Developed out of a model of the cultural component of the IBE - Internet Business Emporium (net and art initiative developed by Marcus Neustetter in 1999), the concept of _sanman has been under construction for approximately the last five years, developing a clearer idea of the relationship of art, business and technology. With the MTN Digital Electronic Art Exhibition in the Gertrude Posel Gallery in July 2000 the first phase was implemented. Not only did this exhibition promote an educational angle to the local awareness of new media art, as the first large scale exhibition showing off major international works, but also it more specifically involved workshops and discussions with scholars and students. A range of international and local artworks served to illustrate some of the developments in the field of art and technology. In conjunction with this exhibition, the network that was to become _sanman consulted on a CD Rom Art collection for the MTN Art Institute, as well as building its own educational collection through donations by international artists. The exhibition also facilitated the first interest by local technology companies such as Sony to allow the arts to "show off what their equipment can do" on a project-by-project basis. LG Electronics responded similarly soon afterwards.

_sanman facilitated a research trip to the new media art centres in Europe such as the ZKM in Germany, Montevideo in Amsterdam and The Ars Electronica Centre in Linz. This trip aimed to develop a range of network participants. Assessing the Southern African needs in discussion sessions with artists locally and with international participants over the web this developed into a symposium on South African Visual Art and the Web for the Annual Web Conference at RAU.

To incorporate businesses in the network, _sanman’s strategy has been to create an awareness and participatory interest with a range of presentations to companies, creating an awareness of the relationship of art and technology internationally and how this collaborative process could benefit them. Some of the companies addressed have been LG Electronics, Sony, Compaq, MTN, Services for Optical Fibre, Panasonic, Sasol, Apple SA, Telkom. New media developers, service and content providers such as Blink, Type01 and Tinderbox have also been addressed with presentations to their management teams or design teams. Wits University, Pretoria Technikon and Vega School of Brand Communication have been some of the first educational institutions addressed by _sanman with lectures or workshops. Some of the most recent presentations and workshops in Vega’s Imagination Lab have been focused on the use of the mobile phone as creative tool and alternative methods of reaching audiences using new technology creatively. One of the objectives in generating interest in the users of new technologies, such as designers, and students growing into these positions, is to allow the creative experiments with new technology to be seen as an important process and to instil an interest to collaborate and grow a new media art interest.

_sanman has also facilitated participation in the dh2 conference in Cape Town with TYPE01, etoy/ubermorgen and tomato. Recent exhibitions developed and made possible with the assistance of _sanman have been Switch on/off for the Oudtshoorn Festival and online/offline for the 3rd Annulal Web Conference at RAU University. Both these exhibitions have been essential in illustrating the translation of concept from traditional media to new media for practitioners and audiences. _sanman has been actively involved in the New Channel Digital Art Competition in 2001 and 2003 through advising, in the judging, and curating the accompanying exhibitions of local and international artists and the presentations and workshops.

Marcus Neustetter has been able to use his network to the benefit of _sanman’s strategy for exposure and exchange of local creative new media activity on an international and local platform. Through his position such as corresponding editor for LEA (Leonardo electronic Almanac), guest special-feature editor for ISEA, E-Tester node and advisor to UNESCO DIGI-ARTS Virtual Library, he has been actively developing and promoting activities not only about the local context to the international audience, but equally important, the international activity and opportunities locally.

 

With the recent merger of _sanman and the trinity session in 2002 various projects have been produced under the banner of, and supported by, the trinity session for practical reasons, but have continued the _sanman process and developed its network:

SEARCH for the Ars Electronica Festival 2002 – coordinators and participators for developing local network systems in the context of the Elobby with designers, artists, online activists and journalists from South Africa in Austria.

Radiotopia for Ars Electronica Festival 2002 – coordinators for the South African Sessions, sound workshops and event in South Africa and contributed to the festival in Austria.

In no Particular Order: South African Video Art - Video showreel commissioned by the Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie for the 16th Recontres Video et Art Plastique, Normandy, France. This has been extended to four videos and has since been featured in different events around the world.

+27 Sessions – 12 hours worth of digital art content from South Africa collated for the Translocal Channel on How Latitudes Become Forms at the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, USA.

Content development for "Art, Activism and Convergence" Unfold03 - DVD Magazine TBWA Gavin/Reddy

‘Convergence’ and ‘Co-operative work’ workshops and with MA (Science of New Media) students, International School of New Media, Lübeck, Germany

 

Other relevant projects by the trinity session:

Big Brother – A curated exhibition in the Big Brother house during the second reality TV show addressed the relationship of art and television. The artworks in the house, the art-tasks and the resulting coffee-table book addressed the experiment of featuring contemporary art in the house as well as acted as an educational and critical process for art on a mass medium.

SME Development and Employment in the Cultural Sector in the SADC Region: The Visual Art and Craft Industries – This research report was prepared for the International Labour Office (ILO)

Creative Inner City Initiative – Visual arts programme consultancy, training and management in Johannesburg inner city (Berea, Hillbrow, Joubert Park) is a poverty alleviation programme through developing skill transference in applicable and sustainable visual art skills. The current programme includes Signmaking, Portraiture, Video and Photography, Welding, Creative Recycling and Magazine production until the end of 2003.

The | Premises – a project room/ gallery in Johannesburg run by the trinity session featured exhibitions in digital art such as:
Ubermorgen.com (Vienna)
William Scarbrough (NY) – solo exhibition
Leora Farber (Johannesburg) - Corpa Delicata – Multimedia installation and event
Visiting Austrian artists Ella Raidel, René Straub and Susanne Jirkuff showcase recent video work, curated by Maren Richter