What is Knowledge?

Whose Knowledge? is organizing an exhibition at Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa, to explore what knowledge means in different communities and contexts.

Wikimania is an annual conference where Wikipedia geeks, encyclopedians, community organizers and technologists from around the world gather to talk about Wikimedia projects and “the sum of all human knowledge.” To date, however, Wikipedia and Wikimedia have defined knowledge very narrowly. This year, Wikimedia has identified knowledge equity as part of its new strategic direction, and the Cape Town hosts have selected a theme of “Bridging Knowledge Gaps: The Ubuntu Way Forward” for Wikimania 2018.

With this art exhibition, co-located at the Wikimania conference venue, and planned alongside our Decolonizing the Internet event, we aim to build a space through art to explore plural, diverse, and expansive definitions of knowledge from a range of different perspectives.

Artist eligibility
All artists who are passionate in thinking about knowledge are welcome, no formal experience is required. Women, people of color, LGBTQI folks, indigenous peoples, people from African countries and the African-diaspora, and others from the Global South who have been disproportionately left out of Wikimedia’s “sum of knowledge” thus far are particularly encouraged to make art for this exhibition!

Prompt for artists
Art should respond to the following question:

What is knowledge?

Please interpret this question in any way that makes sense to you, your community, and your relationship to knowledge. Below are some ideas for how you might approach this question, but please feel free to go another direction that feels meaningful to you!

What does knowledge mean to you? What does it mean to your community?
Whom does knowledge belong to? How do we share knowledge well? How is it misappropriated? What is the relationship between knowledge and power? What is knowledge equity?
What is knowledge for? Where does it belong?
How is knowledge created? Who creates it? Is it static once it is created? How does it get preserved? Who preserves it?

Submissions
Artists may submit up to three works for consideration. These can be something you’ve already created for other purposes that fit with this theme, or new works.

Contacts: Siko Bouterse and Marti Johnson, events@whoseknowledge.org. Please put “Cape Town art exhibition” in your subject line of all communications.

If you’d like to get early feedback about whether your art is a good fit for this show, email us today to let us know you’re interested, and tell us briefly about yourself or your art!

Deadlines:
When your art is finished (or nearly done!), please email us jpeg images of your work(s). (by Monday 11 June 2018)
We’ll notify you if your art can be included in the exhibition, and be in touch about how to get it to Cape Town. (by Wednesday 20 June 2018)

More information can be found here.