A MATTER OF PERCEPTION GET A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE WORLD AT THE GETTY.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

The Getty's playful look at the history of various exotic curiosities could be the first museum exhibit to get a thumbs up from magician Ricky Jay and a host of tweedy art historians.

The multimedia exhibition ``Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen,'' explores such magical pre-cyberspace gadgets as mirrors, microscopes, dioramas, metamorphic toys and magic lanterns. In the era before movies, TV, museums and, of course, computers, these now commonplace and seemingly unremarkable items were used in so-called cabinets of wonder as a form of early home entertainment.

``Devices of Wonder,'' on view through Feb. 3, displays some of these strange and uncanny optical instruments used to perceive the world, along with many of the images these devices have generated.

You might call it worlds in a box.

``Before cyberspace, humans created a host of gadgets to enhance visual perception,'' explains Frances Terpak, co-curator of the exhibit and curator of photographs at the Getty Research Institute.

Featuring more than 400 objects from the 17th century to the present - dollhouses, toys, tabletop cabinets, a life-size android, miniature theaters, display boxes and even a small room entirely made of mirrors inside and out - ``Devices of Wonder'' reveals how old and new visual technologies foster new perceptions of the universe.

While they may not rival ``Shrek'' on DVD, the devices ``possess the uncanny power to amplify experience, opening our eyes to the stunning domains beyond the limits of the unaided senses,'' Terpak said.

The exhibit, which can take hours to fully examine, fills several rooms, taking in film clips, dreamy dioramas, shadow puppets, scrolling transparencies, slides, flickering monitors and even a couple of Apple Imacs.

The exhibits ``just leap out of their cases. It's hard to tear yourself away,'' says Thomas Crow, director of the Getty Research Institute.

A few days before the opening, 75 magicians in town for a convention got an early tour. Jay, an author, actor (``Heist,'' ``State and Main,'' ``Magnolia,'' ``Boogie Nights'') and expert in the improbable whose magic act touches on the history of the art, called the collection a ``dazzlingly daunting compendium of ideas and devices'' from peep shows to digital projections to robots.

Jay, in fact, lent the Getty a couple of pieces from his own collection of historic oddities. His new book, ``Jay's Journal of Anomalies: Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters, Imposters, Pretenders, Side-Show Showmen, Armless Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainments,'' includes some of these devices of wonder.

Unexpectedly, the original cabinet of wonders was a piece of furniture popular in Europe during the 16th century designed for display and storage. Owners would pack these boxes with figurines, seashells, semiprecious stones, ivory carvings, and other bits and pieces of items that caused observers to marvel.

The concept of the art museum itself has been linked to such awe-inducing cabinets.

Crow hopes ``Devices of Wonder'' will lead visitors to form their own connections between today's world of high-tech consumer gadgetry and the home entertainment of yesterday.

But one connection Getty patrons may not expect is the link between their own image and the actual exhibit. In one of many clever and surprising touches, a site-specific installation uses surveillance cameras and digital imagery to give people touring the museum an unexpected look at themselves and each other.

``DEVICES OF WONDER: FROM THE WORLD IN A BOX TO IMAGES ON A SCREEN''

Where: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood.

When: From 10 a.m. daily through Feb. 3; closed Mondays and major holidays.

Tickets: Admission is free. Parking is $5 per car. No reservations needed on weekends or after 4 p.m. weekdays.

Information: [phone] or www.getty.edu/museum.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Samuel van Hoogstraten's ``Perspective Box of a Dutch Interior'' (1662-63) is oil painting on a walnut panel with a glass mirror.

(2 -- color) A few early visitors get a preview of the new Getty exhibit, ``Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen,'' open through Feb. 3.

(3 -- color) The new exhibit shows what used to dazzle folks in the days before computers, IMAX theaters and trips to the moon - a different way of looking at their world.

(4 -- color) If one view's not enough, these multiplying spectacles provide many images as a result of faceting of the lenses.

(5 -- color) ``Untitled (Sylphide Souvenir Case)'' (1942) by Joseph Cornell is in mixed media.

(6 -- color) This book camera obscura ``Theatre de l'univers,'' was made in France in about 1750 of wood, metal and glass.