Very often other countries appear distant, different, and we never really understand them until we go there. We hear the informations on the news, see some photos on Instagram and get an idea, very often wrong.
To really get to know a country you have to experience its everyday life, meet the gaze of its inhabitants, observe as a spectator the movement of a country that is not ours, only in this way can you feel really close.
What if there was a way to connect two cities hundreds of kilometers away from each other in real time? Impossible, a magical portal would be needed.
It is exactly what was created.
The DIGITAL DOOR that connets the inhabitants of TWO distant CITIES
# Portal: the digital portal that connects two cities in real time
What if there was a way to connect two cities hundreds of kilometers away from each other in real time? Impossible, a magical portal would be needed.
This is where the creators of Portal started, a digital portal that connects two cities in real time. The purpose of the artistic project by Benediktas Gylys, president of the Benediktas Gylys Foundation and creator of the project, is to encourage people to “rethink the meaning of unity”.
But where did the unity go? As Benediktas Gylys explains: “If we look closely, it is not the lack of brilliant scientists, activists, leaders, knowledge or technology that is causing these challenges. It is tribalism, the lack of empathy and the narrow perception of the world, which is often limited to our national borders. This is an invitation to overcome prejudices and disagreements that belong to the past ”.
It takes something to connect people far away and that thing is Portal. But how does it work?
# Vilnius and Lublin in the same city
In each of the cities there is a large screen with several cameras that transmit live images between two cities, even if they are very distant from each other.
At the moment, “Portal” is the digital bridge that “connects” Vilnius, Lithuania, to Lublin, Poland, about 600 kilometers from each other.
And so walking through the streets of Lublin in front of the portal you can greet a lady with shopping bags who is returning home to Vilnius.
Something as simple as looking at each other and greeting each other can move seas and mountains and eliminate barriers that have been standing still for centuries.
The design is designed by the engineers of the Creativity and Innovation Center of the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and it is not accidental: the large circle is meant to be associated with a kind of time travel.
The portal is a joint project with the Benediktas Gylys Foundation, the city of Vilnius, the city of Lublin and the Crossroads Center for Intercultural Creative Initiatives.
It is an ambitious project that requires a multifaceted team and that comes from the desire to make a difference in the world.
# The desire for a new world
This invention saw the light in the era of the covid, the period of distance par excellence. Yet now, years later, it seems more useful than ever.
Wars, protests, attacks … and if in the whirlwind of these things we could look each other in the eye?
Every city need a Portal, to finally feel all inhabitants of the same thing, the earth.
Which cities would you connect?
ARIANNA BOTTINI
