A Portal Between New York & Tehran

Portals are gold shipping containers equipped with immersive audio and video technology. Upon entering a Portal, participants come face to face with someone inside another container, encountering each other at full scale and conversing live as if in the same room. Through these encounters, participants step outside their daily routines and comfort zones. Removed from the distractions of mobile phones and familiar social settings, people connect swiftly across real and imagined distances, sharing quiet and focused moments. These exchanges invite reflection on the “other” as well as on personal values, beliefs, and assumptions.

Over the course of several weeks, people in both countries enter the Portals one at a time. Each participant meets a stranger in the other country and spends twenty private minutes in conversation. Musicians collaborate, compose, and perform together.

SHARED_STUDIOS, founded by artist and journalist Amar Bakshi, is a multidisciplinary arts, design, and technology collective focused on creating wormholes across the world. SHARED_STUDIOS grounds the connective potential of new technologies in physical spaces, fostering accessible, secure, and meaningful encounters between diverse communities.

Venue: Sazmanab (Moayyer St.), Lu Magnus Gallery
Dates: 5 December – 19 December 2014

Opening hours: 16:00–22:00 (Tehran)
07:30–13:30 (EST)