UPI – A unique art project spanning New York and Dublin creates a “portal” for visual connection over 3,000 miles.
Dubbed ‘The Portal’, this installation crafted by artist Benediktas Gylys enables live streaming of silent video between New York’s Flatiron South Public Plaza and North Earl Street in Dublin.
Sponsored by the Flatiron NoMad Partnership, the New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Programme, and the Simons Foundation, The Portal facilitates real-time visual interaction between individuals in the two distant cities. “We provide an unfiltered meeting above all borders, all labels, and that would invite us humans to reconnect,” Gylys told WABC-TV.
Interactions witnessed through the Portal since it went live on Wednesday include the expected exchanges of rude gestures as well as at least one caught-on-camera attempt to flirtatiously exchange contact information.
Another exchange in a photo shared by the University College Dublin featured a native New Yorker who attends the school using the Portal to connect with her mother back home.
“We think just simple communication, whether it’s a wave, a hi, a sign, a dance, that’s what people are about,” said James Mettham of the Flatiron NoMad Partnership.
