The Portal: Countries United by Technology

First launched in 2021, “The Portal” is a technological art piece that reports real-time live streams of different countries across the world. Benediktas Gylys is a Lithuanian artist, entrepreneur, and the person credited for this idea. 

It started in 2016, where a collection of people added their personal proposals on the designs and engineering behind the portal. The idea came to life in 2020, where the construction of the first two portals started. It officially opened in May 2021, and connected the cities of Lublin, Poland and Vilinus, Lithuania. More cities are continuously being added, allowing for even more people to connect across the world.

The portal has indeed found its way to America. Before coming to Philadelphia, its first location in the U.S. was in the Flatiron District of New York, debuting in May. It temporarily closed down due to inappropriate actions from both sides of the portal, but later reopened and relocated. As of October 22, 2024, one of the portals was located in John F. Kennedy Plaza, familiarly known as Love Park, in Philadelphia. On November 7, 2024, it was moved next to the Independence Visitor Center due to space being needed for the upcoming Christmas Village. Currently, the portal in Philadelphia connects to the cities of Vilnius, Lublin, and Dublin, Ireland, switching every three minutes. 

Many Masterman students have already visited the portal. Kyle Long (‘28) said, “I like how you can put up the signs there, like ‘Hi, we are from Philadelphia.’” Samir Madrakhimov (‘28) stated, “I like how it changes, instead of staying in one country. It also looks really futuristic.” Faith Njiru and Toga Mohamed (‘25) have also commented on this new addition to our city. They visited it on November 4, 2024. Faith recalled, “It was boring at first since you couldn't see anyone, but as we started walking away there was a different location showing a lot of people after that.” Toga added, “The time zone for the first location was around midnight [so not many people were there], but the second location had more people.”

This new, advanced telecommunication technology has fascinated Philadelphians and connected Philadelphia to a larger network of cities. The initiative is still expanding to more cities, uniting people from around the globe.