Jynweythek!* Thing 7

Thing #7: Read an article in Wikipedia on any pet subject and assess it in your blog.

I read this article on the musician Richard James, who records as Aphex Twin.

I chose this for assesment because I am extremely familiar with his work, but also thought it would be revealing due to the number of aliases that this artist works under, large number of releases and also the number of different legends and versions of the truth that surround him. Add to this a high number of obsessive fans and collectors who may contribute to a Wiki entry and you have a number of ingredients for a possible somewhat scrambled article, which I found to be the case....

I would say the article is useful overall in providing a wide introduction, but it definately reads more like a clumsy assembelage of facts rather than a flowing article with a strong narrative focus. The editorial voice and a sense of cohesion is definately absent in tying together the many strands.

The article lacks an introductory summary, beyond a brief

Aphex Twin (born Richard David James on August 18, 1971 in Limerick, Ireland) is an electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, acid and drum and bass

which has little contextual meaning to it. (Credited by who? Pushing how?) After this the reader has to wade through "History: early life", in order to get to anything about his music.

There are organisational issues - the section on "Aphex Twin's Press" has very little relevance to the heading.

The entry also contains a strong contradiction and confusion within it's own contents. ......

"Local legend has it that James lived on the roundabout in Elephant and Castle, South London during his early years in the capital.[12][13]"

and yet ....

"Contrary to popular opinion, however, he does not own the silver structure in the centre of the roundabout at Elephant and Castle. This is, in fact, the Michael Faraday Memorial, containing a power transformer for the Northern Line, which James jokingly claimed to be buying in an interview with The Face magazine in 2001 [38].

The citation links given for 12 and 13 given for this do not at all refer to this first assertion - citations should provide a source to an opinion.

It also contains untrue statements - "James usually creates his own photography for his releases' artwork".

Some details are just plain dull..... "James was very meticulous about the whole process of recording, mastering and pressing. However, label co-owner Grant Wilson-Claridge convinced James to release a digital CD, Chosen Lords, which included a selection from the Analord series, with some tracks slightly altered to improve the flow of the album."

A strong plus of the article has to be that music samples are included on the page, which makes up for the lack of good description of the compositions.

However, while this search revealed the many problems in Wikipedia entries, it should be said that there is a lack of alternative authorative sources for encyclopaedic type information on contemporary musicians. The best examples would be the entries in the All Music guide to Electronica, or the Rough Guide to Techno, yet the immediacy of Wikipedia wins hands down, unless you happen to have those handy.

A particular strength of Wikipedia as oposed to print based entries could be said to be it's currency, yet the Wikipedia article isn't even particularly strong on the latest releases.

However the essential point is that it is correctable! If I had the necessary time and effort, I could make the required corrections myself.

Aphex Twin - Nannou


Aphex Twin - Avril 14th

I am a stong believer in the usefulness of Wikipedia, and can recommend The Wisdom of Crowds for extra context on the usefulness of a collective approach to information, but in looking at this entry, it certainly highlights a gap of information design - how to provide an editiorial aproach in a free space. (While Wikipedia has it's moderators, this doesn't necessarily provide a solution) .

A web equivalent of Edward Tufte's amazing books focussing on informational graphics maybe required...... yet part of the beauty of Wiki's is the lack of perfection, the room for factual manoevre. After all, the factually near-perfect Brittanica wouldn't even have an entry on the post-rave braindance delights of Aphex :)

* Cornish for metal machine (music)