Why would anyone want a tweet on a piece of paper?

^ Sam Potts, “Putting Tweets On Paper Since May 26, 2009.”

Received my Twitter-by-jpg. Very exciting. Futile in many ways but hugely appealing and valuable in many more. The initial idea was that you could request a tweet on paper, which you’d receive by post…. living outside the US I could only request the .jpg option.

The subversive concept intriguing of it - without wanting to disappear into a stenching art critique hole - but also the craft. It reminds me of Dada and Fluxus artist’s who used the postal system to create and collaborate on art work as well as the participatory art of Sophie Calle who will often use the correspondence between herself and the subject as part of the final work.

Remote villagers

Doing a quick search around for other services and sites that do this kind of thing I stumbled across a few companies that will turn your emails into atoms, integrating with Salesforce.com, offering API’s the whole shebang but it was the justification suggested at Digital Inspiration that appealed the most:

“1. Some of your relatives live in remote villages where they don’t have computers let alone access to Internet.

2. Your grandparents know computers but they’ll probably feel more happy if you could send them emails and photographs in paper form that they can read in the lawn outside.”

All very worthy and especially amusing when it comes to thinking about Twitter.

…My last tweet was “Vision going.” Some more interesting reading about postal art. If you would like to send me a Tweet: 6 Salem Road, Bayswater, London W2 4BU