World Portals is a way to connect different cultures around the world, so that people could learn about, and hopefully, understand each other better.
The project involves installing “Video Portals” in the public places around the world. Each portal would connect to another video portal for some period of time, and then connect to another. When portals connect, passersby in one part of the world can see and hear passersby in the other. Thus, for some period of time, people from one region will be connected to every other part of the world where there is a video portal.
To test the concept, Zenka and I have setup two video portals. One portal was in Cordoba, Argentina; the other portal was in Munich, Germany. One Saturday, these two places were connected to each other. Without any instructions from us, passersby quickly figured out the idea behind the installation, and started communicating with people on the other side of the world. Language barrier meant that people had to use gestures and facial expressions to get their message across – this lead to many many smiles and some healthy dose of frustration.
Some pictures from our test installation:
