You are invited to participate in the inaugural South African ArtWiki Marathon at the VANSA Project Space from
FRIDAY 5th September at 10 AM.

Opening Briefing Session by Kathryn Smith at 10 AM

What you will need:
 
All you need is broadband internet access, some decent reference material, bottomless coffee, a bit of time and the urge to share some information. Going solo is good, but collaborating is always better.

• VANSA has a wireless internet connection which will be available to all Wiki Participants, you need only bring your laptop computer to connect.
• There will be an entry list to work with but feel free to make suggestions for entries.
• Bring any source material that you may want to reference or any material that you may already have written

If you are interested in participating , please contact Kathryn Smith at kathryns@sun.ac.za

More Information on the Wiki Event

For many of us who use online resources, Wikipedia.org has become an indispensable source of basic information on a host of topics. After only 7 years of existence, this user-driven, free encyclopaedia has become the primary starting point of access to information for many students and researchers. In a similar way that ‘google’ has become a verb, Wikipedia epitomises the phenomenon of Web 2.0, as well as representing a ‘creative commons’ ethos of free culture produced not by those with a financial agenda, but for the benefit of other online users.

There is a lack of art-related content on Wikipedia, and even more so when it comes to modern and contemporary art from South Africa. This space is what the ArtWiki Marathon seeks to fill.  

What is a wiki?

“A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites… Wiki Wiki" (/wiːkiː wiːkiː/) is a reduplication of "wiki", a Hawaiian word for "fast".”
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki. Access May 26, 2008.

Anyone is free to participate in developing content either in the comfort of your own space, or join the madness at an ArtWikiMarathon Hubs in Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Johannesburg or Durban from 3 – 7 September.

Artists, curators, journalists, writers, editors and students interested in visual art, art history or cultural studies are encouraged participate. See below for specific dates for each hub.

Content proposed includes entries on individual artists, notable artworks, exhibitions, art schools and centres, collectives, non-profit organisations, community arts projects, extinct or current publications and so on.

Proposed by Kathryn Smith as a parallel but complementary event to the 2008 South African Visual Arts Historian conference, the inaugural ArtWiki Marathon was inspired by a similar event that took place in the US earlier this year.

The ArtWiki Marathon is intended as a critical contributor to debates around freedom of information and knowledge. Most importantly, it uses a broadly accessible source (to those who have access to the internet) that is user-driven. Information can be posted that may not be recognised as significant enough for major book publication, and those who do not have access to mainstream publishing opportunities, including academic publishing, can make critical information available to many millions of users anywhere in the world. It is a political imperative. With value being determined almost exclusively by the art market both locally and globally, and with so much still to do with regards to capturing and revising a sense of South Africa’s recent past in terms of artistic practice, this is a chance to make a personal contribution.


The inaugural ArtWiki Marathon is a partnership between

Museum of Contemporary Art | Department of Visual Arts, University of Stellenbosch |VANSA Western Cape | KZNSA Gallery… and you