Only love letters (For the Ones that Got Away) is an interdisciplinary and interactive art project that explores intimacy, the private act of looking, and human communications in an increasingly digital world. Through the mediums of drawing, letter writing, postcard distribution, audience participation and digital art, it re-assesses, examines and critiques the sociology and technology of online dating.
the portraits.


This project comprises drawings of profiles of anonymous people found on online dating platforms. The mere volume of people to be found and evaluated on these portals based on appearance alone is overwhelming. As a result those who feel that they cannot rely on their looks to attract others resort to tactics inadvertently taken from advertising: posting outrageous or unusual images in a bid to get attention and stand out from the crowd. The aesthetic choices behind these pictures often provides clues to the actual nature of the individuals hiding behind them. The corresponding analogue illustrations of these pictures invite viewers to contemplate how people choose to represent themselves digitally, particularly when the impetus is a search for intimacy, acceptance, and love. 


the postcards and the letters


Based on the premise that a large proportion of online daters are in fact searching for an earnest relationship with an individual with whom they hope to develop a deep and unique connection, the online-dating platform, with its reliance on limited and often superfluous information, seems to be both contradictory and incompatible with the exchange of personal details and social dialogue arguably needed for such relationships to grow. 
To contravene this, Only Love Letters(…) initiates direct communication with strangers using the format of paper as the first point of contact.

One thousand postcards with selected portraits have been printed to be disseminated in random mailboxes throughout the city of Berlin. Varied written texts on each one serve as a starting point in establishing personal contact with the postcard’s recipient.
Each card has a mailing address and email address and the entreaty to respond (via email or post). Strangers who receive the cards can choose to write letters to what in essence is a ‘found match’, sharing whatever they choose with the sender, and this without a character limit or threat of ‘digital permanence’ and sale of personal data to corporate concerns. 


The goal of this project is not strictly speaking aimed at ‘singles’; it is to reach out to other human beings regardless of romantic status: to anyone tired of living their lives and interacting with others—very often strangers— predominantly online and devoid of real and tactile forms of communication. 


Postcard distribution begins on July 11 as a part of the art event This is an Intervention in  Berlin. Live in Kreuzberg? Check your mailboxes.