Meet new ways of looking at cutting-edge technology at ICC
Exploring R&D material from the field of art/design (No.3)

Hatsudai, Tokyo, is an area with a strong artistic flavor, home to the New National Theatre and the Tokyo Opera City cultural complex. In one corner of the area is the Tokyo Opera City Tower,NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC is a cultural facility operated by NTT East, which opened in 1997 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Japan's telephone service in 1990. The ICC is a cultural facility operated by NTT East, which opened in 1997 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Japan's telephone business (1990).ICC Official SiteThe following is a summary of the results of the study.

ICC Annual 2024 Very Near Far

The ICC is holding the exhibition from June 22, 2024 (Saturday) to November 10, 2024 (Sunday) at the ICC.ICC Annual 2024 Very Near Far". The seemingly contradictory subtitle of this exhibition, "So Close, So Far," is very intriguing. We wondered why they chose this as the theme of the exhibition...so we went to ICC to interview them.

Online Meetings Know "That I'm Still a Long Way Away"

The interview was conducted by Minoru Hatanaka, ICC Chief Curator. While asking about ICC's efforts in recent years, especially after the Corona disaster, the conversation turned to the theme of this exhibition, "Very Close to Distant. In fact, the starting point for this theme was the "distance felt from other people in online meetings, etc.," which became common after the Corona disaster. Many of you may have held meetings using web conferencing tools such as Zoom because you were unable to meet people in person due to the Corona Disaster. Thanks to technology, we can feel as if we are there with them, even if we are far away from them and cannot meet face-to-face. However, the feeling is overwhelmingly different from actually meeting and talking. This is exactly the "very close distance" we have experienced with the long-lasting Corona Disaster. Mr. Hatanaka says, "Although we are technically able to make anything present here, we all share the assumption that it is not really here.
This exhibition uses this "perspective" as a key word, and the works in the exhibition are a diverse collection of works that are tied to it. Let us introduce some of them.

Changing Time and Space Axis: Ryu Furusawa, Mid Tide #3

A seascape projected on three large OLED displays. At first glance, this is a common scene, but if you look at it closely, you may feel a sense of discomfort. In fact, this work changes video data shot in a fixed position over a long period of time by manipulating the space and time axis in various ways. The specific manipulations are projected on a monitor installed in front of the work, and the video work, which is based on a single video source but manipulated by connecting space and time, as if space were twisted or time were compressed, has a unique floating sensation.

Concerto transcending time and space: Ryota Kido, "Skeleton of M.81 - The 82nd Portrait

ICC has an anechoic room in which the entire room is surrounded by a material that absorbs sound echoes. When you enter this room, it is difficult to get a sense of distance, perhaps because of the lack of sound echoes, and you feel as if you are squeezed into a box that fits your volume perfectly. Installed in this mysterious room is the work shown here. The black devices lined up in regular rows are speakers, each playing a different version of Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" when you put your ear close to it. The "Bolero" is played simultaneously from 81 different sound sources divided by measure and combined without overlap, and 54 patterns extracted from the 81 different sources. The same piece of music and the same sound sources were decomposed and reconstructed to create a new "Bolero" that can be heard only as a vague impression of the "Bolero".

3D Space and Reality: Li Yifang 《Excuse me, how do I turn this on?

In this work, a 3D avatar talks about the techniques of filmmaking with black humor, as if he were explaining the techniques of filmmaking. When I first saw this video, I was shocked, partly because of the darkness of the exhibition room and partly because of the video itself, thinking, "Is this nearly nude person the artist himself? But upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a 3D avatar, as the body twisted in strange directions and floated in strange ways. It was very realistic, but not real, reminding us once again of the difference between 3D space and reality.

What is not here now: Winnie Soon, "Unerasable Characters II".

A series of characters that appear on a giant screen on the wall and appear to be in Chinese. This work is one of a series of "Unerasable Characters" based on deleted posts on Weibo, one of China's largest social media platforms, collected through Weiboscope, a data collection and visualization project developed by the University of Hong Kong. （The work is part of the Unerasable Characters series. Each square is assigned a different post, and each post is displayed for the same amount of time from the time it was posted to the time it was deleted. Therefore, it is difficult to know the content of the postings, but you can get a sense that this amount of words had been deleted. Words that have disappeared from society in general were present in this piece.

If you have any doubts, go to ICC Annual

As you can see, ICC holds exhibitions that offer new perspectives on the relationship between the latest technology, art, and society. Many of the works featured in this article are based on video and sound, so we strongly recommend that you visit the ICC to experience them for yourself.
The first is the ICC Annual, a long-term exhibition series that includes "ICC Annual 2024: A Very Close Distance," introduced here, followed by special exhibitions and the Kids' Program held during summer vacation. The ICC Annual tends to feature a wide range of artists and artworks, offering the possibility of diverse encounters. Of course, you can go to any of the exhibitions you are interested in, whether they are special exhibitions or kids' programs. If you are just wondering, why not start with the ICC Annual?

Let's feel the "new era of science and art!

ICC Official Site"We hope that as many people as possible will visit ICC and experience the flow of science and art in the new era by encountering and interacting with the activities of advanced artists." The event will be held at the ICC, and we hope that many visitors will come to the ICC. We hope that all researchers and engineers will come and feel it.

Event Name

ICC Annual 2024 Very Near Far

venue

NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] Gallery B, Theater

closed day

Mondays (if Monday is a national holiday, the following day will be a holiday), maintenance inspection day (8/4 [Sun.])

Hours of Operation

11:00 - 18:00 (Admission until 17:30)