The McLuhan wikisprint at Kunsthalle Budapest
The wikisprint organizers invite the public to collaboratively work on the development and publication of the Hungarian Wikipedia article about Marshall McLuhan. The intention is to follow on the concepts and works of one of the greatest media theorist: Marshall McLuhan.
"If you want to learn about something, just write an entire Wikipedia article about it."
It is arguable what an encyclopedia project has to do in an art exhibition? The biggest success of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, is that it does actually work. This simple fact is something hard to illuminate thus we want to bring it into the context of the exhibition. Can editing of a Wikipedia article be understood as an artistic act?
There is seemingly nothing unique about our initiative as several recent artworks focused on Wikipedia as a stand-alone piece of art (Wikipedia by Rob Matthews), as an art platform (Wikipedia Art by Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern, nominated for Transmediale Award 2011) or as a freely editable definition source for art (Artypedia by Memi Beltrame).
Schedule of activities
1. Prior to the workshop a brief project description and an invitation for collaborative participation will be available.
2. The wikisprint is scheduled for Saturday, April 2, 2011 and Sunday, April 3, 2011. The Hungarian Marshall McLuhan articles outlining his concepts will be developed by researchers of the Kitchen Budapest media lab, invited participants, students and the general public. Registration for the workshop is at info@kitchenbudapest.hu
Wikisprint is an intensive form of Wikipedia development when the editors of the encyclopedia collaboratively and within a relatively short time work and post articles. The first wikisprint event, organized by Manuel Schmalstieg, was held in May 2010 within the framework of the Mapping Festival Geneva.
3. Following wikisprint till the closing of the "No One Belongs Here More Than You" exhibition we will show the video documentation of the collaborative writing and editing process. We also intend to produce a booklet featuring the working process of wikisprint.
4. A Round Table discussion is planned, linked to wikisprint on Thursday, April 21st 2011 at 18.00. The title of the discussion is "If everything would go so smooth" and it will be moderated by Nina Czegledy. List of discussants to follow.
Read more about the wikisprint and other acitivties taking place in 2011 at the website of The McLuhan centenary in Hungary.