NYC-Dublin Livestream Portal Temporarily Closed Due to Inappropriate Behavior
The NYC-Dublin Livestream Portal has been temporarily shut down after instances of inappropriate behavior, according to the Dublin City Council.
Them Big Apples, a company responsible for the portal-shaped “sculptures,” placed installations in Dublin and New York, allowing residents to essentially have a public, non-stop Zoom meeting with each other. The marketing stunt, predictably, took a chaotic turn. While residents initially waved innocent signs in an attempt to connect across the Atlantic, the situation quickly descended into chaos, as reported by The Independent.
An OnlyFans model, Ava Louise, flashed the so-called portal, claiming later in a video shared by TMZ, “I thought the people of Dublin deserved to see my two New York homegrown potatoes.” Another “very drunk” woman was filmed rubbing her behind against the screen, while a different video shows a man exposing his own derrière. One individual on the Irish side even showed New Yorkers images of 9/11 on his phone, according to The Guardian.
Less than a week after the 24/7 visual art installation was introduced, officials decided to shut it down temporarily in light of the chaos. “In short, it’s ironically the perfect ‘window’ into the kind of mayhem such a stunt can trigger,” remarked a commentator. “Who could’ve possibly predicted this would happen?”
A spokesman for Dublin City Council admitted to The Independent that while “the overwhelming majority of interactions are positive,” they have also “been witnessing a very small minority of people engaged in inappropriate behavior, which has been amplified through social media.” The council announced plans to implement “some technical solutions to address this,” without specifying what those solutions might be.
Curious bystanders were amused by the chaos the portal had wrought. “It’s a bit wild,” a 23-year-old student told The Guardian. “It shows the good and bad of Dublin.”
The New York City portal is located near the Flatiron Building, while Dublin’s portal is situated at the intersection of North Earl Street and O’Connell Street.
What is the portal?
Launched on May 8, the portal aims to connect people through technology. “Portals are an invitation to meet people above borders and differences and to experience our world as it really is—united and one,” said Benediktas Gylys, the Lithuanian artist and founder of The Portal. “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 Dublin portal is set to connect with other cities in Poland, Brazil, and Lithuania, according to a Dublin City Council press release on May 8. The connection with New York City is expected to remain through autumn, with additional cultural performances starting in mid-May.