‘A laboratory exhibition to come into direct contact with the instruments of communication, work and leisure of the near future. The age of information technology has begun; press and TV continue to remind us of the fact every five minutes. The name INTERNET or the network of networks” or “the mother of all networks” – this rapidly expanding instrument which connects up millions of computers throughout the world, along with several million users – strikes the collecti-ve imagination and the mass-media wink and spin yarns about it. But between TV fiction and articles in the press, most people find it hard to obtain an idea of the real possibi-lities of this instrument, new only as much as it is now avai-lable beyond the small circle of specialists. The fashion is launched, popular curiosity has been aroused, but the object of the new craze and its real use remains obscure to most. And yet, as often happens, from the universities, a technology is overflowing into the everyday giving which has all the characteristics to be called revolutionary, no less than the telephone, which, along with the computer, is in fact one of the elements involved. The opportunity has arisen, as usual, from the fusing together of various technologies developed for different rea-sons and according to different logics. The exhibition intends highlighting and describing what is going on in the global village and therefore, in particular, describing that fascinating aspect represented by our desire to communicate, now made possible in such an exciting way by the development of INTERNET. To get to know it better, more than words of explanation, one has to try it. Here then a space to see and try the excitement of “navigating” in INTERNET and achieving access to the Global Village of these new citizens who communicate in a fraction of a second and have at their fingertips infor-mation without geographical restrictions. How do you send and read electronic mail? How do you take part in a public discussion? How do you obtain the best images of NASA or the museums around the world? How do you order a pizza? How do you read the Divine Comedy? What do the Rolls of Qumran look like? How do you read an electronic magazi-ne? To these and other queries. the concrete answer is avai-lable in a space dedicated to the explanation of the instruments and their use, with a local network of computers linked to INTERNET. With the help of a group of experts, visitors can experiment and look around this Global Village in continuous evolution and consider the possibilities and problems it creates, just like any other human instrument. The theme of the exhibition will be debated in a panel discussion entitled, “The immobile traveller. The informa-tion technology highways”.’