Project For Empty Space [at] Gateway Project Spaces is pleased to partner with Shared_Studios and Military Park Partnership in Newark to present Portals, a Global Public Art Initiative conceived by artist Amar Bakshi, which will be open to the public for two months beginning on April 18, 2016. The location of Portals in Newark is at Military Park, 51 Park Place. Individuals can reserve 20-minute slots of time by visiting www.SharedStudios.com/Newark. Walk-ins are also welcome.
Launch Reception:
April 18, 2016
4pm – 6pm
Military Park, 51 Park Place, Newark, NJ
#PORTALSNEWARK
Portals are gold re-purposed shipping containers that are equipped with immersive audio-visual technology. The purpose of the project is to connect people globally to create dialogues and interactions that may not otherwise happen in the course of everyday life. Entering a portal is an experience unlike any other; upon entering the container, a participant is connected by life-size video and audio with another participant in an identical gold shipping container somewhere else on Earth. These individuals, who are more often than not complete strangers, are able to converse and connect in real time despite their geographical distances.
Since its launch in December 2014, Portals has connected more than 12,000 people in conversation between Tehran, Havana, Herat, New York, New Haven, San Francisco, Miami, Washington D.C., a Syrian refugee camp, and Kigali, to name a few. Prior participants include U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power; journalists CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and FOX’s Chris Wallace; film directors Doug Liman and Morgan Spurlock; artists Mary Ellen Carroll and Titus Kaphar; and many more.
Part of the Newark Portal project will address issues within the United States criminal justice system, as part of an ongoing research series. The Portal will connect to a site in Milwaukee, WI, which has the highest incarceration rate in America, and focus its conversations on this topic. In addition to that component, the Newark Portal also will connect to the broader Portals network to allow participants to interact with people internationally. Newark will be connected to sites in areas such as Afghanistan, Cuba, Honduras, Iraq, Iran, Kenya, Jordan, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.
