Wikipedia As Museum
Michael Mandiberg is reclaiming his position at the forefront of digital interventions. As part of Art, Environment, Action! at Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons, he will be giving a 2 day workshop on making visual contributions to Wikipedia with the particular skills he honed in creating the works discussed in TO LIFE!. In this instance he is building on the work of Wikipedia Illustrated to design visual language that explains complex concepts to a broad audience - diagrams of biological or chemical phenomena, maps of environmental issues/disasters, or charts, and also subjective expressions.
Mandiberg's commitment to sharing, as an environmental, social, and political stance, is evident in the format of this workshop. He is inviting artists, scientists, illustrators, environmental historians, designers, activists, and Wikipedians to collaborate.
he social impact of art that takes the form of a unique painting or sculpture pales when compared to the immediate and widespread outreach made possible by online technologies. This is obvious regarding the potential number of personal interactions with a work of art. It is less true regarding interactions with photographic reproductions of these works of art because they, too, are typically confined to art contexts. The online world is boundless and far more democratic.