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Mysterious Letters

And now, for something a bit different: Lenka Clayton and Michael Crowe are two creative artists with a very special goal - to send a personal handwritten letter to everyone in the world! Impossible? Most likely. Crazy? Perhaps. But it's surely different, and they are doing their best to do it in a creative and mysterious way - they call it Mysterious Letters.

In April last year, they have sent handwritten letters to all 467 households in the Irish village of Cushendall - not bad for a start. And in November, they wrote 620 letters - all different and personal - to each home in Polish Hill (Pittsburgh, USA). Here's what BBC had to say about it:

But they are not stopping here. Now they want to go even bigger and write to even more people!

This time, they are allowing anyone to get involved in their enthusiastic plan - they have setup their project at kickstarter.com so that people can donate towards it (if there aren't enough supporters, the donation is returned).

In exchange for the donations, they are offering peculiar things - from allowing the supporters to choose a theme for the letters they will send, to actually receive handwritten letters from Michael and Lenka themselves. For the largest supporter level, they are even offering to hand deliver a letter to the supporter in person!

Even though it sounds a bit crazy, we love the creative way they are doing it all. You can find more information about the project at their Mysterious Letters blog and for details of how help them, check here.


Posted by on 4 Aug, 2010
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14 comments so far

CaresseSurLocean, United States of America
It is a bit crazy but I like it :-) Projects like this make people feel less lonely. And it's just such a crazy, over-the-top goal which makes it exciting and interesting.
Posted by CaresseSurLocean on 5 Aug, 2010


Willemijn, Netherlands
I so much wanted to have invented this! I'm jalous of those two. I love love love it. They got my support. I will follow them!
Thanks for sharing, Paulo.
Posted by Willemijn on 5 Aug, 2010


ildoge, Italy
It's an interesting idea!But......statistically impossible...in the world we are now more that 6.800.000.000 of people(!!!!!!)and....it increase of aboiut 15.000.000 of people EACH year..so....;-)
Posted by ildoge on 5 Aug, 2010


rkneo11, India
Hmmm. I'm waiting for mine ;)
Posted by rkneo11 on 5 Aug, 2010


JulieMary, Venezuela
Hahaha, pure awesomeness! :D
Posted by JulieMary on 6 Aug, 2010


solarts66, United States of America
I think it's great! I'm a bit baffled to how the letter writers were able to find the receivers addresses? Through the yellow pages?
In the video I thought it was a little silly when that one lady artist received two nice postcards and her response was, " ...it's a little scary...."
These postcards are harmless.
Posted by solarts66 on 6 Aug, 2010


scrutiny, Hong Kong
I like this idea. I would participate, except it's less of a thrill for me because I'm a letter-writer myself. And I would be much more willing to donate if it wasn't just for art, but if some of it went to charity as well. Now if there was a project where someone sponsored people to write letters for other people, to raise money for charity, that would be the bee's knees! :)

And I think I understood about 80% of that video. Some of the accents made me wish I had subtitles to read! :P
Posted by scrutiny on 6 Aug, 2010


Delenna, Finland
A lovely idea :)

I do agree about the statistical impossibility - not to mention that not everyone understands English.

I also agree; raising money for charity would make me donate in an instant.
Posted by Delenna on 6 Aug, 2010


Delenna, Finland
I do understand that artists have to live too :)
Posted by Delenna on 6 Aug, 2010


Den-A-Noc, Czech Republic
For the money you can do everything! Try to send personally to free 10,000 postcards for 4 months! That's hard!
Posted by Den-A-Noc on 6 Aug, 2010


LouiseLesley, United Kingdom
Cushendall is Northern Irish. Not Irish

*petty Belfast person is petty*

Amazing idea :)
I know someone who got ones in the first round and it really did amaze the whole town!
Posted by LouiseLesley on 6 Aug, 2010


Willemijn, Netherlands
To my opinion art for the harmless sake of art, involving the public: that is charity.
Posted by Willemijn on 7 Aug, 2010


vytinga, Lithuania
I'm curious about how they got all adresses of a town..:) Or they just frome to central Post office and asked to distribute letters to everyone in the town:) Still i think it's nice but i like more idea to sent 6.8 billion postcards through postcrossing:))
Posted by vytinga on 7 Aug, 2010


raluk68, Romania
Wow! Handwritten letters considered to be arty - that's a interesting point of view!
...some have attic disturbances to consider a letter scary :))
I would like to receive mysterious letters! :D
Posted by raluk68 on 11 Aug, 2010



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