SEE THE CALL AND THE REMIXES SO FAR
Wikipedia Art – originally an editable encyclopedia entry as art work – applied for and was denied citizenship on Wikipedia. It now seeks refugee status in Venice through the establishment of The Wikipedia Art Embassy. Encyclopedic ambassadors, Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern, invite writings on, and creative remixes and alternative wiki postings of, the Wikipedia Art project itself. Each will be featured on their now infamous site, wikipediaart.org
Wikipedia Art , officially part of Venice Biennale, has been called “more Wikipedia than Wikipedia†by Miltos Manetas, curator of Padiglione Internet (the Internet Pavilion). It is an incorporation of not only the artists’ primary concept, but the debates, biases and power struggles behind how it continues to exist. Now, Kildall and Stern are re-releasing Wikipedia Art – the story, the concept, the logo, its texts and name – under a Creative Commons license (CC-by). They request public remixes, transformative art and derivative works. They offer the piece up to business and info Wikis, to songwriters, fellow artists and filmmakers, to journalists and storytellers. Despite its absence from the number one source of online information, it perseveres in its temporary yet virtual housing in Italy (and Everywhere Else).
Kildall and Stern continue their examination and intervention into how Wikipedia has reframed knowledge, by asking the public to re-look at and re-make Wikipedia’s mode of online knowledge production. Wikipedia is not open to any editor, not a democracy, and in a great position of power. While an amazing resource, as with any powerful institution, its users – the general public – should continuously question Wikipedia’s methodologies and the power brokers that control them. Wikipedia Art re-engages that general audience; it features any artist or writer who wishes to take part; it frames all public discourse and activity as an ongoing intervention into knowledge and authority – on Wikipedia, on the Internet, in Venice and beyond.
Download the call for remixes (pdf)
See the call and the remixes so far