Key research themes
1. How do Mail Art archives mediate memory and artistic agency within socio-political and historical frameworks?
This research theme investigates the interplay between archival practices of Mail Art and their functions as sites of memory, political expression, and artistic agency. It focuses on how Mail Art archives not only preserve historical records but also perform active roles in challenging official narratives, fostering memory work amid censorship and authoritarian regimes, and shaping art historical discourses. This area is critical because it reveals the capacity of archives and artistic networks to act both as repositories and as dynamic agents that produce and contest cultural memory and political meaning.
2. What are the challenges and innovative methodologies in preserving, cataloguing, and providing access to born-digital and traditional Mail Art archives?
This research strand focuses on the technical, curatorial, and ethical challenges inherent in managing Mail Art archives, particularly as material transitions from physical ephemera to born-digital records such as emails and digital art. It explores emerging digital humanities tools, archival workflows, and reimagined cataloguing systems designed to accommodate the complex, associative, and networked nature of Mail Art, aiming to enhance preservation fidelity and researcher access while negotiating legal and privacy concerns.
3. How has Mail Art evolved as a global, intercultural network and alternative artistic practice from its origins to recent digital transformations?
This theme investigates the historical development of Mail Art as an international, decentralized network and cultural movement, tracing key figures, identities, and practices from the 1960s Fluxus roots through politicized Latin American expressions to contemporary digital iterations. It emphasizes Mail Art's role in fostering transnational communication, subverting mainstream art systems, and its adaptation to emergent technologies amidst cultural shifts, informing current understandings of networked artistic collaboration and community formation.