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Wikipedia:Meetup/Paris/ArtAndFeminism 2015

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Dates :

  • Saturday, March 7 from 11am to 2am / Long table at 7pm
  • Sunday, March 8 from 11am to 7pm / Long table at 3pm

Venue: Fondation d'entreprise Galeries Lafayette at 46 rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, F-75004.

Cost: Free

Participants: No Wikipedia editing experience necessary, beginners welcome! As needed throughout the event, tutoring will be provided for Wikipedia newcomers. Female editors are particularly encouraged to attend. Please, bring your computer and documentation to help you add content. RSVP by signing your username below! If you are unfamiliar with Wikipedia, you might try this training module which will help explain a lot of things, including how to add your signature.

Twitter: @FGLafayette #ArtAndFeminism

Context

A study published in 2011 revealed that less than 10% of Wikipedia contributors identify as women. Leisure time inequalities, gender-based socialisation, etc., the absence of women on Wikipedia is evident. This disparity impacts on the very content of the encyclopaedia. Be they in the domain of art, science, literature or politics, the few pages dedicated to women are sometimes classified in sub-categories. Journalist Amanda Filipacchi thus revealed in an an article published by the New York Times in April 2013[1] that authors such as Harper Lee, Anne Rice, Amy Tan and Donna Tartt had been removed from the “American authors” category, to be relegated lower in a classification tree exclusively concerning women authors. The absence of diversity among Wikipedia contributors, as well as the lack of critical views on its content, constitute genuine problems in a space that is increasingly becoming a reference point for the sharing of knowledge.

A marathon is organized on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 March 2015 in several cities worldwide, in order to rectify this imbalance known as the “gender gap”. The marathon’s aim is to create or improve as many Wikipedia pages as possible concerning women, feminisms and culture. Initiated last year by Art+Feminism, the project is hosted, for the first time in Paris, by the Galeries Lafayette Foundation.

The Paris edition will be elaborated in collaboration with artist Addie Wagenknecht and is accompanied by two long tables – a discussion format open to everyone – focusing on minority communities and knowledge.

This event takes place in the framework of Lafayette Anticipation, a prefiguration program for the Galeries Lafayette Foundation. It allows, on the one hand, to initiate a reflection on the archaeology and sharing of knowledge, and on the other to firmly situate the institution at the core of pressing issues concerning identity, community and discrimination.

Art+Feminism

Art+Feminism is a campaign to improve coverage of women and the arts on Wikipedia. In February 2014, Siân Evans (Art Libraries Society of North America's Women and Art Special Interest Group), Jacqueline Mabey (curator, failed projects), Michael Mandiberg (artist), Laurel Ptak (artist and curator), Richard Knipel and Dorothy Howard (Metropolitan New York Library Council) of Wikimedia NYC, organized an ArtAndFeminism edit-a-thon at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York City. More than 30 satellite events were organized in Australia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. The campaign attracted an estimated 600 participants, resulting in more than 100 new Wikipedia articles focused on women and the arts. In 2015, new participating countries include Belgium, France and New Zealand. Art+Feminism organizers were included in Foreign Policy magazine’s List of 100 Leading Global Thinkers for their work organizing the 2014 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon.

Long Table

Conceived by artist Lois Weaver, the Long Table is a discussion protocol aiming to generate an open and friendly dialogue on a specific subject. This approach was initially inspired by Marleen Gorris’ film Antonia’s Line (1995), whose central scene features a dinner table gradually becoming larger, as Antonia’s family welcomes new guests. This discussion format puts the notions of participation and public engagement to the test by re-appropriating the atmosphere of the dining table considered as a site of public debate and by encouraging informal conversations on serious topics. It is literally a very long table with chairs, a paper tablecloth, microphones and refreshments. Everyone is free to join the table in order to ask a question, make a statement, write a comment on the paper tablecloth or simply sit, look and listen.

The appropriate etiquette for this format has been proposed by Lois Weaver and is published on Public Address Systems, an online platform collecting projects created and coordinated by the artist. At a time when the nature of the “public” is increasingly contested, Public Address Systems creates welcoming and open spaces where alternatives can be sketched out and critical questions can be staged: What do we share? What do we owe to others? How is this “we” taken into consideration and whom does it include? From broad questions about material resources to the intimate study of the body and identity, Public Address Systems expands the terms through which it is possible to think and feel in public.

Long Table Etiquette:

  • Anyone seated at the table is a guest performer
  • Anything is on the menu
  • Talk is the only course
  • No hostess will assist you
  • It is a democracy
  • To participate simply take an empty seat at the table
  • If the table is full you can request a seat
  • If you leave the table you can come back again and again
  • Feel free to write your comments on the tablecloth
  • There can be silence
  • There might be awkwardness
  • There could always be laughter
  • There is an end but no conclusion

Confirmed attendees

List of articles to edit

Below is a list of articles that would benefit from edits and expansion during the edit-a-thon. Please add to this list.

To be created:

To be improved:

To be translated from English:

To be translated from Italian:

Resources

Start on French Wikipedia

How to write articles about visual arts

Online sources

Other Wikipedia Projects

Created or modified article during the editathon

Creadted articles

Modified articles

Articles tanslated from English

Articles translated from another language

Art+Feminism Safe Space Policy

The organizers of this event are dedicated to providing a harassment-free event experience for everyone, regardless of race, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, religion, or marital status.

Sources

  1. ^ Amanda Filipacchi, "Wikipedia’s Sexism Toward Female Novelists", New York Times, April 2013.
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