Another shifting of the normative system of web images is offered by Mushon Zer-Aviv and Galia Offri’s Wikipedia Illustrated. The two document a process of creating 26 drawings for 26 Wikipedia articles (one for each letter of the ABC), starting with their early sketches all the way to uploading the final images to the shared encyclopedia. Visual art, for the most part, keeps away from the celebration of open source society, refusing to come to terms with the loss of its ritualistic, singular aura. Thus we have no models for cooperation between the visual arts and open source enterprises. Images accompanying Wikipedia entries aspire to be objective descriptions taken at a distance, so as to live up to the editorial agenda of the encyclopedia. The ongoing Wikipedia Illustrated project wishes to examine whether Wikipedia might indeed appeal to artists to contribute their works to the public; and whether the mode of operation of visual artists allows for such cooperation, or is visual art non-cooperative by nature. Zer-Aviv and Offri waive some of their rights for the drawings scattered around Wikipedia entries while retaining certain others. Choosing 26 entries out of some 4,000,000 existing ones reflects a personal, inquisitive, and critical journey, which simultaneously tries to find a unique place within the cooperative rules of the game.
The CDA's archives are operating with the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund and Artis
