A Live Art and Feminism Edit-a-thon

Friday 25th April, 2014

1pm to 6pm

White Building, Hackney Wick

Free, but please register your interest on [email protected]

Join LADA and our Restock Rethink  Reflect Three collaborator Lois Weaver for a free Wikipedia editathon on Live Art and Feminism. The afternoon will present an opportunity for discussion, raising awareness of feminist artists and practices, and training and advice on effective article-writing will be available from Wikimedia UK trainers. Refreshments will be provided.

In her seminal essay ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’ (1971), Linda Nochlin fiercely critiques dominant institutions of art and education as being organised according to structures of patriarchy that are socially exclusive, and serve to reinforce privilege. Though there is, and has been, an enormous wealth of women artists working in every form, their practices continue to be disproportionately obscured from our attention. For live artists, the question of (in)visibility in the arts is even more manifest, where fleeting moments must be captured, documented, published and distributed in order to create and continue wider cultural presence and conversations.

Unlike Nochlin and other feminists active in the 1970s, we now have the benefit of new ways of collectively forming and sharing information online through openly editable encyclopaedias such as Wikipedia. Though Wikipedia is used by millions of people, many articles relating to art and feminism are fragmentary or non-existent. Initiatives to tackle these absences have been gathering:  this year on International Women’s Day, the Women’s Art Library at Goldsmiths, University of London held an event to improve Wikipedia articles on women’s art practices. In New York in February, Eyebeam held their edit-a-thon on feminism in contemporary art to tackle Wikipedia’s ‘gender trouble’ and lack of women contributors.

Please bring your own laptop where possible, and an idea of which articles you would like to create or improve may also be handy.

Here are some ideas for inspiration:

Articles that don’t yet exist

• Feminist performance / feminist live art
• Monica Ross
• Rose Finn-Kelcey
• Carlyle Reedy
• Rajni Shah
• Marcia Farquhar
• Ann Liv Young
• Hayley Newman
• Sonia Knox
• Catherine Elwes
• Monica Mayer

Articles that need improving

• Bobby Baker
• Anne Bean
• Sonia Boyce
• Rose English
• Tina Keane
• Split Britches
• Kira O’Reilly

… And many more!

This event is part of Restock, Rethink, Reflect Three: on Live Art and Feminism.  Part of this project consists of research into ‘Live Art, Feminism, and the Archive’ in collaboration with Lois Weaver, QMUL. Supported by Creativeworks London, as part of a project to enhance LADA’s Study Room holdings on Live Art and Feminism.

To continue the dialogue, the edit-a-thon will be followed by the second Long Table on Live Art and Feminism. Participants of the edit-a-thon are encouraged to stay for the discussion.

Live Art and Feminism Edit-a-thon and Long Table Update

New articles were created on Wikipedia related to the artists Heather Cassils, Siobhán Clancy, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Amanda Heng, Lois Keidan, Monica Mayer, Sinead O’Donnell, Anne Seagrave, Rajni Shah and Lois Weaver.

Articles on Aideen Barry, Anne Bean, Sonia Boyce, Split Britches and Mierle Laderman Ukeles were also expanded and improved upon. More information on who took part and links to all the new and expanded articles can be found on the dedicated Wikipedia WikiProject page.

An article on the event entitled ‘Editing Ourselves into History: A Live Art and Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon’ featuring responses from Lois Weaver, Eleanor Roberts, Jen Harvie and Alex Eisenberg is now available to read on the Contemporary Theatre Review website.