A Project for the Playa Shy: Random Acts of Postcards

dusty_nipples · Post by **dusty_nipples** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 11:14 am

I have a project I've done 3 times at my regional burn and it was a blast! I tried it on the playa last year for the first time and found not only was it fun, but it was a perfect vehicle for me to approach camps and people I might not otherwise have approached, and be more involved overall. I'd like to open this project up to the masses, and invite anyone who likes it to participate as well. If you are shy about walking into stange camps and saying 'hi', this is the project for you!

Random Acts of Postcards

Who doesn't love recieving a postcard in the mail? Who doesn't get a charge out of a visit to the BRCPO? Who doesn't have at least a few kind, funny or insane sentiments they'd be happy to share with a random stranger? Here's how it works:

You are the Postcard Person. You collect a random assortment of unused postcards you love and bring them to the playa. Carry the cards with you, and a pen. I've found it easiest to keep 3 piles of cards in ziplocs...

1) cards that need a message to be written
2) cards that need a recipient address
3) cards ready to be mailed

You walk up to a random person, anyone. Walk straight into a camp and ask if they will participate in your Random Acts of Postcards project. They will be sending a postcard to, or recieving a postcard from, another random person on the playa. You don't know who it will be, and neither do they. Someone will volunteer to participate... they always do.

Then you pull out a pile of postcards...

If you want them to RECIEVE a postcard, have them close their eyes and choose from a pile that is blank, or has messages already written on them. Don't let them see the card, or the message. It'll be a surprise until they get it in the mail. Cover the message, if there is one, and have them self address the card (BRC address if it's early enough in the week for BRCPO to get it to them). Take the postcard back, thank them, and be on your way. Or hang around and chat! You just made a new friend!

If you want them to SEND a postcard, let them choose from a pile that is blank, or that already has recipient names on them. Let them see the image on the card they are choosing, sometimes it gives people inspiration for a message to write. Flip the card and have them write a message. If there is already a recipient address on the postcard, cover it up. You don't want them to know who it's going to. It's random. If they sign their name and camp, maybe the recipient will come say Hi once they get the card? You're connecting people!

I have found it helpful to have post it notes handy to cover up the side of the postcard I don't want them to see.

Then, you bring the cards to the BRCPO. You'll need to have some postage stamps for the cards going out to real world addresses, and be sure to bring goodies for the BRCPO folks... they can be rather surly :-)

If a bunch of people decide they like this project and want to participate, we could have Random Postcards being mailed all around BRC! I never thought to open this up to other people before but I think it would be a blast! And especially fun for shy people... it feel great to walk into a camp and engage people in your project and help people connect.

What do you think? I know it sounds confusing at first, but once you do it, you develop a schtick and it's really a lot of fun. Anybody?

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 11:27 am

Very cool. You just gave me a great idea of how to get to know my playa neighbors, advertise our camp to other camps, and to simply contact people to let them know we're thinking of them and where we are.

Thanks!

:D

Post by **AntiM** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 11:51 am

I love synchronicity; just bought packs of cards from summer camp on clearance at the craft store with much the same idea in mind!

dusty_nipples · Post by **dusty_nipples** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 11:57 am

That is so cool! If we get a bunch of people doing this we could really have something fun going on. We could all be Random Postcard People! The BRCPO will either love us, or hate us.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 11:59 am

I have ooodles of postcards to donate for something like this.

dusty_nipples · Post by **dusty_nipples** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:06 pm

Thanks for the offer! That's so great! If people sign up for this I'm sure we could use them. I have a postcard shop around the corner from me. This project gives me the perfect excuse to spend hours there and pick out a bunch of cards I love. I get some really strange, beautiful, funny and poignent ones. I have a lot of artists cards that I would love to use, but they all have printing or advertising on the back. You need space for people to be able to write messages and addresses.

mamagrrl · Post by **mamagrrl** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:49 pm

dusty_nipples wrote:I have a lot of artists cards that I would love to use, but they all have printing or advertising on the back.

