When Has Opening a Portal Ever Gone Well?
Someone probably could have predicted there would be flashing at the New York–Dublin livestream.
In sci-fi movies, the opening of a portal is never a good sign. Life imitates art, and The Portals, a pair of disc-shaped screens in New York City and Dublin, Ireland, that livestream 24/7 video between the two cities, are not off to a great start. Within a week of opening, the cameras have been temporarily shut down, thanks to what Dublin’s city council called “inappropriate behavior by a small minority of people.”
To be fair to their creator, Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys, The Portals are part of an ongoing project. He opened the first set, which appear to have gone without a hitch, in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Lublin, Poland, in 2021. On May 9, the Dublin–New York pair opened to much fanfare, and the Dublin city council described the “overwhelming majority of interactions” between the cities as “positive” — in the past week, horny flirtations, Irish jigs, and even one proposal have apparently taken place via portal.
But Gylys’s newest installations have also brought a number of objectionable characters out of the woodwork. After Dublin police were filmed dragging a woman away from the screen, someone on Instagram claimed to have seen her “slapping and grinding” against the sculpture shortly after it opened. Then, a bunch of Dubliners started waving phones with images of the Twin Towers on 9/11 and “RIP Pop Smoke” (the late Brooklyn rapper) in front of their end of the portal, startling New York watchers.
The NYC / Dublin portal has opened
— Culture Crave ???? (@CultureCrave) May 11, 2024
The artist intended for it to help 'bring the world closer together' pic.twitter.com/NjClfyOCIs
the portal in new york and dublin has been shut down because some girl FLASHED the people on the other side pic.twitter.com/5fydTWFOxa
— juju ???? (@ayeejuju) May 14, 2024
At another point, New York OnlyFans model and internet personality Ava Louise flashed some unsuspecting Irishmen while shouting, “Do you guys like my potatoes, Dublin?!” (The livestreams are soundless.)
In a bizarre turn of events, a New York City portal witnessed a chaotic scene as an OnlyFans model flashed her breasts at Dublin, while an Irishman was spotted sniffing powder through the screen. The incident caused a stir among the onlookers, who were left bewildered by the… pic.twitter.com/jdAlzr2wol
— MarXmeN (@10MarXmen) May 14, 2024
These video portals got to go ????#Dublin #NewYork pic.twitter.com/bLnjisyiIw
— The progress report (@Theprogressrep2) May 12, 2024
On Tuesday, less than a week after the fateful peepholes opened, the Dublin city council announced that the stream would be switched off until Portals.org, the organization that maintains the sculptures, could figure out “possible technical solutions” to all this behavior. Apparently, “blurring” was considered but ultimately deemed “not satisfactory.” Meanwhile, Flatiron NoMad Partnership, which helps manage the New York end of things, told CNN that there is “24/7 on-site security and barriers to prevent people from stepping onto the portal.” Still, like the Dublin location, the New York portal is currently switched off.
Meanwhile, Portals.org told The Independent that the group doesn’t “intend to suggest people interact with Portals in any particular way,” stressing that they want to “open a window between far away places and cultures that allows people to interact freely with one another.” Maybe not too freely, though?
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