auvikogue/Peter Schubert sends out envelopes. Inside: a stapled zine in A5 format and a CD-R in a paper sleeve, limited edition of 25 copies. The recipients are the 12 artists who participated. Anyone who contributed receives a copy. That’s all there is. The remaining letters go to archives and interested collectors.
MAIL ART PRINCIPLE
Peter Schubert invites artists to interpret the theme Noise of Silence – visually and acoustically. Entries are sent by post: drawings, collages, prints on paper, plus sound pieces on data carriers or as files. Schubert scans the visual works, collects the sounds, and arranges them in the order in which they arrive. No editorial selection, no hierarchy. First come, first served.
The result is a momentary snapshot. The first issue brings together a total of twelve positions: Vittore Baroni, an Italian mail artist who has been active in the network since the 1970s, and Rod Summers, who combines visual poetry and sound with VEC, are artists who have been closely involved with mail art for decades. In addition, there is Beth Robertson, who explores collective listening as a political and social practice with her project woh.nen, and Thomas Rosen, who intertwines sound, photography, and objects with rsn, representatives whose artistic approaches come from contemporary sound art.
The first edition already featured two artists, Jürgen O. Olbrich from Kassel and Brandstifter from Mainz, who are “repeat senders” and consistently continue the project with repeated submissions. Olbrich, known for his work in concrete and visual poetry as well as copy and mail art, and Brandstifter, whose conceptual and interdisciplinary work is influenced by Dada and Fluxus, are examples of an artistic practice that is as committed to the everyday as it is to experimentation.
2nd EDITION
The second issue, published on February 6, 2026, once again features representatives of classic mail art in the zine, including Horst Tress from Cologne and Hans Braumüller from Hamburg. Multidisciplinary artist Juan Bermúdez from Colombia, who treats time as acoustic material, and Michael Vorfeld from Berlin, who uses homemade instruments to produce sounds that are not smooth but scratchy and resistant, prefer to work with the medium of sound.
CD-R
Different interpretations of the given theme meet each other. Schubert does not comment on them, he simply juxtaposes them. The CD-R is part of the concept. It forces you to make a decision: I insert it, I listen to it in one go, or I leave it. No algorithm suggests what comes next. No shuffle rearranges the order. The CD-R is an object that you have to touch, that takes up space, that doesn’t evaporate into a cloud.
NETWORK
The project works through sharing. Anyone who has a copy can show it to others, lend it out, or circulate it within their own circles. Schubert hopes that this will expand the network, not through advertising, but through word of mouth. Anyone who wants to send in multiple copies can do so, but never the same issue. Each issue is a complete process.
This way of working is closely linked to the principles of Mail Art. Works of art are sent by post, commented on, passed on—a network without a center, without a market. Robert Filliou called it the “eternal network”: everyone gives something, everyone gets something, no one owns it. Schubert takes this logic and transfers it to a medium that will no longer be taken for granted in 2026—physical mail, the material sound carrier.
DIVERSITY
The result is not a statement about noise and silence. It is a collection of attempts to approach what happens when you stop talking. Some of these attempts are loud, some almost inaudible. Some work with field recordings, others with synthesizers, and still others with their own voices. The visual side shows similar diversity: abstract scribbles alongside typographic precision, copy art alongside digital collages.
RESONANCE ROOMS
Schubert himself takes a back seat. He does not curate in the traditional sense, he organizes. His own artistic practice—collaborative sound projects, participatory installations—does not appear here. Noise of Silence is not his platform, but rather a resonance chamber for others.
PROJECT
Whether the project will continue beyond the first handful of issues remains to be seen. Schubert has not planned a fixed number of issues or a grand finale. It will continue as long as submissions keep coming in. That could be three issues or thirty. The structure is designed to be self-sustaining—or not.
SOUND- & MAIL-ART ZINE
Noise of Silence is a mail art and sound art zine. Artists are invited to create a visual (150 x 210 mm, portrait format) and an auditory (max. 5 minutes on CD-R/SD card …) interpretation of the theme Noise of Silence. The result will be a 16-page A5 zine with CD-R in a limited edition of 25 copies, once submissions from 12/13 artists for both formats have been received. Each participating artist will receive one copy by mail.
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