irl postcardposting

snail mail

If you're here from Cohost, as many of you are, you may have seen some posts offering to mail people art, photos, holiday cards, and postcards. As someone who enjoys posting, has been posting about her postcard collection, and has thus amassed hundreds of these things, I naturally wanted in.

Why postcards? People were just out there putting anything on those things. Souvenir-type postcards aren't interesting to me so much as cards that showcase the aesthetics and history of the time. Real CARI material, often. In particular, postcards advertising '90s web tech -- the kind I've been posting about -- offer tiny snapshots of a world that is fast linkrotting away.

It's also nice to just look through the cards from time to time, as I would zines. When I've felt particularly affected, I've called the collection a deconstructed coffee table book: little things with little pictures (and, sometimes, messages from past senders) to flip through during your downtime. (They're also, as a collection, pretty compact -- ideal for city apartments.)

Do you also want in? Send me an email -- katherinemorayati (at) gmail (dot) com -- with the subject line "postcardposting" and your mailing address, including country. You will receive one (1) postcard in the mail in a somewhat timely fashion, with a message from me -- think a mini postcardposting post. (This goes without saying, but I won't do anything with the address besides send one (1) postcard, unless you say you'd like to receive more cards periodically.) If you have other (online) ways of contacting me, that works too.

The postcards I have, and may mail to you, generally fall within the following buckets. Let me know if there's a category you're particularly interested in:

• '90s/'00s advertising, particularly internet/technology
• Modern and contemporary art
• Fashion
• Music, particularly intersecting with new media
• Any specific subject you're into -- I can check whether it intersects with the above

Also let me know if there's subject matter you would prefer not to receive, such as:

• Suggestive content (innuendo, etc)
• Drug references
• Advertisements for specific companies
• Postcards for specific events that mean nothing to you
• Print-on-demand stuff
• Postcards without much space to write longer messages
• Anything on the first list, or not on either list

I've mailed out a couple already, but there are dozens more; if you're reading this, there are almost certainly postcards awaiting you.

May you enjoy posting IRL.