David Shankbone
"The empire on which the sun never sets".
The empire on which the sun never sets -
An exhibition of images uploaded to Wikipedia by David Shankbone
2006 – Present.
In 2006 David Shankbone began taking photographs. Having received a digital camera as a gift and having little previous experience with cameras he began what he has come to call an 'on-going artwork.’ Taking photographs from his immediate surroundings, he uploaded the images to illustrate and contribute to the still young and predominantly un-illustrated website – Wikipedia. Each image was submitted under creative commons licensing 3.0* allowing the free use of images for any purpose and asking only for attribution.
By 2012, Wikipedia was an established canon of collectively collaborated information from around the world. Over 5,000 of these articles in more than 200 different languages contained photographs by the user: David Shankbone. For this reason David Shankbone can be cited as one of the most influential photographers of the digital age. His contribution has been recognised by his inclusion in an exhibition at the Museum of New York (USA), an interview with photographer Billy Name in Bomb Magazine and a Wikimedia Foundation interview on YouTube.
This exhibition replicates the choice and curation of David Shankbone’s images by twelve organisations across the world. Throughout the course of the MFA degree show the pictures on display will change, as a different hosts exhibition is recreated at the Glue Factory. Each of the locations approached to display David Shankbone’s image were chosen because of a community-orientated approach within the organisation (akin to that of Wikipedia) or because of its location in an area where access to the Internet is compromised (due to technological/political/religious reasons).
‘The empire on which the sun never sets’ is on display in the following locations:
Pitcairn Island Museum – Adamstown, Pitcairn Island
Salvation Mountain – Niland, California
Studio Cerrillo – San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico
PCdV – Valparaíso, Chile
Bruce High Quality Foundation University – New York, USA
Lísthus – Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
Na Kashirke Art Gallery - Moscow, Russia
Abaarso School of Science and Technology – Hargeisa, Somaliland
Platform3 – Bandung, Indonesia
Meridian Space – Beijing, China
Jambo Arts – Majuro, Marshall Islands
RM – Auckland, New Zealand
This work has been made possible by all those involved at each individual location and in particular: Darralyn Griffiths, Sue Whitmire, Cisco, Alonso at PCdV, Andrea Arrubla, BHQF, Alice Liu, Luba at Na Kashirke, James Linville, Platform3, Dorian Cave, Eric at Jambo Arts and Ziggy Lever
I would also like to thank Lesley Young, James Hutchinson, Isobel Lutz-Smith, Hannah Willetts and especially David Shankbone – whose help and support throughout has enabled this to happen.
*Creative Commons 3.0 allows an individual to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Jamie Green – 2016 www.davidshankbone.com
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