Open Data for the Arts
ArtWiki applies the principles of the Open Web to the art world and offers a space for expression in a collective process. The 7th Berlin Biennale has invited the almost 5000 international respondents to their Open Call from 2010 to join a unique project. Each artist is invited to put their artistic and political statements, biographies, and resumes online. Artists are encouraged to join ArtWiki during spring 2012 so they can help to build one of the most open resources of online portfolios of contemporary art production anywhere, fully controlled by the individual artists themselves and free for any kind of use.
Each artist’s resume consists of a list of people, places, and projects the artist has accumulated over her lifetime. Points of production, which are similarly encountered in other artists’ biographies, are put into relation. These present a network of interconnections out of which the value of artistic “reputation” can be viewed from different angles. The artist statement and CV are forms of prose and artistic expression, although they are hardly ever regarded as part of the art process, nevertheless they function at the core of it. Artists should have full control over these central documents, by means of a user-controlled online library, at any time. The empowerment of the artist community is possible with the same tools which made Wikipedia a valuable source of knowledge. ArtWiki facilitates easier and more democratic access to art.