Dublin video portal to New York shuts temporarily due to unruly behaviour
Livestream artwork with 2.4m-wide screen allowed people in both cities to see but not hear each other, leading to offensive conduct
The city council said in a statement on Tuesday it would switch off the interactive webcam at 10pm Irish time while technicians try to tweak – or censor – a project that has brought delight and notoriety.
“The team behind the Portal art sculpture … has been investigating possible technical solutions to inappropriate behaviour by a small minority of people,” the statement said.
“Dublin city council had hoped to have a solution in place today, but unfortunately the preferred solution, which would have involved blurring, was not satisfactory.”
The Portals.org team was investigating other options, said the council. “As a result the Portal will be switched off at 10pm tonight and the team at Portals.org have told us they expect it will be switched back on later this week.”
The art installation has become a global phenomenon and source of controversy since launching on 8 May. Some people on the Irish side have thrown eggs, flashed body parts and displayed images of swastikas and the twin towers burning on 9/11, prompting the New York Post to dub it the “portal to hell”.
