où je suis n’est pas qui je suis/maria hupfield/emily carr university

February 20 at 3:12pm

hi maria,
this is karen, aka dream listener,
and…
i was wondering if you had received the (or if anyone has received the) postcard(s) i mailed to you c/o emily carr? as part of the postcard project “ou je suis n’est pas qui je suis?” i am wondering what kind of response the postcards are creating (if any) and if people are aware the text on the back comes from the homeless nation website?

no pressure to respond to this question….just fishing for clues and i know you too have a soft spot for the homeless and the marginalized.
karen

February 24 at 5:37pm

Hi Karen,
unfortunately I have yet to see the post cards?
:( I wonder where they got to?
m

February 25 at 2:30pm

Yep!
Well it turns out I did get your postcard but thought it was from one of my students… ha ha… oh dear.

anyways here it is. mystery solved :)
best,
m

February 25 at 2:31pm

Do I send you one back??? how does it work.

February 26 at 11:24am

hi maria,
that’s perfect! and no, there is nothing more for you to do. you read the card and that’s all i ask. IF you had been curious you might have checked out the website listed on the back of the postcard: www.homelessnation.com, and then you would have seen the website that is by and for the homeless community of canada…but chances are you already know about them.
however…i am wondering if it is o.k. with you if i post on my blog (www.likewritingwithwater.wordpress.com) your response to the card as you are the very first person who i know of who has received the card and so it is kinda a joyous occasion for me—reception confirmed!

it was while i was in edmonton this summer that i first saw your work. i spent a long time looking at your photographs, then went away and came back and looked some more. there is something very powerful in the images that makes a kind of quiet respectful feeling/thinking place in me. i could say they are beautiful, which they are, but it is much more than that and it seems words (at least in the english language) can’t be found. and then when i read you were working with youth in toronto it kinda somehow made the images “more” (not very articulate i know)
so, thank you for your work, and thank you for solving the mystery of the postcards.
i suspect one day our paths will cross,
i look forward to that day,
yours,
karen

February 27 at 4:00pm

Thanks for the link. for the sight not the advertisement ;)
my coworker merritt also had a friend from new england area mail her one so it is getting around.

i’m not sure if you want me to send a personal response or are asking to post the experience i had with the card? ie: the student mix up? heh heh. either way is fine. keep me posted.

best,
m

où je suis n’est pas qui je suis/postcard series/bonne zabolotney/emily carr university

427 postcards mailed as of today

this project deflects or directs people to the homeless nation website, meaning i have little knowledge if the postcards are being received, or what kind of response the postcards are eliciting. kinda like throwing seeds into the wind.

où jes suis n’est pas qui je suis/postcard project continues/ursula snyder/nscad

3e imperial/rêves à la poste (pour granby)

Tous les jours, Karen Elaine Spencer recueille des bribes de rêves attrapés à son réveil. Elle les retranscrit à la main sur un papier à lettre, puis, un à un, elle les disperse dans la ville, en les postant à des personnes inconnues, choisies au hasard, dans l’annuaire téléphonique. Le destinataire reçoit cette missive énigmatique dans sa boîte aux lettres, ouvre l’enveloppe, déplie la lettre et lit : «Cher…, j’ai rêvé que…»

Chaque destinataire reçoit ainsi un fragment de rêve unique. Si cette correspondance participe d’un geste de communication authentique, elle confronte toutefois le destinataire à une logique incongrue puisque la lettre est écrite par un étranger. Et quelle explication logique pourrait soutenir le fait qu’un étranger adresse une lettre à un inconnu? À travers l’envoi de ses rêves à la poste, Karen Elaine Spencer souhaite placer les destinataires dans une posture dynamique où ils deviennent des collaborateurs actifs. Elle puise dans son univers onirique personnel pour infiltrer leur vie privée, même si, au bout du compte, l’impact de la réception s’avérait ténu et éphémère.

3e imperial/dream letters for granby

3e imperial/dream letters for granby

four hundred dreams have been written and mailed to granby residents so far…still a long way to go.

3e imperial/dream letters for granby

i dream a dream. upon waking i write the dream and mail it to you. you are a stranger to me, i do not know you. this dream is for you.