User:AllyD/Help/Art:Projects

Art: Projects workflow (draft)

(Envisaged to link from How_you_can_help, possibly entitled as How you can help/Workflows/Art:Projects?)

Artists often develop a project, whether individually or with others, through a series of events. This page summarises several choices about how to use Wikispore and other resources to present a project.

Check what already exists

The basic building blocks are Wikidata items which describe

• each artist, working as an individual or collectively (e.g. Gilbert and George, Goldin+Senneby, Art & Language);
• any location or venue closely involved in the project.

These may already exist in Wikidata and as Wikipedia pages, so a useful first step is to search Wikidata and take a note of their QIDs.

Create a Wikispore Art: page about the project

Create a page here on Wikispore, describing the project and what it has accomplished. (Page wizard desirable?) It is useful to include links to other resources:

• link text to the item QIDs found in the previous step, like this: [[wikidata:Q5603|Andy Warhol]]
• if there is already a Wikidata item about the project, cross-link it at the top or bottom of your new Wikispore page like this: [[Q72823|documenta]]
• at least one External Link to media coverage about the project and perhaps to the project's own website.

There are then several options about how to detail the project's events.

Option 1: Add a simple table to the Wikispore page

A table may be all that is needed to provide relevant information:

{| class='wikitable sortable' style='width:100%'
! Date
! Event
! Description
! Participants
|-
| 1990-01-20
| First event name
| About event
| [[:d:Q123456|First Artistname]]<br/>[[:d:Q123987|Second Artist-Name]]
|-
| 2005-07-13
| Second event name/nowiki></code><br/> <code><nowiki>| About event
| [[:d:Q123456|First Artistname]]<br/>[[:d:Q123998|Third Artist Name]]
|}

Pro?

• This is a relatively easy way to provide summary information about who was involved in which events.
• The user can sort the columns.
• Wikidata links allow the user to open a separate page and view information about a particular event, place or participant.

Con?

• The information is only shown on this Wikispore page. It can't be reused in other resources or wider enquiries.
• The information becomes harder to view across multiple events, for example to see which events involved a particular person.
• Table code is verbose and easily broken when someone adds a new line.

Option 2: Use a Cargo table and template to store and query the information on Wikispore

Option 1 may be best initially and can also become a starting point for requesting creation of an equivalent Cargo table.A template can then be used to create a line for each of the project's events.

Pro?

• Allows equivalent information for multiple projects to be stored and queried.
• Design may provide alignment of tables for these art projects' events, civil society events, etc.

Con?

• Technical help needed to create the Cargo table (?)
• The information is still awkward to view across multiple events, for example to see which events involved a particular person.

Option 3: Use Wikidata to store and visualise the network information on Wikispore

This enables a variety of diagrams to be added to the Wikispore page, to present time-lined or network-linked visualisations.

Pro?

• Query and presentation tools allow the user to explore network links and the wider information about any event or participant.

Con?

• More complex set-up working across Wikispore and Wikidata. (Mitigate with tailored wizard?)

A walkthrough of this option is available on another page.