The concept was genius in its simplicity, and simple in its genius: a two-way live video link would be set up in Dublin and New York, resulting in a “portal” through which residents of each city could watch each other and interact in real-time. It would be a work of participatory art, in the form of two 3.5-tonne screens, and maybe – just maybe – it would bring people together across continents, fostering deep interpersonal connections, sparking collective joy, and causing empathy to flourish on an international scale. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, it turns out. Introduced on May 8, the Portal lasted all of a week before it was tragically – and, let’s face it, inevitably – shut down due to “inappropriate behaviour”. You might already have seen some of this behaviour on your social feeds, like the OnlyFans model that flashed her boobs at a bunch of innocent Dubliners (“I thought the people of Dublin deserved to see my two New York homegrown potatoes,” she later told TMZ).

There’s been plenty of unruly behaviour on the Irish side too, including mooning, throwing eggs, and one “very drunk” woman slapping and grinding against the Portal before she was escorted away by Irish police. Another clip shows visitors on the Irish side holding up a phone screen that reads “RIP POP SMOKE” – cue: love hearts from the NYC side – before quickly replacing it with images of the burning Twin Towers.

“The team behind the Portal art sculpture [...] has been investigating possible technical solutions to inappropriate behaviour by a small minority of people in front of the portal,” reads a statement from Dublin City Council, after it was shut down at 10pm on Tuesday (May 14). “Unfortunately the preferred solution, which would have involved blurring, was not satisfactory.”

Designed by the Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys, the Portal is installed at the intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street in NYC, and on the corner of North Earl Street and O’Connell Street in Dublin. Despite the controversy, it’s expected to return after a few software updates intended to curb the display of all humanity’s worst impulses.

“We are delighted by how many people have been enjoying the Portal since it was launched last week,” continues the statement form Dublin City Council. “It has become a global phenomenon, and it is important to note that the overwhelming majority of people interacting with the Dublin Portal have behaved appropriately.” 

Unfortunately, cute videos of people blowing kisses through the portal or writing sweet notes to each other are not what the Portal will be remembered for. That would be the nudity and the 9/11 memes. In a way, though, this does highlight something essential about our content-addled brains in 2024. There’s an overwhelming if mysterious desire to shock, and to be shocked. This impulse is amplified via social media, and the sense of simultaneous distance and intimacy brought about by interacting through the interface of our phone screens (or in this case a lifesized portal, but it’s basically doing the same thing).

Will updates to the Portal stop Dubliners and New Yorkers from kicking up new controversies upon its return, and turn it into the “bridge to a united planet” that was originally promised? Probably not, if people’s ability to skirt online guidelines to deliver sex, slurs, and gore to the masses is anything to go by. Still, it will be fun to watch the good people at Portals.org give it a go, and see what disastrous scenes are generated by their respective cities in the meantime.