Excerpts from Bellany's recent book,
Wiki-People Who Died At Age 32

Since 2006, Bellany has scoured Wikipedia for people who died at his exact age. When he was 32, he found 117 figures - some obscure and others notable, who had died at that tender age. In addition to writing up a short biography for each 'character', Bellany created original black and white portraits using illustrations he uncovered on image searches.

"Being the same age as each person I researched (when they died), I naturally felt a strong personal connection to their stories. I compared our accomplishments, social situations, and the eras in which we lived. It was a new way of looking at both history and myself. Now that I have moved on to age 33, I find myself contemplating the strange fact that I have lived longer than Bruce Lee, King Richard III and Alexander the Great. It definitely motivates me to work harder and make a difference."



↓more "Wiki-People Who Died At Age 32"

・Bruce Lee

・Buzz Sawyer

・Davey Allison

・Dick Turpin

・Eadred of England

・Elizabeth Siddal

・Galeazzo Maria Sforza

・Glen Kidston

・Hernan Gaviria

・Jedediah 'Strong' Smith

・Joseph I

・Keith Godchaux

・Lya De Putti

・Mike Lockwood

・Ota Benga

・Ottavio Bottecchia

・Proof

・Regnier De Graaf

・Steve Chiasson

・Thomas Ashe

・Vladimir of Novgorod

・William Cartwright

・Wyndham Hallswelle

The 'Wiki-People' of Artist Daniel Bellany
By Seth High for Sweet Dreams (Vol. 2)

Everybody has something to say about Wikipedia - Well, almost everybody - considering that Wikipedia is one of the three most viewed websites worldwide and has been accessed by 96% of web users since its inception just over 5 years ago. While Wikipedia has its share of detractors, the online encyclopedia has generally won praise due to its democratic concept and perhaps more importantly - its practicality -thanks to its comprehensive and ever-evolving mass of information. In addition to being copyright free, Wikipedia offers information on past and present topics that would most likely never be included in a traditional encyclopedia.

Noted author Nicholson Baker has stated that Wikipedia, thanks to the fact that almost anyone can write or edit articles, has "revolutionized the way we do research." Poet and Nobel laureate Sarah Sanderson has even gone as far as to say that her next book of poems will be dedicated to the topic of Wikipedia. Of course, as the praise for Wiki-fication reaches new heights, so does the criticism of its equally vocal opponents. Among these are Reverend Shane Jefferson, a communications professor at San Francisco State College and Casey Woodward, a teen idol turned business executive. In his recent book, MISS/Information, Jefferson wrote, "Wikipedia not only gives wrong information to the wrong people, it makes sure that the wrong information can be spread as widely and quickly as possible." Casey Woodward, whose own Wikipedia article has been chronically vandalized, verbalized this more strongly on his website, saying "Wikipedia is a cancer in my ass."

American visual artist Daniel Bellany is firmly a supporter of Wikipedia. For the past 4 years, he has used it as the basis of a series of publications and pieces of contemporary art. While Bellany is intrigued by recent research investigating the social, conceptual, and functional implications of Wikipedia, he is much more interested in how it has affected him personally as well as the new stories and realizations it is giving birth to.

Calling him at his home in Camas, Washington for a short phone interview, I think I spent over half the time laughing. He spoke of using Wikipedia to learn more about Gillette shaving cream, the history of wearing socks and other aspects of his daily life. "To me, an interactive and democratized encyclopedia is a kind of weapon against the linear, elitist, ethnocentric and quite frankly boring way that information and history have been shoved into our faces... Not only is Wikipedia fun, it makes the activities of 'searching' and 'discovering' become one and the same... Really, every minute there is a new discovery - new clicks to be made."

In 2007, Bellany wrote and produced a play based on two Wikipedia editors arguing about the role of the Yukon gold rush on Canada's late 19th century economy. During its 3 week run on off-broadway and subsequent staging in San Francisco, the play was praised for its humor and originality -presenting the creation and dissemination of information as something that cannot be purely dispassionate (the play ends with both protagonists being banned from editing the article, despite their becoming close friends). It also showed how interesting any topic might become if its story is well told- and based on the 'golden nuggets' found within Wikipedia articles. Bellany's research of the Yukon gold rush uncovered characters almost too interesting to be true- men who traded canoes for moth-eaten shoes and women who left their men for Athapaskan natives after their husbands failed to bring home any gold.

The same year, Bellany aggravated many Wikipedia editors by creating and constantly updating banal articles about his family. Though he was eventually shut down, his comprehensive article on the British Columbia hothouse tomato that his mother consumed for breakfast on September 9, 2007 showed people how democratic Wikipedia could potentially become.

Daniel Bellany's most well-known project, however, is the ongoing Wiki-People Who Died. Beginning on January 1, 2005 Bellany began "personalizing his relationship with historical figures" by using Wikipedia to collect information on people who died when they were exactly his current age. He has now published (and continuously updated) 3 volumes documenting the lives and deaths of "Wiki-people" (people who have had articles written about them in Wikipedia) aged 32, 33 and 34. In addition to fascinating readers with fantastic narratives about people - some well known and others less so, these books get us pondering our own mortality and accomplishments.

"When I was checking out the 'Today in History' Wikipedia top-page, I often noticed that it included the people who had died that day as well as their ages at death. When I saw someone I didn't know much about who had died young, I naturally wanted to find out how they died as well as what they did to become famous. It's a kind of romanticism. Because it is easier to gain fame over a long lifetime, what does one have to do in order to make history by the age of 30?," explained Bellany. "People who died in their early 30's are particularly interesting... I mean, this is supposed to be the most productive time of our lives, you know, when we are just finding our feet."


In People Who Died at Age 32, Bellany writes with wit and compassion about Alexander the Great, Bruce Lee, Queen Mary II, Karen Carpenter and about 100 other characters from throughout history. He doesn't need to try and connect them, as they inherently share the important bond of dying prematurely at 32. Icelandic bodybuilders, French porn stars, Burmese revolutionaries, Iranian Kings, Dutch scientists, American blues musicians and Japanese motorcycle racers create a non-linear world history that is surprisingly comprehensive and enjoyably eclectic. The text is supplemented with simple but entertaining graphic portrayals of each 'Wikiperson.' "I love how images affect us differently than words," stated Bellany. "I like to think of them as new stories in themselves, not just portraits."