San Francisco: With the advent of texting, social media, and other instant
forms of communication, today's world can often feel rushed and impersonal.
Letter writing may be a lost art, yet there is still something uniquely special
and intimate about receiving a letter in the mail.
Enter: Snail Mail My Email. The project, created by artist
Ivan Cash, works by having volunteers handwrite and artistically interpret
strangers' emails and send these physical letters to the intended recipients,
completely free of charge.
This worldwide collaborative art event returns for one week,
starting on Monday, November 12, 2012.
During this week, Cash and his team of volunteers will be
accepting email letter requests via the project's website
(www.snailmailmyemail.org). The emails can also include a request for tangible,
custom elements such as a doodle, a kiss, a flower petal, or a spray of
perfume. Individual volunteers pay for the postage.
In 2011, 234 volunteers collectively sent 10,457 letters to
over 70 countries within a one-month time span, the content of which inspired
the 'Snail Mail My Email' book.
Cash's new book, Snail Mail My Email: Handwritten Letters in
a Digital World is a
bound art collection of the most creative, memorable, and heartfelt letters
from the original Snail Mail My Email project. The letters themselves are
beautifully crafted correspondences covering a wide range of themes from love,
gratitude, and hope, to remorse, existentialism, and the bizarre. With the turn
of every page is an addictive and artful window into everyday lives and a
reminder of the power of personal connection.
"The project's underlying goal has always been to
reignite the lost art of letter writing," says Cash. "I hope that between
the book, the project's return, and any other exposure, people feel inspired to
write and send a letter of their own!"