Wikiart: Web-enabled Artistic Collaboration

Artistic Collaboration and the Redefinition of Art 

‘I propose that collaboration was a crucial element in the transition from modernist to postmodernist art and that a trajectory consisting of a series o artistic collaborations emerges clearly from the late 1960s conceptualism onward. The proliferation of teamwork in post-1960s art challenged not only the terms by which artistic identity was conventionally conceived but alos the ‘frame’ – the discursive boundary between the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of a work of art. I would argue that artist collaboration in the late 1960s and during the 1970s occupies a special position: Redefinition of art and artistic collaboration intersected at this time.’ From ‘The Third Hand: Collaboration in Art from Conceptualism to Postmodernism’ by Charles Green (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001). 

Peer Production in Web-enabled Communities 

‘This may be the birth of a new era, perhaps even a golden one, on par with the Italian renaissance or the rise of Athenian democracy. Mass collaboration across borders, disciplines, and cultures is at once economical and enjoyable. We can peer produce an operating system, an encyclopedia, the media, a mutual fund, and even physical things like a motorcycle. We are becoming an economy unto ourselves – a vast global network of specialized producers that swap and exchange services for entertainment, sustenance, and learning. A new economic democracy is emerging in which we all have a lead role.’ ‘Billions of connected individuals can now actively participate in innovation, wealth creation, and social development in ways we once only dreamed of. And when these masses of people collaborate the collectively can advance the arts, culture, science, education, government, and the economy in surprising but ultimately profitable ways. Companies that engage with these exploiting Web-enabled communities are already discovering the true dividends of collective capability and genius…based on new competitive principles such as openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally.’ From ‘Wikonomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything’ by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams (New York and London: Portfolio, 2008). 

Empowering and Unifying Individuals Everywhere 

‘The divine purpose of the present information revolution, which gives an individual unprecedented power and opportunity, is to allow us to share knowledge – spiritual knowledge – with each other, empowering and unifying individuals everywhere. We need to use today’s interactive technology not just for business or leisure but to interlink as people – to create a welcome environment for the interaction of our souls, our hearts, our visions.’ From ‘Toward a Meaningful Life: The Wisdom of the Rebbe’ by Menachem M. Schneerson, adapted by Simon Jacobson (New York: William Morrow, 1995)