ICC, the Intercommunication Center in Tokyo, has opened an “ABC of media art” exhibition: Art meets Media :adventures in perception. The selection of pieces is amazingly good: Blast Theory’s Can you see me now?, Toshio Iwai’s Seven Memories of Media Technology, Ryoji Ikeda’s db, etc. (Via JeanSnow.)

One of the “oldest” but still so impressive works is Beyond Pages, created in 1995 by Masaki Fujihata.

The visitor enters a seemingly natural situation. S/he sits down at a table where lies a virtual picture book, the pages of which show one item each in images and letters, such as a picture of an apple and “apple” written next to it. When the visitor touches the apple, someone bites into it, accompanied by the sound of biting into an apple; when touching the picture of a door the door of the actual space opens, and a lifesize smiling child appears in it; touching a lamp switches on the actual desk lamp.

In Beyond Pages, Fujihata refers to technology�s potential for shaping valuable content with fantasy, concentration, and curiosity, reminding us of the original functions of books: plays in the sphere of cognition and imagination.

The exhibit runs till March 21.