Big White Stickers from your local office supply store will cover up all sorts of printing. You can use the cards! They might be even cooler for having been re-used.

dusty_nipples · Post by **dusty_nipples** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:13 pm

Brilliant.. why didn't I think of that? See this is why I want people to do this with me!

Post by **AntiM** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:39 pm

I have a bunch of advertising cards that are pretty cool. I was going to hack them up and decoupage them, but they may become postcards after all.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:26 pm

OH oh oh and now another brainstorm -- Postcard Camp. Make your own postcard (i.e., from scratch) to send to friends (on playa or off). Not sure if I'd do this one personally. Hm...it WOULD be a good followup to Necklace Camp...

dusty_nipples · Post by **dusty_nipples** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 12:27 pm

I started a tribe on tribe.net for Random Acts of Postcards. A couple people have already joined! We might be onto something here. If you're interested in participating in this project, please join the tribe. We can chat about any details... and who knows what it will evolve into! But it's sure to be fun!

Thanks.

http://tribes.tribe.net/randompostcards

fancy1 · Post by **fancy1** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 2:32 pm

We've done something similar to this for the past couple of years in our camp, the LAFers. We paint daily, large & small canvas. Along side we have always had a bunch of blank postcards and postage to paint yourself. Some would paint or draw on them, then off to the BRPO they'd head. Some mailed them home to themselves, some to others, and some to other camps in BRC. We didn't "advertise" them, only had them there to do. Probably 3-4 dozen each year went out each year. and the BRCPO folks rock! They appreciated the mail box we had at the front of camp and delivered mail to us daily.

Fancy
LAFers

Chai Guy · Post by **Chai Guy** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 3:26 pm

One of the best things I have ever brought to the playa (and continue to bring every year) is a mail box. You wouldn't believe the cool letters, poems and other stuff people leave for me in there.

It's also a great way to identify your camp (Just paint your camp name on the side and ta-da!)

B-Rella · Post by **B-Rella** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 5:10 pm

Dusty, this sounds so great. I will be a virgin burner to '06 and from what I've read on eplaya, it can be a little daunting to walk into other people's camp so an idea like this is perfect to get over that nervousness, and interact with people. I joined your tribe also!

(a little off topic but) 2 of my friends and I did something sort of like this in the default world years ago. We were doing a lot of photography (35mm) and getting a certain amount of bad shots, y'know blurry or thumb in the picture or accidently photographed only feet. We got together one evening going through our collective piles of pictures and decided to mail out the bad ones to people picked randomly from the phone book.

Das Bus · Post by **Das Bus** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:36 pm

I had a similar idea last year. I had a bunch of extra postcards, so I wrote messages (like 'you're beautiful', 'I love you', etc...) on them and was going to put them annonymously in random mailboxes. Unfortunately, I didn't think of it til Saturday, and never got back out into the City. So I have them packed for this year. : )

mmmagenta · Post by **mmmagenta** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:36 am

What a fabulous idea! I definitely am going to bring a mailbox this year. I am down to gather up some postcards!

dusty_nipples · Post by **dusty_nipples** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:15 am

I didn't get to check in on this thread for the past week... happy to see a few more posts! Again - anyone interested in participating in this project, please join my tribe on tribe.net... http://tribes.tribe.net/randompostcards

You don't have to join the tribe to participate though... I simply ask that if you are going to label your postcard a 'Random Act of Postcards', please try to follow the basic premise...

1) the sender does not know who the reciever will be, but it's okay for the sender to see the picture on the card when writing their message

2) the reciever does not know who it's from, or what the card looks like, until they recieve it in the mail

Pretty simple, and pretty fun! Over on tribe, we're discussing labels for the cards and a Postcard Swap partay on the playa to kick it off. See ya there I hope!

Friendly Jen · Post by **Friendly Jen** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:43 am

I really like the idea of getting more people involved in on-playa mail. We at the BRCPO have had a decline in past years due to the postmark project and would like to get more on-playa mail going. I'd be willing to 'play nice' in support of your guys project. Although I can't say much for the rest of my comrades. off to join the tribe....

