SESSION 3: 15.45 – 17.30. Friday, March 26

This presentation discusses the Wikipedia Art intervention as both a performance and critical analysis of Wikipedia. Using the premise of the performative utterance as proffered by J.L. Austin, we argue that Wikipedia has similar consequences, and indeed, creates a paradox, which confounds the construction of truth. The Wikipedia Art project, as a widespread collaborative work, reflects this notion of what “is” by defining itself as all its own discourse. Wikipedia Art has garnered numerous articles in various online and mainstream press and at one time, the attention of the Wikimedia Foundation with a legal threat over trademark usage. Ultimately, the project speaks back to Wikipedia’s formation of online consensus, its populist mythology and Wikimedia’s power more generally.