Tales and Legends of the Eternal Network
A LITTLE
MAIL ART
FABLE
Once Upon a Time there was a small and happy kingdom called Netland. It was small, sure, but it was a calm haven and a serene refuge for art outsiders with skins of different colors and speaking different languages and believing in different gods & goddesses. They formed a free and horizontal community, and quite amazingly they could understand each other through the simple swapping of little images and colourful beads inside paper bags. They called this game the „Eternal Network” and felt part of a very special and lucky tribe.
Then a big Invisible machine was invented that made the paper bags and colourful beads useless, so people could communicate faster and cheaper but all the FUN of trading gifts was lost. And the people gradually forgot the Golden Netiquette of No-No’s that had peacefully guided them in five decades of happy networking. So the small kingdom became Wide as the Whole World, but it no more had a shared name or a common philosophy or a beating heART. And the people started quarrelling among themselves, and they were using more words and less images and colours, but could not understand each other anymore. The Eternal Network had become the Ethereal Babel...
Vittore Baroni @ E.O.N. 2006