Squid stamps!
There's a new online service called PhotoStamps that lets you upload any picture you want -- which they'll print on a set of stamps and send for you to use. It's kind of expensive -- it costs about $1 for each .37-cent stamp -- but I couldn't resist. I sent in a picture of one of the pieces of El Rey art I own, a "Surly Squid" painting, and ordered 20 stamps. Interestingly, I had to edit out the word-bubble that floats above the squid's head; in the real painting, he's saying "goddamit". But I suspected that would have violated PhotoStamp's predictably squeamish terms of service, which demands that you promise to not ...
... upload, order for print, or otherwise transmit or communicate any material that is obscene, offensive, blasphemous, pornographic, unlawful, deceptive, threatening, menacing, abusive, harmful, an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, supportive of unlawful action, defamatory, libelous, vulgar, illegal or otherwise objectionable;
Much as I like the idea of customized stamps, it strikes me that it's sort of a sad moment for philatelism. Stamps are one of the most successful examples of public art -- one of the few times Americans regularly interact with the amazing creative powers of the nation's visual artists. When you're mailing in your Verizon bill with a stamp made from your 4-year-old's face or the family dog -- cool, sure, but a little bathetic too, isn't it?
(Thanks to Boing Boing for this one!)
Posted by Clive Thompson at August 16, 2004 12:42 AM
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These stamps seem right in line with our culture, pretty natural on the path of your "fifteen minutes of fame" now becoming something along the lines of your "fifteen links from fame".
Stamps are/were always for famous people or for the works of dead artists (at least in the US). I no longer have to get stamp of a famous person and think "Wow, my grandmother cleaned his toilets," and instead can spend an extra $.43 cents to get her picture on the stamp. And ain't that what she was working so hard for?
Now, let's get that giant milling machine in place so you can "Carve Your Own Mount Rushmore".
Posted by: jason at August 16, 2004 10:57 AM
Posted by: Lisa at August 16, 2004 11:04 AM
I don't think these are going to replace regular stamps though, they're too expensive. Probably people will just use them for special occasions: Christmas cards and wedding invitations and the like.
*runs out to order stamps with picture of pet rabbit in Santa hat*
Posted by: june at August 16, 2004 12:40 PM
It seems to me that the obvious use is promotion...As a visual artist who's not dead, I can now put photo stamps with pictures of my work on all my grant/gallery/public art proposal etc envelopes. Of course, I guess there will be plenty of people with "pet rabbit" stamps, too.
I don't really agree about it being a sad moment for philatelism, though. Probably none of these "home made" stamps will be collectable, but on the other hand, I've long felt that too many of the standard issues US stamps were pretty boring compared to many other countries. Maybe this will up the ante.
And you never know—I have a couple friends, Michael Hernandez and Michael Thompson who've made their art careers by making and sending fake postage stamps. The stamp collectors surprised everyone by latching onto those big time, paying high dollars for fake stamps that had been canceled and delivered. So maybe these'll occupy some special niche in the clooectors' hearts too.
Posted by: john t unger at August 16, 2004 3:17 PM
Wasn't there an artist in the late-80s who made his/her own "Dead Presidents" stamp series? If I remember, someone made a bunch of stickers that were the size of stamps, put them on envelopes and the Post Office was none the wiser: the stamps were cancelled the letters were sent to whomever. The cool thing, though, was that the images on the stamps were images of Presidents being killed in dramatic ways. (OK, perhaps it isn't *cool*, but you know what I mean.) Again, my memory's sketchy, but I think that one stamp pictured Abe Lincoln tumbling out of his box at Ford's Theatre, head first. (Even if you don't think Presidentocide is all that cool, you have to admit that Abe Lincoln tumbling from a private box is one of the greatest things to put on a stamp since they made Queen Elizabeth way too fat on Canadian stamps.)
Posted by: Andrew at August 16, 2004 5:49 PM
we have it in austria too but there are about 300% expensiver than the jnormal one
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These stamps seem right in line with our culture, pretty natural on the path of your "fifteen minutes of fame" now becoming something along the lines of your "fifteen links from fame".
Stamps are/were always for famous people or for the works of dead artists (at least in the US). I no longer have to get stamp of a famous person and think "Wow, my grandmother cleaned his toilets," and instead can spend an extra $.43 cents to get her picture on the stamp. And ain't that what she was working so hard for?
Now, let's get that giant milling machine in place so you can "Carve Your Own Mount Rushmore".
Posted by: jason at August 16, 2004 10:57 AM
That is just too cool!
Posted by: Lisa at August 16, 2004 11:04 AM
I don't think these are going to replace regular stamps though, they're too expensive. Probably people will just use them for special occasions: Christmas cards and wedding invitations and the like.
*runs out to order stamps with picture of pet rabbit in Santa hat*
Posted by: june at August 16, 2004 12:40 PM
It seems to me that the obvious use is promotion...As a visual artist who's not dead, I can now put photo stamps with pictures of my work on all my grant/gallery/public art proposal etc envelopes. Of course, I guess there will be plenty of people with "pet rabbit" stamps, too.
I don't really agree about it being a sad moment for philatelism, though. Probably none of these "home made" stamps will be collectable, but on the other hand, I've long felt that too many of the standard issues US stamps were pretty boring compared to many other countries. Maybe this will up the ante.
And you never know—I have a couple friends, Michael Hernandez and Michael Thompson who've made their art careers by making and sending fake postage stamps. The stamp collectors surprised everyone by latching onto those big time, paying high dollars for fake stamps that had been canceled and delivered. So maybe these'll occupy some special niche in the clooectors' hearts too.
Posted by: john t unger at August 16, 2004 3:17 PM
Wasn't there an artist in the late-80s who made his/her own "Dead Presidents" stamp series? If I remember, someone made a bunch of stickers that were the size of stamps, put them on envelopes and the Post Office was none the wiser: the stamps were cancelled the letters were sent to whomever. The cool thing, though, was that the images on the stamps were images of Presidents being killed in dramatic ways. (OK, perhaps it isn't *cool*, but you know what I mean.) Again, my memory's sketchy, but I think that one stamp pictured Abe Lincoln tumbling out of his box at Ford's Theatre, head first. (Even if you don't think Presidentocide is all that cool, you have to admit that Abe Lincoln tumbling from a private box is one of the greatest things to put on a stamp since they made Queen Elizabeth way too fat on Canadian stamps.)
Posted by: Andrew at August 16, 2004 5:49 PM
we have it in austria too but there are about 300% expensiver than the jnormal one
Posted by: billigflüge deutschland at August 16, 2004 11:55 PM
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