Projects:Z. Blace

Z. Blace

Diff3r3ntVversionsArePOSSIBLE?!.

If we accept that #AnotherWorldIsPossible, maybe this aspiration should scale and render around us on more levels. We can for example also think possible manifestations of differences between worlds presented in fields like knowledge collections. To render these differences one should consider not only difference of information in content, but also its form and access points. Different versions of "truths" are not only different perspectives and arguments in the same system, but potentially different systems as models of seeing and argumenting as well.

In the case of Wikipedia this could go even further. This free, open, collaboratively made and exemplary monumental digital commons project, also fails to accommodate different modes of (re)producing itself and therefore relating to different (sub)cultures. It has grown to size of epic proportions that often host hegemonic aspirations that make average Wikipedia editors have fairly notorious reputation for disciplining. Institutional-like protocols and armatures build to sustain encyclopedic work, reduce flexibility that was once essential for Wiki culture.

Hawaiian word Wiki means 'quick' and was used to describe web making through spontaneous, organic and incremental web making, that would have emergent structure based on content accumulation and constant editing/refactoring. For example Ward Cunningham (author of first WikiWikiWeb) is interested in tracking the number and location of wiki page edits as a sociological experiment and may even consider the degradation of a wiki page as part of its process to stability. "There are those who give and those who take. You can tell by reading what they write."

Current state of Wikipedia platform leaves little imagination for such approaches and space for experimentation and diversion from norms is super limited if even possible. Content conflicts are hidden under a single tab link and nothing on the front page gives out the impression of the state of potential contestation or even just web making (power)dynamics.

Diff3r3ntVversionsArePOSSIBLE?!. point to these issues in explicit and implicit ways considering queer perspectives as counter-normative positions that not only antagonize, but also ridicule and eradicate the logic of single point objectivity and its oppressive implications.

working materials (not for publication v1)