Portals with Shared Studios

“For a single day, a golden shipping container made Venice Beach a direct ‘portal’ to the rest of the world.

The one-time public art installation, dubbed the RYOT Portal, popped up in Windward Plaza in the wee hours of Friday morning, Dec. 14, 2018 connecting Venice to five other cities across the globe.

Leveraging cutting edge technology, the Portal — a collaboration between immersive media company RYOT and tech-art collective Shared Studios — invited people inside a standard cargo shipping container to participate in fully immersive video conversations with people in various parts of the world.

The goal: to create conversations that would never happen otherwise.

Inside the Portal, participants faced an eight-foot tall screen broadcasting head-to-toe video of participants in Mexico City, Mexico; Erbil, Iraq; Herat, Afghanistan; Stockholm, Sweden; and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The day was shaped around three meals, each with its own conversation theme, but most discussions centered on the global refugee crisis. Each topic was chosen carefully by the team of creators.

Breakfast with Stockholm brought three Los Angeles teens together with a trio of 18-year-old refugees to talk about “bridging worlds.” Lunchtime’s conversation with Colorado Springs got heated over the topic of the American dream. Dinnertime with Herat culminated with a global music jam session, bringing together international talents. In between meals, people strolling along Ocean Front Walk could participate in open sessions with Mexico City or Erbil.”

- Argonaut News