Lucie Marty, Director Creativity Tank, asked:

What are attitudes in this group (RHIZOME list) regarding artists
stepping across professional boundaries in order to bring the creative
process to bear on many questions?

honoria replied:

Mail artists have been stamping out boundaries for 30 years now. The
first boundary we overcame was the art market boundary - which in the
context of this question makes us non-professional artists even though
we are the largest art movement in history. Mail Art. We give our art
away. Mail art addresses ethical, political, aesthetic, musical, poetic,
visual, random and planned issues on a global scale daily. A search will
reveal that mail art is creeping into ciberspazio.

Andrej Tisma wrote:

After mail-art comes e-mail-art and after networking comes
internetworking. Only the techniques and terms are different. The
essence is the same - art of communication.

Robert Adrian also wrote:

Mail-art and "Telematic"-art exist within a medium of communication -
mail-art in the international postal system, "telematic"-art in the
international telephone networks. Both operate by compressing the the
distinction between producer and consumer … the artist works within
the medium of distribution thus eliminating the mediating middle. In
both cases the content is "Communication" itself … that is: the art
lies in the space between the communicating partners. Mail-art or
"email-art" without a response is like the sound of one hand clapping.

The difference between mail-art and telematic-art is in the inequality
of access: If you have a permanent address, snail mail will find you
eventually - and there is a way to post a letter almost everywhere. But
private telephones are rare in most parts of the world (not to mention
modems, computers and friendly ISPs). Fact is - email is mostly for
priveleged folks …like us.