Postcards: A journey from past to today…
While I am scanning the topics of this week, Postcards which are placed in Victorian era seems to be an interesting subject to be discussed. Postcards are mostly personal expressions to communicate our friends or family who are far from us. It can be said that an experience shared between long distances… It is not a long personal explanation like letters but something like a mark, short message even sometimes only with an image or illustration. However it is not as private as letter because it has sent without envelope and companies create designed cards for people to send. Therefore, it has an advertising approach also.
The first known postcards with images were in 1840s which were hand drawn. In 1870, the first printed postcard with one side picture was produced by Léon Besnardeau. Then postcards started to use as souvenir and advertising although the main reason was being cheaper and faster in the beginning. Postcards also became an important figure of Victorian era which based on ornaments resembles the wealth of people and also the idea of traveling became important because of the invention of trains and steam boats.
Today postcards are not used commonly in order to provide communication because of technology. We send e-mails and make phone calls. However, the meaning of postcards has survived and many artists created new concepts out of it.
PostSecret is a community art project in which artists from whole world put their own postcards that telling their secret stories on the web. The web site became an online journal of different people who contains personal stories and experiences expressed on postcards. The postcards are creatively illustrated and designed with an intention to communicate. This project is derived from the personal message of the postcards. They have also exhibitions of these postcards as printed and also books that collects these works. Thus the book becomes a narrative of many people.
Another modern example is an artist Ayaka Nozawa who created mail art and share with his friends. The idea comes from the traveling through friends with digital postcards. He also ask people to date and sign postcards and send back to him. In this way he keeps the memory of that time and understands he and his friend alive at that time. He also makes installations out of these postcards.
VA 312 ezgi 
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