NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] — Media-Art Collection and Archive

• Series: A field of practice
• Status: public scholarship
• Institutional author: 6529 Network Museum
• Version: 1.0.0
• Publication date: 2026-08-04
• Research cutoff: 2026-08-04
• Research apparatus: primary-source register

ICC is a media-art collection and research center. Its 2025 case Restoring Media Art Works: A Case Study of “World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body” links a collection work to investigation, restoration, re-creation, and exhibition. ICC publishes the restoration as a work-specific event, with the collection and exhibition histories attached.

Demonstrated practices

1. Collection policy is tied to communication media

ICC's Collection describes works concerned with communication media and states the aim of preserving them. Media technology enters the collection remit and the description of the work itself.

2. HIVE preserves institutional program history

About HIVE records exhibitions, symposia, artist talks, live events, workshops, and interviews from 1997 onward. The archive began on site in 2004 and moved onto the web in 2006. It also distinguishes licensing conditions: some videos are available under Creative Commons terms, while other materials remain subject to different access conditions.

The HIVE archive therefore records public research and encounter without claiming that documentation is identical to the artwork.

3. Education and research are archived as future evidence

ICC's Educational Activities connects gallery tours, workshops, seminars, artists, researchers, universities, and external organizations to public documentation. The archive keeps that research available after the event.

4. Publication connects theory and technical practice

The InterCommunication journal archive spans 1992–2008 and addresses art, science, media technology, architecture, philosophy, and social questions. Alongside that theoretical publication, ICC maintains object and restoration records. The two registers can be read together without reducing a conservation decision to a general technology essay.

Publication and scholarship

ICC's publication style moves among collection records, long-running event documentation, theoretical journals, and work-specific restoration. Dates, speakers, events, licenses, and exhibitions create a traceable institutional memory. The writing lesson is to connect a technical case to the program and collection histories that make the case intelligible.

What the Museum should adopt

• Link collection works to exhibitions, commissions, talks, documentation, and restoration events.
• Preserve event video, transcript, speaker, date, and reuse-rights fields.
• Distinguish documentation licenses from rights in the underlying artwork.
• Publish restoration or re-enactment as a dated record with evidence, decision, intervention, and remaining difference.
• Keep a public archive of Museum research that can be cited independently of the live event.

Where the analogy ends

ICC's NTT operating structure, physical gallery, and Japanese-language archive are institution-specific. HIVE documentation is not the artwork itself, and a license for a recorded event does not determine rights in the work discussed.

Sources

1. NTT InterCommunication Center, “Collection”. Publication date not shown. Accessed 2026-08-04. Supports: media-art collection and preservation remit.
2. NTT InterCommunication Center, “About HIVE”. Publication date not shown. Accessed 2026-08-04. Supports: archive history, contents, and licensing conditions.
3. NTT InterCommunication Center, “HIVE”. Publication date not shown. Accessed 2026-08-04. Supports: searchable public event and research archive.
4. NTT InterCommunication Center, “Educational Activities”. Publication date not shown. Accessed 2026-08-04. Supports: public documentation, research, workshops, and external collaboration.
5. NTT InterCommunication Center, “ICC Quarterly: InterCommunication”. Archive run 1992–2008. Accessed 2026-08-04. Supports: theory and media-technology publication.
6. NTT InterCommunication Center, “Restoring Media Art Works: A Case Study of ‘World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body’”, 2025. Accessed 2026-08-04. Supports: work-specific restoration and re-creation case.

Revision history

• 1.0.0 — 2026-08-04: initial profile of the collection, HIVE archive, publications, education, and restoration.