Unfortunately, this game was never launched commercially, so in 1996, he released a more developed version as the CD-ROM Sim Tunes in collaboration with Maxis, Inc. In these games, as with the hand-cranked music box, one can see the notation for the music visually on the screen, just as one does on the paper rolls that can be held in the hand. The punch one makes on a paper roll plays a note when it passes the music box. On the computer, one makes a mark, and when it passes an insect, it plays a note. But there were added elements that only could be achieved with the computer. For instance, the marks one makes not only create a sound, but also a visual animation to go with that sound. Plus, a "Starfly" insect would create music automatically. The program could also generate new music based on the player's composition.

The Permanent Works
After the festival, I went to Tokyo to see Seven Memories of Media Technology, Iwai's permanent installation at the InterCommunication Center (ICC). Like seven haiku poems, these pieces combined digital and physical technology fragments, activated through a touch screen. In one, a real flipbook was under glass. As one touched the glass, a wire frame computer generated flipbook was projected on the paper pages. With one's touch, one could flip forward, backward, at different speeds. In a version of the visual music box, one's touch created small lines of light which flew onto a rotating disc. As the disc rotated past a music box, notes were played. At each rotation, some of the notes (and sound) disappeared, some stayed. I was sure I was annoying the gallery guard by making so much sound for so long. However, when I returned later to these installations, I found the gallery guard playing with the same piece.

Sim Tunes was released in 1996 by Maxis, a company well known for other simulation including Sim City and Sim Tower.

In recent years, Iwai has created several public installations, including remote Internet projects. He currently has permanent installations at the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Nadia Park in Nagoya, Japan, and the ICC in Tokyo.

Early this year, I caught up with Toshio via e-mail. He was in Seoul, Korea, building an installation at the National Museum of Contemporary Art. He would soon return to Tokyo, where he is an artist in residence at the Mixed Reality Systems Laboratory, creating new pieces for the 1st International Symposium on Mixed Reality to be held next March in Yokohama, Japan. Iwai will also install a permanent work for the new digital gallery of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, England next April.

After that? Whatever it is, it's bound to be interesting.

Deanna Morse is an animator and Professor in the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University, Michigan. She serves on the International Board of ASIFA (Association International du Film d'Animation) and is President of the midwest U.S. chapter, ASIFA/Central.