AS today's computer input devices go, little beats the beauty of a touch-screen. Yet it's a paradox. On the one hand it's obviously very tangible, and exploits our drive to point and push. On the other, compared with devices such as a mouse or keyboard, it works by being sort of invisible - by apparently stripping away the layers between you and the information' you re reading and manipulating.
When touch-screen technology is used in a well thought out multimedia presentation and exhibition, such as the one ab0ut recently restored Japanese scrolls at the Chester Beatty Library, the combination is mesmerising.
In Chogonka: A Japanese masterpiece of the Seventeenth Century, the scrolling devices and icons of a very ancient medium meet the zooming windows and video clips (and scroll-bars and icons) of a still infant medium of the digital age. The multimedia presentations look at the history of the scrolls, how to read them, and the intricate restoration techniques that were involved.
The easy-to-use and classy design by X-Communications is intuitive enough (a prerequisite for exhibition visitors who want instant information), and the headphones give not only Irish and English versions (yes, that is Olivia O'Leary on the voiceover) but several other European languages and Japanese.
The exhibition is scheduled to run till the end of the summer "at least", and is a clever example of how the magic of scroll work can span two very different times, cultures and technologies.