Report on the Mail Art Networking Congress
with Reima Mgkinen in Kangasala, Finland about "Motivation for Networlcin8 "

The postman comes swimming to Finnish underground cartoonist Reima MZikinen, who enters into a rubberstamp cutting com-

petition with Angela, only to end up producing a miniature portrait of us with amazing speed.

The rest of the short bright night here in the north is dedicated to a discussion ( between lake and sauna ) on the MOTIVATION for NETWORKING.

• Why do we devote so much of our time, money, energy and love to a non-profit activity - and not use it for other purposes?

• An important ·motive: meeting FIEAL people in flesh & blood to get an authentic view of the world, not by mass media.

• Another one: experiencing many new feelings and thoughts beyond sometimes limited verbal communication.

• Never before has the world been so open for MORE than mail: our fathers were at war with each other, foreillners got stigmatized as scapegoats, the world ruled by national prejudice. We CAN behave diiferently today, understanding freedom not onlv as a chance, but as an obligation. Peace is not only the absence of war, but a space to be filled.

• Networking as a chance for personality in shallow, standardized mass societies which manipulate and exploit our working power - as a chance to give your own art and work a historic dimension, creatin8 one's own personal international net of friends.