Another project Bloch did was in > 1996, the 'United Nations One World Mail-Art Show', a project created in > honour of the United Nations fiftieth birthday. Bloch hoped they would help > him to create a catalogue, but due to bureaucracy Bloch had to do the show > on his own and a catalogue was not send out. However, the entire show has > been on the world wide web virtually since it was taken down in its physical > form. > > Bloch's strongest years of Mail-Art were from 1978 till 1990. He thinks that > he gave as a Mail-artist the impression that he did not care about Mail-Art. > As he did not participate in many projects and did not write articles for > some books which turned out to be important sources. In the beginning of the > nineties Bloch went on "Art Strike" (1990 - 2000) and on "Word Strike" > (1991 - 1995), since then he answers his mail rarely. By the end of the > nineties Mark Bloch was not participating in the Mail-Art network any more, > besides staying in contact with old time friends. In stead of networking he > is working on a biography of Ray Johnson, by interviewing people who knew > him. It is a serious book and a huge undertaking for which he writes a lot > as he tries to find a publisher. Some of the mail he receives goes to the > 'Kent State University Special Collections Library' where he went to college > in Ohio. Postcards, artistamps and personal correspondence he keeps in his > own archive. From his own Mail-Art he has kept photocopies of almost > everything he hand made and has sent out. Since the late eighties, he keeps > a personal electronic archive of letters he wrote on his computer and every > electronic message he received. > > Beside the "Art Strike", Bloch also was in other ways active in 'Neoism', he > parodied the magazine Smile in one of his Panmags as C-NILE which sounds in > English like the word "senile". He used the Neoist concept against itself by > creating Pan-Neoism and by creating a new Open Pop Star called 'Martial > Panterel'. Since then he have written a novel with 'Panterel' as the > protagonist. He always wanted to make a follow up copy D-NILE but he never > did. He wrote his last official Panmag before the "Word Strike" about the > 'Plagiarist Festival' in Glasgow Scotland. It is called the Last Word and in > it he continues his fight against fascism and the hijacking of 'Neoism' by > exposing Stewart Home (England) and Istvan Kantor (U.S.A.) who are both > associated a little too much with certain aspects of 'Neoism'. Bloch > believes in a 'Neoism' that is not about any one person, without that > quality, there is no need for 'Neoism', as Mark Bloch says "I think the best > Neoist is Florian Kramer who also attended the Glasgow Plagiarist Festival. > The reason you probably don't know much about him is because he is the true > Neoist. He does the 6 x 9 Squares Website." > > > Related Topics: > [01] Zine > [02] Computer > [03] Pseudonym > [04] Generation > [05] Spiegelman, Lon > [06] Baroni, Vittore > [07] Cracker Jack Kid > [08] Pittore, Carlo > [09] Johnson, Ray > [10] Internet > [11] Artistamp > [12] Rubberstamp > [13] Postcard > [14] Newspaper > [15] Higgins, Ed > [16] Network > [17] Performance > [18] Kristensen, Kim > [19] Heaton, Michael > [20] Fluxus > [21] Shimamoto, Shozo > [22] Cohen, Ryosuke > [23] Inter-Dada '80 > [24] Festival > [25] Cavellini, Guglielmo Achille > [26] Cleveland, Buster > [27] Gaglione, Bill > [28] Pittore, Carlo > [29] Evans, John > [30] Jacob, John > [31] Random, Steve > [32] Brown, Jean > [33] Zona > [34] Banville, Bernard > [35] Arno Arts > [36] Olbrich, Jürgen > [37] Fricker, Hans Reudi > [38] Gajewsky, Henryk > [39] Van Der Burg, Sonja > [40] Ruch, Günther > [41] Money > [42] Rule > [43] Cohen, Dr. Ronnie > [44] Franklin Furnace > [45] Video > [46] Television > [47] Küstermann, Peter > [48] Massa, Jacques > [49] Wyatt, Robert > [50] Multi-media > [51] Address > [52] Philosophy > [53] Correspondance > [54] Word Strike > [55] Billboard system > [56] Internet > [57] Art strike > [58] Duchamp, Marcel > [60] Dada > [61] World wide web > [62] Text > [63] Collage > [64] Decollage > [65] Frottage > [66] Assemblage > [67] Photography > [68] United Nations > [69] Neoism > [70] Parody > [71] Smile > [72] Multiple name > [73] Plagiarism > [74] Home, Stewart > [75] Kantor, Istvan > [76] Kramer, Florian > > References: > [01] (M. Bloch, The Shocking Truth About Neoism, e-mail, January, 2005) > [02] (M. Bloch, Lon Spiegelman, e-mail, December, 2005) > [03] (M. Bloch, personal interview, September, 2004) > [04] Held, John Jr. (1995). Key to the Collection: Correspondence, 1976-1995 > [WWW page]. URL http://www.geocities.com/johnheldjr/ > [05] Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Mark Bloch]. TAM Mail- Interview > Project [WWW page]. URL http://www.iuoma.org/ > [06] Ochone, I. (n.d.). The Performance Works of Mark Bloch [WWW page]. URL > http://www.panmodern.com/mbloch_performance.html > > Date last update: 27 Augustus 2006 > > > > Greetings, > Sztuka Fabryka > > www.sztuka-fabryka.be > > Sztuka Fabryka online: > MySpace: www.myspace.com/sztuka_fabryka > Fotolog: www.fotolog.com/sztuka_fabryka > flickR: www.flickr.com/photos/sztuka_fabryka/ > Mail-Art mailinglist: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ma-network/ > > Address of correspondence: > Sztuka Fabryka - c/o De Decker Geert - Kerkstraat 290 - 9140 Tielrode - > Belgium > [address of residence] available only in case of visits. > Tel. & Fax (24 hours a day): ++32 (0)3-770 84 64 > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [address of residence, only available in case of visit] > > This e-mail is intended exclusively for its addressees and may contain > information that is either confidential or protected by professional > privilege, any publication or forwarding this message to a third person > without permission is prohibited. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mailinglist from Sztuka Fabryka http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be/ Yahoo! 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