PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A high-tech art installation that works as a portal to cities around the world through a live video stream was launched Tuesday morning in LOVE Park.
Officials with Portals.org and the nonprofit Philadelphia250 gathered with other civic leaders and curious onlookers Tuesday morning to officially take the Philadelphia Portal online. Through the installation, Philadelphia is connected with three other cities.
The live video feed will rotate to display the scene at identical installations in Vilnius, Lithuania; Lublin, Poland; and Dublin, Ireland.
Organizers call the portal a symbol of global unity. Joseph Callahan with Portals.org says visitors to LOVE Park are invited to stand in front of the round screen and to interact with people doing the same in the three other cities.
"What you will find is something amazing,” said Callahan. “And when I say ‘amazing’ … you will feel the connection as a human being to another person somewhere around the world. The expressions on their face, the love, the peace, the joy of recognizing that we are all one and that we are all the same."
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Temple Student Chris Birkenstamm, who came to the park to check out the Philadelphia Portal, seemed to be on board with that idea. He described his attempt to engage with other people from thousands of miles away.
"I was right here up in the front. I was just trying to get them to just jump with me. Waving my hands over my head. And then we were doing the Macarena. … We were doing the Rockettes kick-line. We had a bunch of stuff going on out here," said Birkenstamm.
"I hope we can realize through these portals that we are all just humans. We all do the same things. Every single day, we all wake up, go to work, go to sleep. And the portals are just a little bit more of a fun way that we can all connect across the globe."
Dancers and drummers from Philadelphia's Odunde Festival performed in front of the Portal for an international audience.
The installation now in Philadelphia was relocated from New York City. Philly is the only city in the US currently in the global network. Additional cities are expected to join in the near future.
