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Beautiful Medium

2/20/2026 _ 3/1/2026

NEORT++ is pleased to announce "Beautiful Medium," a special exhibition of materials co-organized with Goki Muramoto.

Overview

Is “beautiful medium” possible?

(From the book Beautiful Medium)

Medium-Art is a term proposed by Muramoto to describe an art practice that takes the medium itself—that is, the subject that mediates something—as an object of aesthetic recognition. In this documentary exhibition, by critically set the adjective “beautiful” against “media,” which has long escaped becoming its object, we excavate a sensibility toward media itself while examining the genealogy and possibilities of Medium-Art.

At the venue, anchoring the presentation are archival displays prepared by a research group led by Muramoto, in which a wide range of media are observed as aesthetic/sensory objects. Alongside these, the exhibition unfolds a video interview piece reflecting on the phrase “beautiful media”; a physical “tin-can telephone,” as a medium, together with a video by Saran Kobayashi of people using a tin-can telephone; a fictional poster for an imagined “Media Arts Festival” curated by the research group through the “curation of media”; and a book compiling multiple theoretical reflections on Medium-Art.

During the exhibition period, a talk session will be held in preparation for the "Medium Arts Festival" program. Media researcher Takuya Umeda—one of the founders of “Medium”, an emerging academic journal that similarly adopts the banner of "medium" and aims to consolidate humanities research on the theme of "media"—will be invited to raise critical questions about the program. Following this, a planning meeting will be held together inviting curator and critic Minoru Hatanaka, and media and communication researcher Yuiko Fujita. By making public the process through which the Medium Arts Festival—in effect, a "media for media"—is generated, this session aims to rework the very concept of "medium" both within and beyond the field of art.

This exhibition commemorates the publication of *Beautiful Medium*, a book related to Goki Muramoto's solo exhibition "Univocity of Mediation: Beautiful Medium," which was held last year as a joint exhibition by NEORT++ and parcel.

Planning: NEORT, Goki Muramoto
Research: Kaori Tada, Hasaqui Yamanobe, NIINOMI, Saran Kobayashi, Kai Fukubayashi, Yusuke Shono, Yuya Kashiyama
Special Thanks: Saran Kobayashi (Artwork)
Research co-operation: Yuiko Fujita, Ryo Sawayama, Tomoko Shimizu, Minoru Hatanaka
Support: parcel, The Project to Support Emerging Media Arts Creators, Inami-Monnai Lab, The University of Tokyo

Inunnguaq (Photo: Ansgar Walk)

tin can telephone (Photo: Saran Kobayashi)

Photogenic drawing (invented by William Henry Fox Talbot)

From "A History of Bizarre Fads" by Miyatake Gaikotsu: "The game of Kotsukuri-sama"（1922）

Goki Muramoto, video interview "Beautiful Medium."

Goki Muramoto, “Training Wheels”

Galileo Galilei, “Sidereus Nuncius”

Goki Muramoto, “Beautiful Medium”

Book

A book published in conjunction with Goki Muramoto's solo exhibition "Univocity of Mediation: Beautiful Medium."
This volume includes exhibition records, an archive of talks with Yukiko Shikata, Minoru Hatanaka, Akihiro Kubota, and Kenji Kajiya, essays by Daisuke Harashima, Katsuhito Mizuno, and Kaori Tada, a visual collection summarizing his past works, and theoretical considerations of "Medium-Art" as advocated by the artist.

¥6,000

Purchase here

Artists

村本剛毅｜Goki Muramoto

Link

Artist. Born in Yamaguchi in 1999, Japan. Lives and works in Tokyo.<br /> <br /> He explores “mediation,” encompassing perception, communication, and movement through the process of inventing and sculpting their original”mediation.” Major works include Imagraph, a medium that projects video onto closed eyelids; Lived Montage, a pair of glasses that allows us to share our vision when we share the object of our consciousness; and Media of Langue, a dictionary-sculpture that depicts a chain of word translations.He defines ‘Medium-Art’ as treating the medium itself—open to content—as the artwork, and explores its theoretical and genealogical dimensions.His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

Events

2026.2.22 08:00 _ 2026.2.22 10:30

Voices of Mediation 媒体芸術祭にむけて

畠中実 | Minoru Hatanaka / 梅田拓也 | Takuya Umeda / 藤田結子 | Yuiko Fujita / 村本剛毅 | Goki Muramoto

We will hold a talk session for the planning of the "Medium Arts Festival". This talk will feature Minoru Hatanaka, a curator/critic, Yuko Fujita, a media researcher, and Takuya Umeda, one of the founders of "Medium," a new academic journal that, like Muramoto, advocates for "medium" and aims to consolidate humanities research on the theme of "media." We will engage in a discussion surrounding the planning of the "Medium Arts Festival." By making public the very process through which the Medium Arts Festival, a "media of media," so to speak, is generated, we aim to re-examine the concept of "medium" itself both within and outside of art. Speakers: Takuya Umeda, Minoru Hatanaka, Yuko Fujita, Goki Muramoto Moderator: NIINOMI Time: 17:00 - 18:00 (Part 1), 18:15 - 19:30 (Part 2) Venue: NEORT++ (maruka 3F, 2-2-14 Bakurocho, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo) YouTube Part1：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNMD6jNIWJo Part2：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIANrm0Cr6s
On Site | YouTube

畠中実 | Minoru Hatanaka

Born in 1968. Curation and criticism. Recent major exhibitions include "Multilayered Worlds and the Foundations of Reality" (2022), "Ryuichi Sakamoto Tribute Exhibition: Music / Art / Media" (2023), "ICC Annual 2024: Very Close, Yet Far" (2024), and "evala: Appearing Places, Disappearing Images" (2024). Served as an artist selection committee member for "Ennova Art Biennale Vol.1" (China, 2024) and an advisor for Mori Art Museum's "Machine Love: Video Games, AI, and Contemporary Art" (2025). Co-authored "10 Lectures on Contemporary Art" (edited by Masayuki Tanaka, Musashino Art University Press, 2017) and co-authored "The Principles of Media Art" with Akihiro Kubota (Film Art, Inc., 2018).

梅田拓也 | Takuya Umeda

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Culture and Representation, Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts. Born in 1992. Graduated from the Faculty of Letters, Osaka University; completed master's program and doctoral program at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo. Ph.D. (Social Informatics). Assumed current position in 2021. Publications include "Friedrich Kittler's Theory: Writing, Senses, Numbers" (University of Tokyo Press, 2026 [forthcoming]), and "Media Theory of Technology and Culture" (co-edited, Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2021).

藤田結子 | Yuiko Fujita

Yuiko Fujita holds a master's degree from Columbia University in the United States and a Ph.D. from the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London in the United Kingdom. She is a faculty member at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo. Her research focuses on media and migration, cultural production, race, and gender, using ethnography.

村本剛毅 | Goki Muramoto

Artist. Born in Yamaguchi in 1999, Japan. Lives and works in Tokyo. He explores “mediation,” encompassing perception, communication, and movement through the process of inventing and sculpting their original”mediation.” Major works include Imagraph, a medium that projects video onto closed eyelids; Lived Montage, a pair of glasses that allows us to share our vision when we share the object of our consciousness; and Media of Langue, a dictionary-sculpture that depicts a chain of word translations.He defines ‘Medium-Art’ as treating the medium itself—open to content—as the artwork, and explores its theoretical and genealogical dimensions.His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.