Ivy · Post by **Ivy** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:50 am

I have a ton of postcards I've saved for art projects which never occured, but I never really felt right throwing them away. Cool to finally find a use for them. I dig this.

Friendly Jen · Post by **Friendly Jen** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:17 pm

This is kinda a side project, but thought you folks might be able to help.

I'm working on a project where I use no postage neccecary postcards to mail our bm hopes and fears for the future back to the corporate world en masse. If anyone would like to save these out of their junk mail you can send them to me at

Jen Jenkins
3107 Vine Circle
Rocklin, CA
95765

wildilocks · Post by **wildilocks** » Sun May 07, 2006 2:09 am

Fantastic idea.

Question: here in Oz, we have companies who distribute free postcards as advertising - often they're really awesome artworks, advertising local events, publications, shows. Do you have similar in the US?

I could regularly grab a few of each one I come across and have a huge swag by August. They'd be novel because they'd be for something from the other side of the world, too :)

sugarpux · Post by **sugarpux** » Wed May 31, 2006 10:57 pm

I know i'm a latecomer but I have an idea to add. what if you had a hat or box with a bunch of camp names in it. they write on the postcard and pick a random name (they dont see the name). then you go to that camp, give the postcard to them and try to have them write a postcard the same way. of course the recieving camp would know who it's from.
then you'll be going from camp to camp, randomly. just exploring and meeting and connecting people. eh?

BoxaRox · Post by **BoxaRox** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:01 pm

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:12 pm

I odn't think I"m going to full on participate in this, but I still have a bunch of postcards that I might want to bring and donate. (it might be nice to have some extras so that people you meet on the playa could take the idea and run with it.)
I'm going to cross post this on the tribe, too.

Xak · Post by **Xak** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 7:38 pm

I love your postcard idea. For the last three months I have been busy making postcards for BM and today I stumble upon your thread of Random Acts of Postcards...

RouseMouse · Post by **RouseMouse** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:31 pm

for used cards you might try a stain sealing primer like "Kilz" or "zinzer" which is not water based and should seal in ink without causing the cards to warp and cost less than stickers if not used too thickly and still leave a good writing surface.

use gloves , a semi dry small roller and an old fork(?) to hold the card down ?

just a thought.

RouseMouse

LunaBear · Post by **LunaBear** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 3:26 pm

Hey Dusty Nipples! It's great to see you're nurturing your Random Postcards project and getting such rowdy responses!! I hope to be able to participate too!

philosopher · Post by **philosopher** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 1:34 am

As a BRCPO Delivery Specialist, let me add some fuel to the post card fire (while you just roll that metaphor around in your mouth a while, catching the hints of cherry and chocolate before you spit it out like yesterday's tobacco juice): WOO HOO!

People love getting playa mail. People love doing stupid human tricks and giving us ice cream and beers and experiencing small satoris and coming along to the next mail stop and showing us their creative whatevers and briefly or not so briefly toying with fantasies of seduction or bondage when the BRCPO comes around or they have The Window Experience.

More post cards means more postal moments! Everybody wins!

P.S. Working for the Post Office may be the icing on your playacake. Check it out at www.brcpo.org

Sensei · Post by **Sensei** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 1:52 am

Last year I sent a couple of care packages from the BRCPO, and lemme tell ya', the emotional impact of being on the receiving end of a playa-dust covered piece of mail can NOT be over-estimated!

Hey Philosopher! What the fuck was that zip code again?

philosopher · Post by **philosopher** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:24 am

Ah, yes, there is nothing that upgrades default world mail quite like the sweet perfume of playa dust!

And for sending mail to the playa, the zip is 89412. For a week, "Black Rock City" is a meaningful place name in the USPS universe.

NEXT!!

A Project for the Playa Shy: Random Acts of Postcards

A Project for the Playa Shy: Random Acts of Postcards

If you want to participate...

awesome

Checking in...

This is great!

Side project

postcards

Blanking cards