Abstract: An system and method for interactively choosing a selection from a database, including a media database containing movies, videos and graphical offerings, is disclosed. The invention uses a physical metaphor to represent the database and icons to represent selections. A preferred embodiment for a video-on-demand environment uses a globe or torus to represent a video database, which is displayed on a user's television at the user's location. Superimposed on the globe is a grid of pictorial icons representing the video selections stored in the video database. The video selections are arranged by category and alphabetically on the globe. The user may employ a remote control to issue search commands.