In my writing, I love to toy with the idea of truth and tinker with facts. Objectivity? Historical accuracy? These are things that I, honestly, throw out the window when I write. They are much less capital-T True to me than the feelings behind things.
I do, however, use wikipedia often when I write. It’s great fodder. Often the articles show connections between things that I may not have thought of or give details about things that I didn’t know. Honestly, I am one of those people who goes to wikipedia not only for my facts, but also for my inspiration.
I have heard many times about the dubiousness of wikipedia’s factual accuracy. I have even seen articles on wikipedia say things that I am sure were incorrect. So, I know that people twiddle with the articles. Wikipedia vandalism is not something that’s a new idea for me. But I had always thought of it as something playful and silly. Never before as something subversive.
Some of my (very amazing) friends from university are in the process of making a film about the characters behind wikipedia vandalism. Their research so far is incredibly interesting. It touches on themes of objectivity, the control of information, and subversion. They have started a kickstarter campaign to fund the project, and I, for one, am very excited about seeing it come to fruition.
In support of this project, I would like to start a wikipedia-based prompt. If you go to the main page of wikipedia, on the left-hand side, there is a ‘Random Article’ button. Flip through 10-15 random articles and see how many of them you can fit into one piece of writing. Once you start randomly flipping through random articles, you really get a sense of how much information wikipedia holds. From tiny towns in Europe to obscure sports participants, I am sure that you will mostly come across things you ordinarily wouldn’t write about. It should be quite interesting.
Good luck and let me know what you come up with!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKxjvroP0jQ&w=560&h=315]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS27SDEWEbw&w=560&h=315]
I THINK THAT I MAY TRY YOUR IDEA!!!!! WHY NOT,….VERY COOL,…THANKS!!!!!,….these are called what, “prompts???”,…which just means an idea to set things in motion???? i guess???
I think your friends’ film sounds fascinating, and what a great idea for a prompt! Even if someone didn’t do 10 different things in one piece, it would be interesting to have 10 different pieces inspired by 10 different Random clicks, too. Very cool!
I never noticed the random article button. I learned about poverty in Mexico. That could be the premise of a book.
You’ve reminded me about something I looked up this Christmas. I remembered a tv show from when I was a kid called Nestor the Christmas Donkey, and wanted information. Hence, a visit to wikipedia. But, there, the title was Nestor, the LUTHERAN Christmas donkey.
I didn’t know donkeys had a denomination. A bit of mystifying but amusing sabotage…
Like robincoyle I never noticed that button either – clicked on it a few times and yeah, very random stuff but extremely interesting. Would definitely help with story ideas. I learned about a small commune in France (Etaule), Philip Schuyler and the Pfeffer (Brenz) river in Germany. Etaule sounds interesting, a place I would use as a setting for sure. This is a great idea!
http://ahopefortoday.com/2012/01/14/hope-unites-globally-hug-award-guidelines/
Hi I nominated you for The hug award.
Challenging! I might give this a try!
No Need to post this, but I just nominated you for one of these Kreativ Blogger Award things!?
Take a bow.
http://seanjrankine.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/kreativ-blogger-award/
Excellent idea your university friends have come up with. I only recently became engulfed with a story based off of a Wikipedia search, so this is rather interesting. And the prompt idea, a brilliantly new one. Thanks!
I love the idea of looking things up randomly for story ideas. I also use wikipedia for basic checks for research in the two books I am trying to write. I have not found any articles that were too far off. If I am not sure I always check the discussion behind it and I like that there is discussion on accuracy usually that will help me decide how accuerateth informI read was. I will use the random button now that I know that it is there.
Thanks for checking out my blog.
Very cool idea!
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