Historical Provocations : Postal Presence , Intimate Absence and Public Privacy

This paper traces the production of presence across nineteenth century postal networks of communication in order to make some preliminary remarks, some historical provocations, about twenty first century platforms of social media. It argues that many of the questions facing the field of contemporary presence research are best approached within their socio-technical historical settings. The writing of a letter offers one such site. Separated by time and distance, interlocutors develop strategies to make themselves ‘present’ to each other. Creating a sense of presence and intimacy imply the concomitant creation of privacy. Yet the postal system has never been an incontrovertible private communication space. This paper, therefore, suggests that the performance of presence helps to shape emerging patterns of ‘public privacy’. Keywords---postal presence; epistolary; social media; mail art; postcards; public privacy; intimacy.