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Gender Media Art

New links

www.axisvm.nl/media/GMA.htm

Website of the month is this one, with a preview of a new multimedia CD-Rom called Gender Media Art featuring 12 projects by theorists, writers and artists focusing on contemporary alter-egoism, queerness and transsexuality. They give taboos like pornography and violence their own twist and show their view on the new globalism of the internet and in real life. But more than this, their work show the aesthetics of an (image) culture in which stereotypes are past history. Artists include Candice Breitz, Lynn Hershman, Sadie Benning, Debra Solomon, Sam Schoenbaum and Annie Sprinkle.

www.pssa.co.za

The new website of the Photographic Society of South Africa - full of information of all kinds for anyone interested in the field.

www.tO.or.at/~ccc

A number of contemporary African artists contribute to a show which first appeared in Vienna

International links

Universes in Universe
One of the best sites around - devoted to the documenting, discussion and promotion of the art of Africa, Latin America and Asia. Last year, co-founder of the site Gerhard Haupt initiated the "Cultural Exchange via Internet: Opportunities and Strategies" forum. A number of international art figures presented preliminary statements on the way in which the internet is changing the traditional relationships between artists/curators/other artists/organisations, and the potential for the future. The responses from all over the world were truly amazing, and the forum, initially planned for a three-month period, will continue this year with the possibility of a web-based international exhibition. It's all still available, along with many other interesting links, on this site.

Lapses and Erasures
Inspired by Robert Rauschenberg's Erased De Kooning drawing, Sawad Brooks has transported the concept of erasure from the analogue to the digital domain. Erasure always leaves its own traces, and Brooks raises the question of how we can decipher digital erasure with four elegant projects: Shuttle Shutter, Focus, Annotator and Register. It is the viewer that must perform the erasures. This is interaction at its most evolved.

Artnet
Art links from all over provided on one easy page - the Louvre, the Dia Center for the Arts in New York, Plexus - they're all here. There's even an artist-in-residence on the web programme - yes, you too can have your specially designed art project floating around in cyberspace if your proposal is accepted.

Africaserver
Focusing on an interchange of material about Africa, this fresh-looking Dutch-based site has a particular emphasis on the arts and culture of this continent, and searches for new virtual exhibitions to host online.

Sensorium
A site of truly wondrous projects. Breathing Earth, for instance, is a visualisation of earthquakes that have happened worldwide in the past 14 days. A globe with a map of the world comes into view, and on each of the 14 dates, swellings bubble up indicating the location of the seismic activities. Other projects involve the number of kilometres the world has swung round the sun while you have been busy on the website, and the sounds of the web itself.

Plexus
One of the best - great artist projects, articles, news.

Stadiumweb
Intriguing initiatives especially designed for the web from a variety of artists. All of them are worth checking out.

Local links

ZA@Play
Recently redesigned with a fresh new look, ZA@Play under the editorship of Sophie Perryer is the brightest, most intelligent guide to entertainment and current arts activity in the country. Updated daily, listing every event worth attending, the site also features relevant interviews and reviews taken from the Mail & Guardian. An excellent system of cross-referencing allows viewers to wander laterally following up areas of interest. The guide section provides crisp synopses of all listings across the country.

Artslink
Every artist deserves a business card on the net, the Artslink webmaster TJ de Klerk believes. And galleries can have a whole page, free. This local site becomes more and more useful, with its e-mailing of arts-related press releases available to anyone through its Acemail programme. Won the Arts and Culture award for best art site in the country last year.

www.leonardo.co.za
Designed specifically for the Pretoria Art Museum's international exhibition on the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci (see March News), this website's front page features an original collage of Da Vinci's most famous works across the elements of his activities: medicine, art, engineering, aerodynamics, to name but a few. As the cursor moves over text a highlighter lifts the words from the page. Navigating the site is easy and the same buttons throughout ensure the user does not get lost.

Museums Online: South Africa
Museums Online: South Africa now has two upgraded forums. These forums, one called "General Discussion" and the other "Education", are available for everyone to use, but also for people in the museum community to share ideas, discuss issues, etc.

To reach the forums simply go to Museums Online: South Africa and click on "Museum Talk".

Isintu
This is the website of the exhibition by Australian Aboriginal and local artists currently on at the South African National Gallery.