E-mail art
Encyclopedia
Email art is simply any kind of art sent by email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

. It includes computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....

, animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....

s, screensavers, digital scans of artwork
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...

 in other media, or even ASCII art
ASCII art
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...

. When exhibited, email art can be either displayed on a computer screen or similar type of display device, or the art can be printed out and displayed.

There is an ongoing debate among some artists as to just what the relationship of email art to mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...

 should be considered to be. In addition to questions about whether this is even a valid or meaningful genre of art, as clearly almost any kind of digital-based art can be emailed, thus making it into "email art," has been particular criticism of email art by tradition-minded mail artists when the email art has been perceived to be akin to mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

. Other criticisms of email art from a mail artist's perspective have focused on the lack of dimensionality of the attachment, the lack of intimacy as opposed to real mail.

Email art is an offshoot of the networking mail art movement of the early 1990s. Chuck Welch, also known as Cracker Jack Kid, connected with early online artists and created a net-worker telenetlink. The historical evolution of the term "Email Art" is documented in Chuck Welch's Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology published and edited by University of Calgary Press.
In 1997, with the participation of 35 mail-artists (such as Vittore Baroni
Vittore Baroni
Vittore Baroni , born in Forte dei Marmi, Italy, is an Italian mailartist, music critic and explorer of countercultures. Since the mid-1970s he has been one of the most active and respected promoters and documenters of mail art....

, Ken Friedman
Ken Friedman
Ken Friedman, is a seminal figure in Fluxus, an international laboratory for experimental art, architecture, design, literature, and music. He had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1966. He has also been involved with mail art, and he has written extensively about Fluxus and Intermedia...

, John Held Jr., Reed Altemus, Honoria, H.R. Fricker, Ruud Janssen
Ruud Janssen
Ruud Janssen is a Dutch Fluxus and mail artist currently living in Breda in the Netherlands.Ruud Janssen studied Physics and Mathematics. He became active with mail art in 1980 and did several international mail art projects...

, Steven Perkins, Gyorgy Galàntai, Pawel Petasz and Géza Perneczky) Guy Bleus
Guy Bleus
Guy Bleus is an artist associated with the mail art movement and performance art.His work covers different areas, including administration , postal and olfactory communication....

publishes the first E-Mail-Art Manifesto, called: Re: The E-Mail-Art & Internet-Art Manifesto in his electronic zine E-Pêle-Mêle: E-Mail-Art Netzine, Hasselt, Belgium.
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