A new interactive art installation in New York City is allowing viewers to communicate with people 3,000 miles away in Dublin, Ireland.
The brainchild of Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys, “the Portal” was unveiled on Wednesday and allows people on either side of the Atlantic to interact with each other via a video link.
New Yorkers can head to Flatiron South Public Plaza at Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 23rd Street, next to the Flatiron Building, to see people on Dublin’s O’Connell Street on the 24/7 visual livestream, according to a Wednesday press release.
The idea was “conceived as a testament to the power of art to transcend physical barriers,” reads the press release from Gylys and officials from New York City and Dublin.
It will remain in place through fall this year, according to the release, with a number of cultural performances scheduled to take place in front of the installations in both cities.
“Portals are an invitation to meet people above borders and differences and to experience our world as it really is — united and one,” said Gylys in the statement.
“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 lord mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste, said he is aiming to make the Irish capital more inclusive.
“The Portals project embodies this, bringing together technology, engineering and art to bring communities from across the world closer together and to allow people to meet and connect outside of their social circles and cultures,” he said.
The installations are the latest in a series of portals built by Gylys, with the first pair opening in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and the Polish city of Lublin in 2021.
The Dublin portal will also connect with other installations in Lithuania and Poland from July onwards, said de Róiste in the statement.
This is not the first time that an artist has brought New Yorkers closer to people across the Atlantic.
In 2008, British artist Paul St. George linked the city with London via his Telectroscope, which similarly allowed people in New York to communicate visually with those in the British capital.
However, in this case the device responsible was a Telectroscope, a brass and wood device which measured an 11.2-meter-(37 feet) long by 3.3-meter-(11 feet) tall.