The live video feed linking New York City and Dublin has been temporarily shut down due to “inappropriate behavior” on both sides of the Atlantic.
The “Portal” art installation opened on May 8 to the curious delight of many New Yorkers. It involved a 24/7 video feed between a plaza outside the Flatiron Building and Dublin’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street.
But multiple incidents of foolishness went viral on social media, including an OnlyFans model in New York flashing her breasts and someone in Ireland displaying an image of the Twin Towers on fire on 9/11.
“Instances of inappropriate behavior have come from a very small minority of Portal visitors and have been amplified on social media,” a Flatiron NoMad Partnership spokesperson told USA Today.
“Portal” was the idea of Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys, who first created a similar link between Vilnius, Lithuania and Lubin, Poland.
“Portals are an invitation to meet people above borders and differences and to experience our world as it really is — united and one,” Gylys said last week when the installation was unveiled.
But online observers cynically predicted questionable behavior, and New Yorkers and Dubliners, along with tourists, quickly obliged. Dublin’s city council said it was looking for possible technical solutions to the goofiness, but the initial plans to blur inappropriate images weren’t up to snuff.
The planned closure was announced Tuesday, and the portals went dark at 5 p.m. in New York and 10 p.m. in Dublin. However, they are expected to resume streaming later this week.
“Our goal is to open a window between far away places and cultures that allows people to interact freely with one another,” Gylys’ organization Portals said.
With News Wire Services
