 "New Yorkers greet people in Dublin during the reveal of The Portal, a public technology sculpture that links with direct connection between Dublin, Ireland and the Flatiron district in Manhattan, in New York City, US. Reuters")
A live video “portal” linking the Irish capital of Dublin to New York City was an artistic effort designed to bring the world together.
However, in less than a week of its launch, the portal has been temporarily closed for “inappropriate behaviour.”
This comes after a few onlookers made wild gestures, flashed cameras, and other unacceptable pictures.
Let’s take a closer look.
The portal
Launched on 8 May, the Dublin-New York portal aims to connect individuals through technology.
Each structure has a 2.4-metre (eight feet)-diameter screen that weighs 3.5 tonnes, as per The Guardian.
“Portals are an invitation to meet people above borders and differences and to experience our world as it really is—united and one,” said Benediktas Gylys, the Lithuanian artist and founder of The Portal. “The livestream provides a window between distant locations, allowing people to meet outside of their social circles and cultures, transcend geographical boundaries, and embrace the beauty of global interconnectedness.”
The Dublin portal is situated close to O’Connell Street, one of the city’s main roads, while the New York portal is close to the Flatiron Building.
This portal is the second of its kind; the first one connected Vilnius, Lithuania, and Lublin, Poland, and launched in May 2021.
The Dublin City Council announced in a news release on 8 May that the Dublin site will link to other cities and locations in Poland, Brazil, and Lithuania.
It is anticipated that the connection with New York City will last throughout the autumn, with more cultural events beginning in mid-May.
Inappropriate behaviour
The two sculptures, known as “The Portals,” resemble circular lenses and have a live video feed that enables viewers to see and converse with onlookers from across the Atlantic Ocean.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsHowever, some users have flashed body parts and used swearwords, while video of the 11 September attack on the World Trade Centre was transmitted to viewers in New York.
A man has been seen lowering his trousers in several social media videos, while OnlyFans model and social media personality Ava Louise lifted her shirt, according to Forbes.
A phone bearing the inscription “RIP POP SMOKE” was held up to the camera by bystanders on the Dublin side in a video that has received over 500,000 likes on X. This was about a rapper who was shot and died in 2020.
A New York resident recorded a video of the 11 September attack footage, which was flashed by a Dublin resident, the report said. Since then, millions of people have seen and shared the video on social media.
The Irish publication Limerick Leader revealed that a woman was detained and taken away from the Dublin portal by police shortly after it went live, though the story did not state why.
The woman was seen dancing provocatively on Instagram, according to a bystander who claimed to have captured footage of the incident.
Amy Donohoe lamented in an Irish Independent column, by saying, “Not even a week in and Dubliners have truly embarrassed us around the world. Anyone who goes and stands in front of the portal is representing our little country, but if we’re showing off a drunken culture and being offensive, it could potentially affect tourism in Ireland in the long run. People may not want to come here if this is what they’re seeing.”
Organisers’ response
The organisers claim to be working on ways to stop inappropriate behaviour.
The installation was shut off on Monday and Tuesday, according to a statement from Dublin City Council; however, the Flatiron Nomad Partnership in New York stated that it was put on hold until Wednesday at 03.00 EST (08.00 GMT), as per BBC.
“While we cannot control all of these actions, we are implementing some technical solutions to address this and these will go live in the next 24 hours,” said the Dublin City Council on Monday.
“Dublin City Council had hoped to have a solution in place today, but unfortunately the preferred solution, which would have involved blurring, was not satisfactory,” it added.
The Flatiron Nomad Partnership claimed that it would deploy software updates to “limit such behaviour appearing on the live stream.”
It also planned to increase staffing and erect barriers at the location in Manhattan to keep individuals from stepping on the Portal.
‘A very small minority’
“The overwhelming majority of visitors have behaved appropriately and experienced the sense of joy and connectedness that this work of public art is intended to evoke,” according to the partnership.
It’s true that most folks on the New York side just smile and wave at others.
In the brief, lighthearted exchanges that the project’s initiators envisioned as a “bridge to a united planet,” some people also mime, dance, and wave humorous signs, as per The Guardian.
New York organisers underlined that a “very small minority” were responsible for the unpleasant behaviour.
A TikTok video featuring a New Yorker and her Irish friend meeting up through the portal while both holding up heart signals received around one million views, as per Forbes.
An additional TikTok user received almost four million likes on a video with people in Dublin and New York exchanging waves.
In a TikTok video, a different user recorded a marriage proposal between the two portals.
With inputs from agencies