2025 marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of MIKAMI Seiko, who had presented works in a variety of forms since the ICC’s pre-activity phase prior to its opening. In 2025, the ICC will feature multiple exhibits of interactive art installations from the late 1990s onward to look back on MIKAMI’s activities from a media art perspective. This will be the first opportunity either inside or outside Japan for three of her large-scale installation works to be displayed at the same time.
MIKAMI Seiko (December 2011)
Photo: SHINODA Hidemi
Photo Courtesy: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
The interactive art installations that artist MIKAMI Seiko presented in Japan and overseas since the 1990s feature as their theme the very act of perception as the starting point from which humans connect with and form relationships with the world. MIKAMI wrote: “the eye is not merely a thing that sees and the ear is not merely a thing that hears; it is possible for the ear to see, for the nose to hear, and for the eye to touch.”*1 Reflecting this, she made full use of media technology to present through multiple works experiences that compelled those who viewed the works to confront their own mechanisms of perception and interaction. Her aim was the creation of a “museum of perception (or even mausoleum)”*2 as a collective of those works.
MIKAMI Seiko + ICHIKAWA Sota “gravicells — gravity and resistance” 2004/10/25
Photo: KIOKU Keizo
Photo Courtesy: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
However, following MIKAMI’s sudden passing in 2015, there has been momentum in recent years for a reevaluation of her in the field of contemporary art as well, as evidenced by the addition of four of her works from the early 1990s to the collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. At the same time, opportunities to re-exhibit MIKAMI’s interactive works are limited due to their large scale and the complex installation processes they require.
MIKAMI Seiko “Eye-Tracking Informatics” 2011/19
Photo: KIOKU Keizo
Photo Courtesy: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
In this exhibition, multiple interactive art installations that MIKAMI presented from the late 1990s onward will be on display. Along with the works, information on their evolution through a series of updates, restoration and archiving endeavors that are currently in progress, and examples of the utilization of archive data on the works will be introduced, among other information.
MIKAMI Seiko “Desire of Codes” 2010/11
Photo: KIOKU Keizo
Photo Courtesy: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
*1, *2: from MIKAMI Seiko et al., Molecular Informatics–Morphogenic Substance via Eye Tracking (Seiko Mikami) / LTM (Low-Tech Music) (Oscar Abril Ascaso), (Centro de Ediciones de la Diputación de Málaga (CEDMA), 2004)
MIKAMI Seiko “Desire of Codes” 2010/11
Photo: KIOKU Keizo
Photo Courtesy: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
MIKAMI Seiko “World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body” 1997
Photo: OHTAKA Takashi
Photo Courtesy: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]