Dylan Houser Wants YOU! To Become a Mail Art Recipient Penpal

Back in 2011-2013, I enjoyed a great period of prolific recording, and mailing tapes and CDRs to people all across the globe. 

Unfortunately, due to a combination or things, my output had gradually decreased to the point where I had ceased production altogether for a while. These various reasons include: the increased expenses on international shipping rates; shortage of materials to burn/dub audio and/or print the artwork; my increasing amounts of live performances; personal matters; and of course, being burned-out in general.

Fast-forward to early 2017: after having contributed to the then-recent issues of HalZine, I was inspired to put together my own “visual noise” zines. But even these proved to be somewhat costly in the long run. I decided to become even more efficient, and start making postcards.

Lo and behold, they became a success! Multiple recipients would gladly post them on social media, and even send me their own mailart in return.

It was just like the good ol’ days of 2011-2013, except it was limited to just the visuals (which I felt was the centerpiece of a majority of the releases I did anyways).

But now I have decided to go a step further: I will be incorporating audio with my future mailart, without having to compromise the amount of postage. How, you may ask?

By slapping a QR code on the postcard!

For those who may not know: you can scan a QR code by opening the camera on your phone and holding it up to the code until a tab drops down with the link embedded into the code.

For example: here’s a screenshot of our good friend Hal McGee scanning the code (on a postcard I had recently sent him) with the camera on his phone:

Voila!

I understand there are some potential drawbacks: most notably this feature is not incorporated in every cellphone (specifically Android, which I think requires an app). Regardless, this is all in good fun.

I am planning on making more of these and being quite productive with it throughout this year, as I greatly enjoy creating and mailing these out.

If you would like to receive any future postcards from me, feel free to email me your address or PO BOX and I will add you to my mailing list.

And in the event that you can’t open the contents of the QR CODE with your phone, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to copy-paste the link your way!

Cheers,
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-Dylan Houser
January 12th, 2020

Further reading:
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Free QR Code generator

QR Code Wikipedia page